Switching to the Double Bass: Chapter 2 - Third Position, and the D & A Major Scales

Great work getting the bow involved!

First, watch this video about hand positioning and the bass neck block.

Now it’s time to shift. On violin, viola, and cello, you don’t get to move your hand up and down the neck until much later, but it’s necessary for bassists to shift in order to play almost anything!

On the D string, our 1st finger plays the note G. This is the same G as the open G string

2nd finger plays G sharp (or A flat).

4th finger plays A (the same A as 1st finger, 1st position G string).

On the G string, our first finger plays the note C.

2nd finger plays C sharp (or D flat)

And 4th finger plays D (and octave higher than the open D string).

Let’s also add the A string notes in 1st position.

Just like the D and G strings, we’re going to use 1, 2, and 4.

1st finger plays B.

2nd finger plays C.

4th finger plays C sharp (or D flat).

We’re now equipped to learn our first scales!

Time for some music theory! The space between notes are called steps. When we go from one adjacent finger to the next, that distance is called a half step. For example, 1st finger to 2nd finger, and 2nd finger to 4th finger, are both examples of half steps. 1st finger to 4th finger is a whole step. If you play piano, this is just like going from adjacent keys (half steps), or skipping every other key (whole steps).

Scales are made up of a combination of whole steps and half steps. Every Major Scale is built on the following pattern:

Whole, Whole, half, Whole, Whole, Whole, half

Following this pattern from the open A string, starting in 1st position, we get:

Note:

  • Bottom brackets denote string

  • Top brackets denote position

Now that you’re comfortable with shifting on the D string, we can play the original Ode to Joy that Beethoven wrote in his 9th Symphony! This is called an Excerpt, and is a standard requirement on professional double bass auditions.

Reflection Questions:

  1. How did you approach learning this excerpt, since it has a lot of slurs and other bowings?

  2. Check out the dynamics; only two are listed, but if you play this at a steady piano dynamic it won’t sound very interesting. What can you do to phrase this piece and bring out your musicality?

When you’re ready, click the button below to go to the next lesson!