Reaching for the utmost limits – Making a process visible with The Hands, the Bow, and the Bass by Johannes Nästesjö

Can I, by reaching for the utmost limits on my instrument, in dynamically, technically and pitch related ways both find, for me, new contemporary techniques and expand the ways on how to play and perform them on the double bass? Can I, by illuminating, documenting, studying, organizing and re-documenting my musical process, design a toolkit for improvising bassists with contemporary techniques? Can I, in my musical process both act as the first person, i.e. the subjective musician and as the third person, i.e. the objective observer?  If so, can I, as the observer objectively observe and organize the ”discoveries” that I am doing in my daily work as first person. Can I create this tool kit through the limitations that my instrument offers acoustically (the hand, the bow and the bass). And can I through this immerse and widen my musical expressions? - A richer language - more elastic - with more colors.

Personal Etudes

In order to learn the contemporary pieces that I have been working on during my studies at RMC, I have invented different personal etudes and exercises, as well as new ways of studying scales. Below I present four videos, three of which are scale exercises where I switch between tone and overtone, and the last one is an exercise where I am reaching for all the partials on the G-string. This is a small selection of the new etudes and scale exercises that have become standard exercises for me.

D-major scale – two octaves – one string – tone-overtone

G-major scale – two octaves – one string – tone-overtone

G-whole tone scale – two octaves – one string – tone-overtone

The Partials on the G-string – from thumb position to the highest partials that you can find around a quarter tone lower then the Ab in half position on the G-string.

Tip

Tip

Johannes Nästesjö - Reaching for the utmost limits – Making a process visible with The Hands, the Bow, and the Bass - 2022