Henk Haverhoek
Practicing Tips
- Spend time to warm up before you really go for it.
- Practice on sound and intonation.
- The indexfinger gives the best pizzicato sound. First develop a good indexfinger-sound before you start using other fingers (middle-and ringfinger).
- When you start using your middle- or ringfinger: simply imitate the sound of the indexfinger. Don't think of any motion or any positioning. Just imitate the sound.
- Don't practice for speed: speed comes the natural way - or not at all.
- Be aware of the fingertips of your left hand. Feel how the fingertips press the strings towards the fingerboard. Develop "fingerspitzengefühl". Feel the groove in your fingers.
- To develop time, play quarter notes with an imaginary accent on the 2 and 4. You could use a metronome. Better don't.
- Don't force yourself into a 4-finger lefthand. Sometimes it can be easy to play an electric-bass fingering, but most bassplayers I know, who do it consequently, play out of tune!
- Make thumb-position easy: Consider your thumb as a fourth finger, and don't stretch your hand. Most of the notes are to be played over the 4 strings whithout that awkward stretching of the left hand. (A heritage of classical music played on gutstrings).
- Don't avoid open strings. They are typical of the string bass' sound.
- When you pratice technique, make it sound like music.
- Do not practice the same material for too long.
- Make variations in tempo, volume, ect. When you get bored: start something else. Much better: STOP.
- Make your notes sound long and fat. Purposely play them short sometimes.
- Listen carefully to yourself. When you play too fast you can't follow yourself anymore. Plus, a bass needs time to produce sound.
- The two most neglected positions on the double-bass: the half- and the first position.
- Make sure you also practice eights and triplets in combination with quarter notes.
- Be sure your strings are not worne out.
- Have a proper setup: a good adjusted fingerboard, and a bridge which is not too high. A high bridge makes your sound bigger - not any better!
- Try to play melodically. Both in your basslines and in your solos. Work on playing songs and themes. It will develop your sound, taste, intonation and technique.
- Learn the fingerboard. Always know which notes you are playing, or which notes you want to play, and where they are on the fingerboard. It helps a lot when you know the exact position of the flageolets (= harmonics) on a quarter, a third, and half of the string. This helps you to get as close as possible.