Incredibly Useful Exercises for Double Bass – an overview

Incredibly Useful Exercises for Double Bass – an overview

The way that Dennis Whittaker approaches  the bass resonates so strongly with me.  Maybe it’s our shared background and similar pedagogical influences.  Regardless, there’s something in the way he lays things out that makes me want to drop everything...
Minor Arpeggios – getting started

Minor Arpeggios – getting started

We’re continuing our beginner bass series here with an introduction to minor arpeggios. Last week, we dug into the potentially thorny topic of chromatic scales and a few methods I’ve used to get students started with these. We’ve also recently covered: one octave...
Chromatic scales – three ways to approach them

Chromatic scales – three ways to approach them

We’re continuing our beginner bass series this week with chromatic scales. So far, we’ve covered one octave major scales, minor scales, and major arpeggios. We’ve created a downloadable PDF guide for all of these, and we’ve got a PDF with these chromatic scale...
One Octave Major Arpeggios for Double Bass

One Octave Major Arpeggios for Double Bass

We’re continuing our series of beginner materials today with one octave arpeggios. So far, we’ve covered one octave major scales, one octave minor scales, and learning how to get a good sound with the bow. Each of these past installments has a downloadable PDF, and...
How to bow a double bass

How to bow a double bass

The bow can be such a mysterious thing on the double bass, especially when you’re starting out. To me, the left hand seems so much more objective: You’re either in tune or you’re out of tune.You’re on first finger, second finger, or fourth finger.You’re on the G...