Lesson Revisited

I had my lesson on the weekend and it seems like I'm progressing pretty well with playing in 5ths. My tone is sounding better and my intonation is extremely close but not quite there when I shift quickly. In fact, the exercises given to me last week were etudes focused primarily on intonation; I just need to practice more effectively. Basically, effective practice comes from practicing slowly and deliberately with much concentration on each individual note produced. I also noticed that my left hand technique needed a slight adjustment in order to play properly in order to produce better accuracy and speed. My right hand bow technique also needed more work to create better tone and efficiency. Old habits die hard.

We also took a look at some music, of which I am happy to say is Bach's Suite #1 Prelude. Which brings me to one great asset of having my double bass tuned in 5ths; I can now play cello pieces. Now that's not to say that I couldn't play cello pieces, it's just that I can further understand what a composer is thinking when writing for cello. Furthermore, there is so much more fantastic pieces for cello than there are for double bass. It just seems more fun (and more challenging) to learn cello solos and on the double bass.

One last thing. I mentioned to my teacher that having my bass tuned in 5ths seemed to make more sense than having it tuned in 4ths. He agreed. Although it may be a little easier to play in 4ths, there seems to be something logical having my bass tuned in 5ths. My hands seemed to find notes with less trouble than when I was tuned in 4ths. This may be because I have a less of a learning curve having to figure out 3 of 4 strings, but old habits do die hard when your comfort notes are at different parts of the fingerboard.

There is a lot to woodshed before my next lesson and I need to bury my old habits and adopt better ones.