Some lovely solo double bass playing.

[ambient]

I think this is beautiful.

 

[DaveFry]

I liked number 4 .

[KingPrawn]

Genius 

[stingrayPete1977]

If you like this then Gary Karr is the guy to listen to, not that this guy isn't great too. 

When I watch someone like this I can see all the things he's doing right technique wise but I slip straight into my shoddy way of doing it, getting that left elbow up is my biggest fail, this guy has it nailed bang on, elbow up one way as the bow hand heads the opposite way. Brilliant. 

The intonation in thumb position is fantastic, hours and hours of practice gone into that. 

Thanks for sharing Ambient. 

[lowdown]

17 hours ago, ambient said:

I think this is beautiful.

 

 

Yeah, he is a pretty special player. Beautiful tone as well.

I noticed that there is a notation PDF download as well for the pieces. 

 

 

Another terrific solo player to check out is Renaud Garcia-Fons. A piece called, Palermo, is particularly nice.

He also plays some lovely Flamenco Bass, along with guesting in a few Ethnic style duos and trios.

[ambient]

1 minute ago, lowdown said:

 

Yeah, he is a pretty special player. Beautiful tone as well.

I noticed that there is a notation PDF download as well for the pieces. 

 

 

Another terrific solo player to check out is Renaud Garcia-Fons. A piece called, Palermo, is particularly nice.

He also plays some lovely Flamenco Bass, along with guesting in a few Ethnic style duos and trios.

Thanks, I’ll check that out.

 

[bubinga5]

very beautiful sensitive paying.

[lowdown]

Pete mentioned above about checking out Gary Karr (highly recommended)

Somewhere on YouTube there is a video of him in his front room playing the Rachmaninoff piece, 'Vocalise'.

I think it's the last of the romances he composed (14 in all). It's stunning. Very moving the way he plays it on the Bass.

I believe he was 73/74 when he played it and still had his chops together. A couple of wobbly bits, but a lovely sentimental performance.

Edited June 16, 2019 by lowdown

[neilp]

Nice playing. A bit lacking in intensity for me, and a bit monochrome. There is more to be had, playing closer to the bridge. I played in a Masterclass with Gary Karr in the 80's when I was a real bassist, and the focus and intensity of his sound was extraordinary.

"Vocalise" is now played much more often by cellists, violinists and all sorts, but the story goes it was in fact written for double bass, for Serge Koussevitsky. He's another fascinating character, there are many great stories about him....

Edited June 16, 2019 by neilp
typos

[neilp]

My favourite bass player of them all is Rinat Ibragimov.  Some wonderful youtube videos of him playing - mostly the more Romantic repertoire. He had a major stroke a few years ago, which tragically left him unable to perform, but his sound and emotional connection with music are endless inspiration to me

The Koussevitsky was one of the pieces in my ARCM recital many many years ago, I had a couple of lessons with him before the recital. Eye-opening.......

[ambient]

1 hour ago, neilp said:

My favourite bass player of them all is Rinat Ibragimov.  Some wonderful youtube videos of him playing - mostly the more Romantic repertoire. He had a major stroke a few years ago, which tragically left him unable to perform, but his sound and emotional connection with music are endless inspiration to me

The Koussevitsky was one of the pieces in my ARCM recital many many years ago, I had a couple of lessons with him before the recital. Eye-opening.......

I shared one of his on Facebook a few days ago, he is amazing isn't he?

[stingrayPete1977]

I've never seen that method of French hold before, it's certainly doing the job! 

[mybass]

8 minutes ago, stingrayPete1977 said:

I've never seen that method of French hold before, it's certainly doing the job! 

That is a ‘German’ style bow, it has the wider frog so the grip is different.

[mybass]

On 16/06/2019 at 20:40, neilp said:

Nice playing. A bit lacking in intensity for me, and a bit monochrome. There is more to be had, playing closer to the bridge. I played in a Masterclass with Gary Karr in the 80's when I was a real bassist, and the focus and intensity of his sound was extraordinary.

"Vocalise" is now played much more often by cellists, violinists and all sorts, but the story goes it was in fact written for double bass, for Serge Koussevitsky. He's another fascinating character, there are many great stories about him....

I seem to remember a story that after Koussevistsky passed away, his wife offered his double bass over to Gary Karr. I saw Karr play in London in the 80’s accompanied by piano and it was awe inspiring especially his harmonics playing.

[stingrayPete1977]

5 hours ago, mybass said:

That is a ‘German’ style bow, it has the wider frog so the grip is different.

I talking about the one in the first clip neilp put up above, he's got a French bow but he's holding it further up the stick. 

[mybass]

Ah, not ambient’s clip.....yes a quite novel hand position  for French style bow, I must try, I’m in the throws of changing to a German style, perhaps even practising the DB again though I don’t know if I can get the Bach cello concertos playing as well as Ibragimov!

Edited June 18, 2019 by mybass

[stingrayPete1977]

I really need to get back into practicing! 

[neilp]

In the first clip, Rinat is playing with an "authentic" Baroque bow, which has much less weight in the frog and so balances differently, hence the different hold.

Gary Karr was indeed given Koussevitsky's bass by his widow. She claimed to have seen Koussevitsky's ghost standing beside Gary on stage and took that as a sign that he should have the bass. I played it  - briefly - and it was properly strange. Nothing really happened until I followed instructions and played with a very slow bow and a LOT of weight, then suddenly this HUGE sound appeared. Must have had a very particular set-up for his style.....

[mybass]

2 hours ago, neilp said:

In the first clip, Rinat is playing with an "authentic" Baroque bow, which has much less weight in the frog and so balances differently, hence the different hold.

Gary Karr was indeed given Koussevitsky's bass by his widow. She claimed to have seen Koussevitsky's ghost standing beside Gary on stage and took that as a sign that he should have the bass. I played it  - briefly - and it was properly strange. Nothing really happened until I followed instructions and played with a very slow bow and a LOT of weight, then suddenly this HUGE sound appeared. Must have had a very particular set-up for his style.....

Interesting stuff neilp ... I was in a bass repair shop once and the owner let me try a very old and very heavy full size bass. I had difficulty getting good bow volume out of it but he explained that this bass projected far beyond the player’s area and actually had a huge sound......in the right hands!

[neilp]

There's a lot of experimenting to be done to find how the particular combination of bass, bow, strings and setup works. The variables you can easily change are bow weight (not the actual weight of the bow, but the weight you put into the string through the bow), bow speed and position on the string (distance from the bridge). In particular you should try bowing slowly with decent weight, around 2" or a bit less from the bridge. Give it a go. If you can't find a big, focused tone, move the bow slower until you can. Try it, it's amazing. It may not suit the stuff you play, especially if you play orchestral music, but if you have any interest in solo playing, it's the way forward.....