French Bow Vs German Bow - Which is better?
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- Опубліковано 7 тра 2020
- There is a lot of discussion as to whether French bow grip or German bow grip is a better option for bassists. Here are my honest thoughts on this. I will probably talk more about this in my free zoom class on the Bottesini Concerto 2 which takes place on May 9th at 3pm eastern time. To sign up just go to iplaybass.com/class
Sources: www.silviodallatorre.com/index... and bottesini.com/alife/gbfrbow.html
website: www.xavierfoley.com & iplaybass.com
Instagram: / xavierfoleybass
Facebook: / xavierfoley
7:04 Sick, man.
I'm almost sure the best type of bow is always the one that the bass salesman threw in when you bought your very first bass.
Yeah, my middle school gave me a German bow 10 years ago when i started and now French bow is uncomfortable haha
Not really?
I learnt French bow first but then our conductor teacher in secondary school orchestra found us playing the long stroke relatively weak in our upper half of the bow,
so he gave us German bow and taught us on how to grip on German bows and that kind of 'solve' our weakness in French bow holding bowing LOL
(but afterwards we found that our German bow weaknesses in fast passages which requires to fast switch from pizzicato to arco and vice versa it's kind of painstaking as the switch is so much dramatic than a typical French bow,
so we had to really work on that LOL as the bridge kind of get in the way and basically German bow feels so much heavier than French bow though)
I love your wonderful, spirited playing and teaching! Keep going!
Just found your channel brother. This is deep man. I love your playing.
Hi, Xavier. I’ve only recently come across your channel-what a treasure trove.
I enjoyed this session so much. I had been listening to your recordings without noticing the French grip to begin with; however, now that I’ve seen the dexterity, the bow grip explains so much of the breadth of your expressive strokes.
By the way, violinists use the straightened index finger to sustain the weight of the bow hand, but not too much, while adjusting the angle of the contact point-perpendicular to the string. Your take on the bow tip makes sense for the bass playing.
I’d love to be invited to the chicken dinner. 😊
Those are really helpful words thank you
I'd use a French Bow cause it's held like the Violin Bow, it's easier for my bowing hand. W/ a 5 String Double Bass tuned in Fifths, I could do Cello pieces down an Octave, and also Violin and Viola pieces down 2 Octaves.
Not a double bassist, but man this was awesome to watch and learn from…and the chicken timer lol, this feels so authentic and real. love your etudes
german bowers
👇🏽
I haven’t played double bass since I graduated high school in the 90’s (I play mostly guitar now), but I learned French bow. Our orchestra teacher was a bassist so we bassists were lucky in that regard. I was often frustrated with not getting enough traction to get as much volume as I wanted from the bass. I have giant hands too, and I’m really digging this technique. I’ve thought of renting or buying a bass to get back into this and thought about trying German bow, but I’d think that it might allow more traction than French it would lose a LOT of precision. This technique you’ve come up with seems to be an awesome compromise to get both precision and traction. I’ve got to try it!
Amazing playing! It's really encouraging to see different grips. I have a question - where is your thumb in your personal grip? I'd love to take a lesson if you're ever in Berlin
I play German, it helps to keep some more subtlety on the cello.
Dude! My stomach rose a couple of times thinking you were going to drop that bass!! I know about this, I had it happen a couple of times! 10 grand later it's fixed...Scary!!!
The way the bass drops into his left hand, yes...i was playing one time at a garden party and was moving slightly, the bass moved, and I caught it....never forget that moment...
do you have Jazz education too?.. It´s seems installed in your system and it´s amazing!!
I come back to watch the bass throw
his vibrato is so recognizable
Finally! :D
Hmmm whole lot of stuff to think about in this... and your bow hold is like amazing (I want to also see what you do with your thumb) but do you use wooden bows? Or carbon fiber only? I'm thinking my old bow may not be able to be treated like that .... Thanks Xavier - my grey matter has been activated! :-)
Xavier Foley Have you tried Fifths tuning bass strings? It's C, G, D, A like a Cello but an Octave Lower. There are 5 String Double Basses and in fifths tuning going up to a High E, you'll be able to do Cello pieces down an Octave, and also Violin and Viola pieces down 2 Octaves.
@@Anonymous-rp4hn Nah I'm an arranger.
Good lesson
@@RockStarOscarStern634 Dear Mr Stern, remember that L.K. always act as a punk...., maybe he`s really a punk? And "FIFTHS-TUNING FOREVER", if (!) You have NOT to play orchestra-auditions. ALL THE BEST!
@@Anonymous-rp4hn Nah a 5 String Double Bass tuned in Fifths would be used for Transcribing solo Violin and Viola pieces for Bass down 2 Octaves. Fifths tuning makes the fingerings more basic, and I could come up with clever arrangements of popular violin concertos and sonatas.
@@Anonymous-rp4hn I use a 5ths tuned 5 String Double Bass for Double Bass arrangements of Solo Violin and Viola pieces w/o writing them on paper cause it'll sound 2 octaves lower than written.
How long is your hand / palm?
I'm facing problem in my right thumb swelling on the right side of my nail.
I'm playing French bow too.
Last time I play German bow so I didn't experience the thumb swelling problem.
I guess I'm pressing too hard on the French bow to get the loud and deep bowing sound and also trying way too hard by gripping way too hard so I could compensate the instability in my own wrong way of French bow grip.
Now things gone too far and it's about 2 weeks plus before the performance days and
I think I'm screwing up.
Ah this is too painful for me proceeding any practice session.
Any advice?
Edgar Meyer plays french, I played french. lol
Xavier you have no idea how jealous I am of your long fingers and ginormous hands!! I play violin and am relearning shifting my thumb to be parallel to btwn the 2nd and 3rd left finger. My pinky is VERY short. My fingers are short and I have teeny hands for my height of 5' 7" 😨
For your bow grip, where do you put your thumb?
German bow all day long..... the french bow is an instrument of torture. I have the only 1/4 size German Bow in my country , actually had to import it ....
Wowowinner
You advocate well for the French bow, but you didn't have much to say about the German bow. Next time at least have a German bow instead of holding the French bow with a German-like bow hold.. I played French bow for 7 years before swithching to German. My view is neither is better than the other. I use German bow because it suits my body, arm and hand. It is clear that the French bow suits you.
The German grip seems more balanced to me.
I prefer to use a German bow when I play bass. I alwaus.gor a better sound out of German. Nothing against french.