Renaud Gruss

Musical and Technical Guide for the Double Bass

There have been enormous changes in the way that the double bass is taught over the last twenty or so years.



An increasing number of younger people have become interested in studying the instrument and traditional methods have been shown to be inadequate. The studies are too long for young pupils’ muscles - the exercises are not melodic enough and are simply too austere for this new generation brought up on channel-hopping, so there was a need to come up with new ways of doing things.



Unlike these sometimes very young pupils, young adults who can already play, often having taught themselves as members of jazz groups, one day decide they would like to join the conservatoire so that they can learn both music theory - of which they often know nothing - and the technique used to play the instrument at the same time.



Then, between these two extremes, there is still the traditional learner, in other words the pupil who is just starting to play the double bass having almost reached adulthood, and who has been playing another instrument, sometimes for a number of years.



Although each of these specific groups does need to be taught in a particular way, there are still some characteristics shared by all of them.



Irrespective of age, size and strength, or the musical training they already have, on the double bass the first position is the hardest physically by far, and people learn both more quickly and better if they are enjoying themselves with melodic studies.



This Guide has come about over the thirteen years I have been teaching at the Conservatoire de Toulouse, and has been tried and tested successfully with many pupils of all ages.



Furthermore, having spent twenty-eight years giving concerts all over the world with the Orchestre de Chambre de Toulouse, I myself have faced the need to keep constantly developing my own technique, and so I have come up with a lot of little exercises for my own personal use and my students have also been able to get a great deal out of them.



This Guide is the result of all the answers I have found in order to help me go honestly about my work as a musician and as a teacher. It offers you a special 'path' which will help you to get on more quickly.



I have not felt the need to write what has already been written by other teachers. The methods by Billé, Bottesini, Labro, Montag, Nanny, Simmandl, Streicher, Rabbath, Rollez, etc., all propose their own particular approaches of the instrument, and they are all worth looking at if you wish to acquire an overview. So I have made no attempt to be exhaustive - there is plenty of educational literature available which already does that!



On the other hand, the order in which the technical aspects are tackled and the attention paid to certain 'details' are decisive to both speed of progress and accuracy of musical expression.



This is why you will find the following in this Guide:



Volume I (this book):

1/ Leitmotivs: the advice I am constantly giving my students.

2/ Cycle I: Learning, the path I suggest to beginners of all ages.



Note: Studies are also planned to be worked in Cycle II and Cycle III with a modification of work instructions.

Refer to the pictograms and instructions above each study.



Volume II:

1/ Cycles II and III: Studies and scales for students from Cycle II onwards.

2/ Cycle III: Studies on the 'details' which are far more than that.



Renaud GRUSS