Hi, it's Geoff Chalmers here from discoverdoublebass.com, that’s the home of online double bass lessons.
If you want to learn more about this instrument, you can go over there and check out the free
resources, free lessons. There are written articles and string reviews.
Okay, today we're going to be looking at a piece of mine which you’ve just heard which
is called "Birds Landing". And there were a lot of technical challenges in this piece
which I think will benefit you, help you tighten up the left hand. And there's a few things
go on with the right hand as well, that I want to talk about. So let's get into that
now.
In this lesson I'm not going to talk through the notes one by one, because it's such a
complicated piece that we'd be here a long time whilst I tell you exactly what notes
are being played, in which order. What I'm going to do is play it slowly, and I'm going
to focus in on the technique that might be holding you back, the problems that you could
be having.
So first of all, let's think about the rhythm. The way that this starts is an anacrusis,
a pickup to the main bass line. And it starts on the and of three. One, two, three, and
four, and one. One, two, three, and four, and one. Now, if we look what I'm doing here,
I'm letting the D and the G ring. And it's G, F Sharp, G, B, G, C, G, and then open D.
I'm letting those open strings ring. One, two, three. So, really make sure that you've
got the rhythm right. And if you're not sure about your tuning, you can check against the
open G and the C with your second finger. And then you can start playing the pattern,
because your hand will be in the right place. One, two, three.
Now, the second part has this descending line, but I'm not articulating the notes in my right
hand, and this is really important. I'm playing B, A, G, F Sharp, and pulling these notes
off like this is really hard work in the hand. And to do it you've got to be really... your
hand shape has to be really clear, really clean. You should be spacing the fingers correctly
and if you're not, then it'll be really hard to play in tune. But you'll also need to be
using quite a lot of power to get these hammer-ons and pull-offs sounding correctly. And then
the whole thing repeats itself.
Second time, there were these slides. And here I'm going B and F Sharp, C and G, D and
A. So, these are bits that I'm playing with my left hand. Again, the hand shape has to
be really good for you to play those in tune. And I'd really like you to work on that section
before you move on. It's a really key part.
Now, we've reached the note D and A. And now there's a return phrase. For the first time
we're descending down, and I use my first finger to play the harmonics that are above
the C and the G. And those notes are actually G and D I think, yeah.
So, I'm playing the harmonic above the C and the G, and I'm letting them ring and them
I'm playing the E. And you can see that the harmonics are ringing. E, and this is the
pattern, E, the harmonic above the G, D, harmonic above the A, and sliding down to the C. And
finally, we've got this little C major chord at the end. And I'm playing above the A string
there with my little finger.
So, that's the first section. And as I said earlier, it's really important to work on
this first before you move on. Now from here, we're pausing on this chord, on the C chord.
Okay. We're now going to move on and play the same thing again, but in order for me
to access these higher pitches I'm going to have to play the B, the C, and the D. Or certainly
the B and the C, in a different place, otherwise I'm going to be jumping around too much. So,
I'll play the same pickup. But now, I'm playing the B with my first finger on the A string,
and then I'm using the same pattern again. So basically, I’m pivoting off the open
G. But now we've got a different pattern here. Harmonic above the note D, and then the A
and the B.
Same group of notes again. And now, A, B, E, D, and then the two harmonics are back
again…first one. And I'll provide the details of how you can access the transcription lower
down on this page, but I really wanted you to focus in on the technique more than the
actual notes right now. And, of course, you can go back and listen slowly to what I'm
playing. But let's not get too bogged down with exactly what the pitches are.
The other thing you may have noticed is my right hand. I'm actually articulating a lot
of the lower notes with my third finger. So, there I'm playing... where necessary, I'll
use my third finger because it'll help me stretch over. That's a more experimental technique,
and I should definitely encourage you to work on your string crossing. But I find often
that there’ll be occasions where you'll see me throwing in the third finger on the
lower note there.
Now, let's look at some more of these fills. We've looked at... And now we've got this
one here, and the rhythm was… That’s it, so D, E, G, A, E, D, B, A. And it's really
hard to get from the A back to the low B there, so I'm using the harmonics to give me a little
bit of grace. That harmonic will ring whilst I'm shifting back.
Let's look at the next fill. And the same thing here, I'm coming to rest on an A harmonic.
And the notes are G, A, B, B, C, A. But the reason why I'm not playing... is that I want
to allow the A to ring whilst I come back. And I think that sounds really nice, actually.
Let's have a look at that again. So, you'll see my left hand is really reaching up to
allow the notes to ring.
What was the next one? So just down the G scale. Well, first of all, there's a harmonic
above the A, the D, the G, double octave, and then down G major and again, finishing
on a harmonic which allows me to shift back.
Where were we now? Same thing again, E to D, and then we're going C, B, A. So, it peaks
the D as it lands there. Nearly at the end now. Now, this part here, G, G, F sharp, G,
and then I move up on the F sharp with my third finger. We're in thumb position here.
So, I can get that really nice semi tone clash happening there. And you can see that I'm
letting the notes ring as long as possible, before I actually move on.
And it's this descending pattern again, E, G, D, G, D, C. Okay, a bit slower, maybe?
And I'm letting the D, the C and the G ring, so you get that really nice C9 chord. And
then it comes back down the finger board, and that's the same pattern that we played
earlier. Do you remember the descending one with the harmonics?
Now, it sounds like the piece is getting to start over again and repeat itself, but we're
going to finish it up. But we're actually using the opening phrase, but just developing
this. And there's a nice ending there. It actually goes into the next bar, it doesn't
end exactly where you'd think it would do if you were to write this out. Let's have
a quick look at this again. And three and one and two, and now this pattern is continuing.
Really slowly, G, B, G, C, G, D, G, E, G, F sharp, G, two harmonics, two harmonics.
And that's it.
So, the things that I'd really like you to be focusing on are that your hand shape is
clean enough, that you're getting these hammer-ons nice and strong. If you're not, you just won't
hear them at that part of the line, that's very common. And also, that you're sliding
and that you're measuring those shifts accurately, and your hand shape is staying the same as
you're moving up. It just needs to come a little bit closer together as the notes move
together. Also, if you're struggling with the string skipping because of the open G
to the B and C, try using the third finger on your right hand. Get stuck into thumb position
up here, and also develop this line yourself. These fills are played at the end, I just
came up with them to give you something to use as a framework. But you should be thinking
about playing in the key of either B [inaudible 00:13:28] or you can relate it back to G Major.
Any of those will work really well. Either of those it’s the same scale actually, so
G Major scale essentially will help you find the notes that are going to work well with
this. But experiment, let the notes hang over. Make sure you're not leaving spaces in between
the phrases, because that definitely helps add to the magic of this kind of sound, all
these little bitty chords that we're getting out of the bass. It's a really cool thing.
I hope that you have enjoyed the piece today. If you have, please press the Like button
on YouTube if you're watching on YouTube. Keep practicing hard. I'll see you next time.