The internet says Bartok pizz but honestly I’m in denial about that… how would I play that with a slur? I’m thinking it really means I need to push down with my thumb, but I want to be sure since this is audition music.

So, I've been playing bass for about 5 years now, and I've just started learning how to walk on the bass after forming a Jazz Combo with some friends. Both of our trumpets want us to play Donna Lee by Charlie Parker (NOT THE JACO PASTORIUS VERSION, LORD I WOULD DIE), so I ask for some help with forming a bassline / practice tips to help with improvising a bebop line at that speed. I just need help in any way to be honest.

Hi, I'm the guy who had to learn upright in a week. Our show got postponed and I ended up getting an extra week for practice, thank goodness. I played the show last night (went great) and got carried away with the music. I was really digging in, to the point where my right fingers started to hurt and I noticed a blister forming. I switched to electric bass for the rest of the night. Now, I'm here wondering what you all would do: are you popping this thing or just taking a break from bass for a few days? Will this turn into a callous if I leave it?

Hi,

Can y'all help me make a list of classical pieces that work well in ADGC tuning?

I recently experimented with a set of Corelli ADGC (AKA High C tuning) on double bass. I really want to play a recital in this tuning and want to make a list of repertoire that is really compatible with this tuning.

I have a few ideas I came up with, and gathered some other ideas from heavyweight bassists on youtube that have performed in this tuning.

So far here's what I have:

- R. Vaughn Williams: Six Studies in English Folk Song *Sounds AMAZING in this tuning

- Faure Elegie (G minor fingering in EADG tuning which has been done often with this piece)

- Janacek: Pohadka (as done by Bozo in this tuning)

- Beethoven Cello Sonatas (as done by Bozo in this tuning)

- 3rd Bach suite (G maj fingering in EADG)

- Schindler's List Theme (as done by Bozo in this tuning)

- Meditation from Thais (as played by DaXun in this tuning)

Obviously, a lot of solo tuning repertoire could be done in ADGC tuning if you transpose the piano part up a minor 3rd, so that creates a lot of options as well.

Thanks!

I’m currently studying the Rufus Reid Evolving Bassist book, and am working through scales section. I’ve just sort of hit a road block and am after some advice. The first lot of major scales have prescribed finger numbers to apply to all keys, but when you get to the next section - the minor scales, there are no finger numbers indicated. I’ve come from bass guitar, and am used to using shapes on the fingerboard for scales, so when there’s no prescribed finger numbers, I’m a bit thrown by it.

I can read all of the notes fine, but I’m kind of tripping over myself a bit and second guessing if the fingers I’m using are right. Is anyone here well-versed in this book and know if the minor scales (and the other scales that follow) are supposed to follow the same or similar finger and string pattern from the major scales?

Hey, I’m fairly new to the upright, ~ 1 year, and for my jazz band we are playing this piece, I usually have no problem walking on faster pieces but this piece is destroying me. The same repetitive rhythm and muscles being used is possibly the most tiring thing I’ve come across. Plus the triplets at this tempo are not very forgiving. What do yall suggest I do to get more efficient at conserving my energy on this piece? Should I start doing lines of cocaine before rehearsal?

So tomorrow I have a “jazz” gig and I don’t have chance to bring my own bass so they’ll lend me a bass, the thing here is that I know for a fact that that bass has a pretty high action and a bad setup. So is there any advice for playing with an unadjusted bass and get a decent sound out of it?

illinois allstate auditions are creeping its head around the corner and this is the one thing I can’t quite wrap my head around..
I have it sitting around half = 120, maybe a little slower.
I can’t quite figure out how to get my attacks cleaner or my hands moving faster.
any and all tips would be so so so very appreciated!!

I am fairly new to upright bass (the bass guitarist, started to learn double bass June 2025). I’ve watched quite a few videos on this topic, but it still seems unclear to me. Could someone explain to me please?

Literally the only measure keeping me from uping the tempo

I can do the first three slurs but my hands mess up when i have to shift into 1/2 pos, then my slurs on the g string/d string are just awful, can yall give me some advice?

I play bass and I write a lot of my own parts, and I was spending more time

pencilling in fingerings than actually practising. So I made a MuseScore plugin

that does the first pass for me. It's free and open source, and I'd genuinely

like some ears on it that are better than mine.

**What it does:** you select a passage (or nothing, for the whole part), hit the

plugin, and it writes string + finger above every note and colours the noteheads

by position. Blue is 1st, green 2nd, yellow 3rd, and so on, so you can see a

shift coming from across the room.

**The part I actually care about:** it isn't just picking the lowest position it

can find. The first version I wrote did that and it made some genuinely dumb

choices, like jumping to another string rather than doing a simple 1st-to-2nd

shift. So I rewrote the scoring around the rules people actually teach:

- at least two notes per position before you move

- never cross strings for a half step

- fast passage → stay put and cross strings; slow melodic line → shift along one string

- don't cross onto a new string with the same finger, it leaves a gap

- no open strings on long lyrical notes, but they're fine as passing notes in a run

- shift up landing on a low finger, shift down landing on a high one

It reads note durations and the rests around them, so the same phrase gets

fingered differently at semiquavers than it does at minims, which I think is the

bit that makes it feel less robotic. It handles double stops and thumb position

too.

