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Sunday 30 September 2007

No fret on the double bass, but fret not




"How do you play a double bass without the frets?". This is one of the questions that audience who came for d'Bassists' performance, Esplanade Presents: At the Concourse: Basso Bravo! would ask.

Yes, there is no fret on the double bass. Like this webpage says, it takes practice to learn where the notes are. Please check out the video found on the webpage. It gives a brief introduction to how one can develop a sound left-hand technique to play the double bass.

To establish a sound fingering technique, I find it helpful for myself to use some kind of established double bass method. Jason Heath has a few posts that discuss on a few of the known double bass methods. Please do read them here:
Rabbath versus Simandl – a comparative study
Follow-Up to Rabbath versus Simandl

Where researching on this topic of playing on the fretless double bass, I came across a double bass fingering chart. (This chart seems to be best viewed using Internet Explorer.) Do check it out and get an idea of how to play without the frets.

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Also read:
Getting a hold on the double bass
How is the double bass tuned?

2 comments:

Joe Lewis said...

No frets AND no dots! ;-)

oceanskies79 said...

Hi Joe: Yup. ;-)