Technical Explanations
Here you find explanations to a majority of the techniques from the archive
Bowing Technique
½CLT – Uses both the hair and the stick. The result sound combines the effects of Arco and Legno playing
½ CLT Rosin Bounce – If you play ½ clt with a fast bowspeed without pressure with added rosin on the side of the bow, the rosin creates a randomly bouncing tremolo.
Arco Bowing – This technique uses the bow hair. It is opposed to Legno and Pizz. and cancels out the latter indications
Arco-Fist Grip – Grab the bow with a fist-like grip around the frog
Bowing Equally On The Strings And On The Bridge – The bow hair is 50/50 mpc and on the bridge
Bowing Partly On The Bridge – The bow hair is around ⅔ mpc and ⅓ on the bridge
Bowing Under The Bridge – Arco Bowing under the bridge
Détaché Bowing – Détaché bowing consists in alternately up-bowing and down-bowing from one note to the other.
Flautando – This indicates that there should be little bow pressure. This technique gives less resonance and power
Gettato – This is a kind of battuto (one hits the string with the hair of the bow) in which one uses the bow as it ricochets onto the string
Legno Bowing – Legno bowing uses the stick of the bow and produces a hoarse and noisy sound.
Simultaneously with the fundamental sound, one perceives a very high-pitched, crystal clear sound, which varies according to the length of the vibrating string between the stick and the bridge. Faster bow favors the “crystal clear” sound
Reversed Bow – Play with the bow upside down (hair up and stick down)
Sautillé Bowing – A kind of detaché in which the bow is made to bounce up and down.
Two-Handed Bow Grip – Put one hand over the frog and one between the middle and the tip of the bow. That allows you to put great pressure on the bow and also to play in a very strong dynamical range
Bow placement
1/2 CLT-Hair On The Bridge – A version of ½ CLT where you play so close (mpc) to the bridge that the hair touches it.
1/2 CLT- Both Sides Off The Bridge – A version of ½ CLT where half of the bow is under and half is above the bridge
Battuto Bowing – In this technique, one hits the string with the hair of the bow
Circular Bowing – The bow is drawn (down-bow) when approaching the bridge, and pushed (up-bow) when approaching the fingerboard; or reversed.
Flautando– A flute-like sound created by moving the bow with low bow pressure
Half Vertical Movement – The bow is played half vertically, literally half down and up
Harmonic Scanning – The movement of the bow from Molto Tasto to MPC
MPC – Molto ponticello, like Ponticello but very close to the bridge.
Normal Position – In traditional playing, the bow is placed at about 8 cm from the bridge for an open string, and moves closer to the bridge in proportion with the shortening of the length of the vibrating string
Ponticello Bowing – The bow is placed lower on the strings (near the bridge). This technique produces a sound rich in high harmonics, sparkling. With sharp, even aggressive attacks.
Tasto bowing – The bow is placed higher on the strings: the resulting sound has fewer high harmonics in its spectrum and is gentler, with softer attacks.
The sound is also less powerful and requires more bow length.
Vertical movement – The bow is played vertically, literally down and up
Bow Pressure
No bow pressure
Low bow pressure
Normal bow pressure
Bow pressure
Heavy bow pressure
Varied bow pressure
Bow speed
Low bow speed
Average bow speed
Fast bow speed
Left hand position
Between the bow & the bridge – Play with your left hand somewhere between the end of the fingerboard and the bridge and at the same time play an arco or legno technique with the bow above the left hand.
Double Stops Between The Bow And The Bridge –
Glissando – A continuous slide upwards or downwards on the bass neck.
Left hand under the bow - thumb over
Left hand under the bow, thumb over, double grip – Surround the bow with the thumb over the bow on one string and the fingers under on an adjacent string.
Left hand movement
Artificial Harmonics – Artificial, or false harmonics are produced by completely depressing the string with one finger (or the thumb) and lightly touching a node point above the stopped pitch with another finger.
Double Stops – Double stops are an left-hand technique where you play two notes from two strings at the same time. There are four different kinds: two open strings, open string with fingered notes on the string below, open string with fingered notes on the string above, and both notes fingered on adjacent strings.
Floating Double Stop – A double stop where you constanty change the intervall between the two fingers or one finger and one thumb by doing glissando.
Left hand “Flamenco tremolo” – To perform a tremolo with an open-flat handed left-hand. either on strings or at any other part of the double bass.
Microtonal – Denoting or employing an interval or intervals smaller than a semitone
Tone/Overtone/Multiphonics/Air/Noise/Percussive
Harmonics – An overtone accompanying a fundamental tone at a fixed interval, produced by vibration of a string, column of air, etc. in an exact fraction of its length
Tone –The quality of an instrument’s or voice’s sound
Multiphonics – The sounding of two or more pitches simultaneousl, either with the voice, or on an instrument that normally sounds only single notes.
References
Robert, P. (1995) Les modes de jeu de la contrabasse. Musica Guild
https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/
https://dictionary.onmusic.org/terms/4929-flautando
https://andrewhugill.com/OrchestraManual/bass_bowing.html
https://www.themoderndoublebass.org.uk/artificial-harmonics-introduction.html
https://www.yourdictionary.com/multiphonics
https://violinspiration.com/violin-double-stops/
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