New perspectives on bow curves for double bass

DAVID ALLEN MOORE Professor of double bass at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, US; double bassist of the LA Philharmonic; author of Fractal Fingering

TECHNIQUE

When we talk about how to make an expressive sound with the bow, we often consider three basic ingredients: bow speed, weight and location. These are important, but they do not take into account the way you angle and shape each bow stroke to achieve more nuance and expression. Here, bow inclination, skew and tilt are also fundamental. Inclination is the angle between the bow and the string. It determines whether the bow hair is closer to the string below or above the string on which you are playing. Skew is about how much deviation you make from bowing parallel to the bridge, by pointing the tip of the bow up towards yourself or down away from yourself. Finally, tilt denotes how much the bow is tilted towards or away from you. Once you are aware of these three factors, you will be able to use them in different combinations to create curves as you move the bow up and down, clockwise and anticlockwise, with impulses that either lift or drop (see my demonstration video at bit.ly/3t1vHON). This will help you to play with more fluidity, nuance and expression.

EXERCISES

In his book on bow curves, Percival Hodgson (see box, page 81) looked at how the bow moves in clockwise and counter-clockwise shapes and curves, by affixing a light to the bow screw at the frog and taking time-lapse photos. These showed the shapes that the end of the bow should trace, as seen from the player’s perspective. I find it even more helpful to examine these bow-movement shapes from multiple perspectives: player view (figure 1), screw view (figure 2) and observer view (figure 3). When you film each movement, the shape of the bow curve and lift or drop should be obvious from all three angles. A balanced stroke will draw curves in the same direction from each of the three views.

FIGURE 1 Player view

FIGURE 2 Screw view

FIGURE 3 Observer view

• Play slow, continuous down and up bows on one string

• On the bow change, rotate the frog in a counter-clockwise curve as you prepare to ‘push off’ into the new stroke. Pivot the bow in your hand and also where it meets the string. The screw should move in an anticlockwise curve from all three views

• Lift the bow up out of the curve as you release into your up bow

• Keep your joints or ‘hinges’, including the shoulder, elbow, wrist and fingers, flexible and free

• Repeat the exercise using a clockwise curve. This time drop the bow down out of the curve to release into the up bow

• Don’t stop and start: prepare every stroke, create the impulse for each bow change, then release, with continuity and momentum

Maintaining momentum with the bow is essential to producing a fluid and consistent sound. Imagine swinging a baseball bat. The main impulse happens when the bat strikes the ball. If you hit the ball at the beginning of the arc shape of the swing, you will drive it into the ground. If you prepare first, start the swing further back and strike the ball in the middle of the arc, you will hit the ball forward instead. It is the same with your bow: prepare for the bow change, create the impulse as you change direction, then release into the next bow stroke.

When you film these movements, slow the video down to quarter speed, so that you can really see what is going on. Are you doing everything that you thought you were doing? Are your bow curves and movements continuous, or do they stop and start? And do you look centred and balanced? Conceptualise what you have to do to make the motion visible from player view, screw view and observer view, and try again.

Experiment with counter-clockwise and clockwise curves, and drops and lifts on single strings, adjacent strings and alternative strings, sometimes leading into the next note and sometimes falling away from it, to find which curves feel most natural to you.

REPERTOIRE

I recommend isolating the right hand in all passages that involve complicated string-crossings or bowing patterns, and even in sostenuto or legato passages on one string, to work on how to release each note, link it to neighbouring notes, and release or build the sound depending on whether that note leads into the next note or comes away from it. All this will influence the way you lift and drop the bow.

Practise some bow curves in examples 1 and 2, always playing them in an unbroken sequence, regardless of the string-crossing pattern. On each down bow, the screw will drop down towards the floor; on each up bow it will lift towards the scroll.

The motion for example 1 is straightforward, across single adjacent strings. Remember to prepare, create the impulse and then release to follow through, in the direction that you are bowing. (For my demonstration video, see bit.ly/3ES0YGa.)

Example 2 works across more strings, which can be challenging, but an exaggerated motion will help you to understand the parameters of each bow curve, lift and drop. The bowing is basic when played slowly, but here I recommend dropping out of the curve for the down bows, and lifting out of them for the up bows. Doing the opposite risks creating tension in your body and your sound.

IN YOUR PRACTICE

By practising bow curves, you will build more awareness of the potential movements you can make with your bow and how they affect your sound, and you will build a bigger technical ‘vocabulary’ to help you play with more nuance and expression. Make sure that you really understand how to make each bow curve shape, how you need to use your body to do that, and how it influences your sounds.

Rather than dedicating fifteen minutes to bow curves at once, try practising them for a few minutes at the top of three different hours each day. Come to your instrument, practise bow curves for five minutes, let them go out of your mind again, have lunch, go about your day, then come back and practise them for another five minutes later on, so that you are always working in small doses but with extreme concentration. If you practise them for too long at a time, you will lose focus and start to repeat things that are incomplete or inaccurate. Repetition of incorrect or incomplete movements will slow the learning process and you will set yourself back.

By exposing your body to these movements and sensations gradually and frequently, they will work their way into your subconscious until they become automatic. When a bowing doesn’t work out as you want it to, film yourself and watch the recording back in slow motion, to make sure that you really are doing everything that you think you are doing. Work out what it is that you are doing wrong, then fix it.

TIPS FOR TEACHERS

Understanding complex movements can be challenging, so be patient with yourself and with your students. Start with basic ideas: for example, you could focus on bow inclination in isolation (as in Caroline Emery’s book – see box) before you start to address the combination of bow skew, inclination and tilt. If you limit the parameters, each idea will be easier to digest. I focus on bow curves for small, concentrated amounts of time, alongside continued work on other elements of students’ playing.

There are still fewer good audio-visual technical resources available online for double bass than there are for other stringed instruments, but it is important for students to experience how physical actions translate into sound, so I frequently demonstrate in lessons. Often I use their phones to film them in slow motion, then they’ll film me in slow motion, and we’ll watch the two recordings side by side. If they see me doing something differently from how I asked them to do it, I ask them to tell me. I won’t ever say, ‘Know your place, and don’t tell me what to do!’ To me it’s important to re-evaluate and explore my bass playing constantly, to find ways to improve. I try to stay open-minded rather than being dogmatic about the ‘right’ way to do something, and that approach has had a powerful impact on my students too.

INTERVIEW BY PAULINE HARDING

Understanding complex movements can be challenging, so be patient with yourself and with your students

FURTHER MATERIALS

Percival Hodgson’s book Motion study and violin bowing is an ASTA publication from 1958, containing time-lapse photos of the different bow curves and documenting Hodgson’s fascinating observations about bowing movement.

Bow Works, by Caroline Emery, gives a great introduction to bow curves for bass students of all ages, with exercises for bowing shapes and patterns to practise, and advice on how to move forward with them.

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