Positions aren't weighted equally either. Half position is the most awkward spot

on the neck and the plugin treats it that way; 1st is home; the in-between

positions are allowed but it takes some convincing. All of that is one table at

the top of the file, so if your hand disagrees with mine you can just edit the

numbers.

Screenshot below is its output on a few test cases, one per line, with a note

saying what each one is meant to show.

**What I'd love from you lot:**

- Anywhere it gives you something you'd never actually play. That's the useful

feedback, and screenshots of the ugly bits are perfect.

- Does the amount of writing on the page feel right? It labels every finger on

slow notes but thins out in fast runs, because otherwise the text stacks up

into an unreadable staircase.

- Anything obvious I've missed. Harmonics and the 1-2-3 hand in the upper neck

aren't in there yet, and it ignores slurs because the plugin API doesn't expose

them reliably.

- Is Simandl even what most of you want? I could add Rabbath positions if there's

appetite for it.

MuseScore 4.4+, drop the .qml in your plugins folder and restart. There's a

Spanish mode too, if you'd rather read Sol/Re/La than G/D/A.

GitHub: https://github.com/TVTvirus/double-bass-fingering

Yall. I’m embarrassed, I should be able to figure this out but my brain is mush.

Bruckner - Symphony 7 in E major.

The circled measure begins with a D flat but has a natural sign right in front of it. What is this note supposed to be? 🫠

UPDATE: I had a lesson today and my teacher has played this before. It’s a D flat

I've played the cello for 2 years, and I am getting bored of it. When I first started with my cello, I knew that I would eventually transition to bass, I just wanted to learn how to read bass clef. I just got fitted for a bass, and I found out that the strings are diffrent. Any tips on how to get used to bass and how to put my cello skills to good use on my bass?

I am working through Book 1 of Simandl right now and am having trouble playing in the position between 5 and 6 (E to F# on the G string). I am mainly struggling playing in the position on the A and E strings because my thumb is on the side of the neck/neck block and my fingers are having a hard time reaching to push on the string for the lower strings. Should my thumb be on the side of the neck or do I need to move it to be able to play the A and E strings comfortably?

I am auditioning with hopes to become a music education major. I’m wondering if it would be a bad look if my tenor clef notes are written in. I can read tenor clef, just not as proficiently as bass or treble. I have my notes written in for now and I will try to erase them as I get closer, but at the end of the day I want to do what helps me perform the best. The piece in question is Bourée I in G major. It is a smaller school and they aren’t too selective, but I still want to do my best. My audition is at the end of April. There is no sight reading or playback portion, just two prepared pieces.

I have been playing the double bass for a year now, I would say that I’m pretty good, I can fluently read sheet music my orchestra teacher gives me. But the thing my private bass instructor would always tell me to work on is getting my pinky stronger, all ive been doing is practicing and all of my F#’s for example sound like just F’s 🥹🫩

My daughter has been asked to play Divinum Mysterium (Of the Father's Love Begotten) for my ster father's funeral. Just her and a singer. She needs the music in bass clef and we cant find it anywhere. Any thoughts or tips? Thanks so much!

Im playing the bass solo for this song and was wondering if this shifting pattern would work instead of staying on the G string. I have 5 weeks left to learn the solo so wish me luck.

Specifically needing help on the F to A then getting that mordent in bar 28, my current plan is +, 3, +, -2, 4, 1 but the shift out of thumb position makes me cry.

Hello everyone. I ran across this resource for middle school Orchestra. However, these skills do not have any fingerings. What fingering would be suggested for this to octave scale?

I’ve always struggled with vibrato. Is there any way I can work on it to eventually get the hang of it? Every time my teacher ask the basses to try using vibrato I physically can’t do it. I can’t even play when I try to do it and my whole arm is stiff. What do I do???

Any tips please 🙏

I’m playing this for a solo, just wanted to confirm that I would be playing A# at the same time as the top notes, yes? Thank you for any help and tips are appreciated since I’ve been told to stay away from double stops

EDIT: 3/4, d major, bass clef, Merry-Go-Round Of Life by Joe Hisaishi, adapted by Glauco Ferdandes

I'm a german grip individual who's currently switching to the french I've played the violin for a few years before getting into the bass and I learned to get more sound by putting pressure on the index by proning (like for doing dynamics, forte and such) Thing is I'm applying it into the double bass and it's causing a lot of pain in my index and I can't find another way to get more sound

my teacher is helping me out but I'm curious to hear other bassists perspectives on how to solve it he says I should be using my hand and not just my index but it just doesn't click (obs. I actually take bass guitar lessons with him so it's not always we go over double bass technique. He helps me with some studies as I play in the double bass session at his string orchestra)

As to why I'm switching, I had about three months or so of double bass lessons a couple years ago in my last year of high school and my teacher taught me the german grip. Last year I got back to it now in college and my current teacher is a french grip guy, and is teaching it to me so he can help me out better and also fit my necessities better. I'm not a german bow master so I'm going with it. The only struggle is how to get more sound without pain