Schott Music Kontrabassschule

A textbook for a successful start to playing the double bass

The Schott Music Double Bass Method offers a motivating introduction to playing the double bass and is aimed at beginners of all ages. The practical approach is suitable for both one-to-one lessons and group lessons, and supports varied and systematic learning progress.

A wide variety of pieces, exciting sound experiments and creative improvisation exercises foster musical understanding and a love of playing right from the start. The method book is supplemented by piano accompaniments and backing tracks available for download, which make practising easier and provide extra motivation.

Contents:

• The double bass and its parts
• The bow
• Open strings (pizzicato)
• Posture when playing the double bass
• Basic note values and rhythms
• Keeping the beat
• The whole note
• First bowing (arco)
• Bow hold
• Bow division
• Eighth notes
• The left hand (1st position)
• First approach with the 2nd finger
• Fingering with the 1st finger
• Pieces using the 1st and 2nd fingers
• Dynamics
• The 4th finger
• D major triad and scale
• 3/4 time
• Major and minor
• All notes in the first position
• Bow technique and tone
• Legato
• The G major scale
• Bow pressure and speed
• Crescendo and decrescendo
• The portato stroke
• The dotted quarter note
• Octave flageolets
• Setting a rhyme to music / Sound story
• The second position
• The C major scale
• Half-hand position changes
• Scales and bowing variations
• Whole-tone and semitone steps – all notes in the second position
• Exercise for accuracy in the second position
• Half a position
• Scales in B flat major and F major
• Songs and pieces in the half register
• First position and half-position
• All notes in the half position
• A digression into the 4th position and the thumb position
• The 4th position
• A brief foray into the thumb position
• The 3rd position – practice pieces for the 3rd position
• Tuning with harmonics
• Combining the 1st and 3rd positions – scales in major and minor (D and A)
• Various time signatures (2/4, 6/8, 2/2, 6/4)
• Staccato and portato
• Sixteenth notes
• Invent an accompaniment
• Triads and intervals
• Intonation exercise with intervals
• Combining the 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions
• Tuplets
• The 2½ position
• The D-flat major scale
• Song accompaniment with the bass
• Rhythm patterns for ‘I Like the Flowers’
• Rhythm patterns for ‘Greensleeves’
• The circle of fifths
• Fifth-fall sequences in minor and major keys
• Rhythm patterns for the descending fifth sequence
• Pieces for all positions covered so far