Expert guidance for practice and performance MASTERCLASS

Frederick Zimmermann’s
A Contemporary Concept of
Bowing Technique for the Double Bass
HENRY GROSSMAN

BY ORIN O’BRIEN
DOUBLE BASSIST OF THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC

FREDERICK ZIMMERMANN TAUGHT PRIVATELY and at
the Juilliard School from 1934 to 1967, the year he died. His
remarkable book A Contemporary Concept of Bowing Technique
was published in 1966, and was the creation of one of the
most distinguished and prolific teachers of the double bass for
several decades. However, many bassists and teachers seem to
be puzzled by how to practise it. I would like to show how to
make use of its many benefits.
The book was not in print when I studied with
Zimmermann: he would give me a pattern or two and tell me
to copy out permutations of them. He had a notebook with
many handwritten excerpts from the thousands of orchestral
works he had played during his 36 years with the New York
Philharmonic: he copied the actual excerpts on the top stave
of two, and on the lower stave he made the bowing pattern
reductions, using only the four notes of E, A, open A string
and open E string for the notes of each passage. This was the
genesis of the future ‘bowing book’ (as many students call
it), and as I copied and practised it, it solved many of the
mysteries of bowing that had puzzled me.

THE PURPOSES OF THE EXERCISES in
this book are to facilitate rapid string-
crossing, and to make bowing patterns as
easily recognisable (and as easily played)
as scale patterns are for the left hand.
The double bass’s structure and tuning
present technical problems unique to the
instrument: great distances separate notes
and intervals. When playing a complex
passage at a rapid tempo, it makes sense
for the left hand to finger as many notes
as possible in one position. However, this
creates a separate problem – the number
of cross-string bowing changes.
Example 1 shows how to break down the
patterns of string-crossing into only one
note per string: any note played on the
G string becomes an E (in fourth position),
and any note played on the D string
becomes an A (in the same position). The
left hand remains on those two notes, so
all the attention is focused on the bow. The
first few pages of the book are exercises
only for the G and D strings: later on, the
A and E strings are added, with any notes
on those strings becoming open A and
open E. The left hand remains stationary,
with the fourth finger on E and first finger
on A on the top two strings.
In order to practise the correct
motions of the bow arm for speed and
accuracy, these exercises should be done
at a very slow tempo with a smooth,
connected legato bow stroke, with
no pause or break between the notes.
In other words, no staccato.
Example 2 contains the basic eight
patterns of two-string crossing (which
can then be expanded to three- and four-
string crossing). If you practise this example
at a slow tempo of  = 66–72, drawing the
bow smoothly, keeping it very close to
the next string and remaining conscious
of each movement, then the purpose of
this book will become very clear. Your arm
will learn the physical motions, and
practising the etudes and excerpts will
produce the kind of automatic response
that the author intended.

[1] Breaking down string-crossing patterns into only one note per string

[2] Eight basic patterns of two-string crossing

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[3] Patterns of three-string crossing in 6/8
[4] Patterns of three-string crossing in 3/4
[5] Double-stop exercise to train the bow arm to sense the tiny distance between the strings
There are four rules that I like to follow
when practising example 2:
1. Each note should be given an equal
amount of bow (the same speed,
same pressure and same distance
travelled). This guarantees the same
quality, length and volume of tone. As
the speed increases, the amount of
bow should decrease. Zimmermann
would say, ‘I want to pay you 25 cents
for each note, not 26 cents for one
and 17 cents for another.’
2. Always play forte.
3. Practise each pattern legato détaché
(on the string) first.
4. Spiccato begins to be comfortable
(when the bow does 50 per cent of the
work) at the speed of  =92. At  = 132
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Book 1.indb 87
and above you should return to playing
on the string. (This does not preclude
the use of sautillé for some passages,
depending on the skill of the player.)
Examples 3 and 4 show patterns of
three-string crossing in time signatures of
6/8 and 3/4. These exercises are the PhD
of string-crossing, and are very useful in
Beethoven and Mahler symphonies.
When practising a passage that will
eventually be played very fast, you need to
practise the same passage at a slow tempo
with exactly the same movements of your
hand and arm as you will use when it is fast.
If you don’t practise in this way, your body
will learn to stop between notes, which
will slow you down when you play faster.
MASTERCLASS
I had to unlearn the practice of playing
something slowly very staccato in order to
make it sound more ‘musical’ – stopping
between notes to shift cleanly and to
negotiate the string-crossing carefully. This
made it much more difficult to then play
the passage fast, because I had trained
my bow arm to stop between notes.
Throughout the book, I would advise
not exceeding the tempo markings. The
metronome markings for all the excerpts
are the average tempos taken by most
conductors for these pieces. They are
neither the slowest nor the fastest
tempos, and it is advisable to practise any
excerpt a little slower and a little faster
than the average tempo, so that one
is prepared for any eventuality.
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 MASTERCLASS
[6] Exercise for practising bowing patterns
[7] Exercise showing different combinations of slurred and separate notes with bow crossings
[8] Excerpt from the last movement of Mozart’s Symphony no.40 showing slurred and separate notes with bow crossings
In example 5 (page 87), which comes
early in the book, the tempo of  = 42
seems agonizingly slow: these double-stop
etudes are to train your bow arm to sense
the tiny distance between the strings. I tell
my students, ‘When you play one note, and
are ready to cross to the next string, think
of it as a “double-stop minus one note.”’ In
actual fact, double bass strings are exactly
as close as a violin’s strings: neighbouring!
The bow hair is flexible, and can touch
two strings at once: if you think of string-
crossing as almost a double-stop, you will
stop using your bow with excess motion.
In example 6, the speed of  = 84 might
also feel very slow, but it is exactly the
right speed for the development of
the player at that point in the book:
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085-088_Masterclass.indd 88
you should start practising it slower than
84, and gradually work up to full speed.
The same applies to all the etudes: you will
find that practising them carefully, slowly,
noticing the motions of your bow and
not exceeding the metronome mark will
produce excellent results. The markings
are designed to become more difficult
(faster) as you become more experienced
in using the book.
Example 7 was a revelation to me: it
demonstrates combinations of slurred
and separate notes with string-crossing.
This exact bowing works for the difficult
passages in the last movement of Mozart’s
40th Symphony (example 8) – the section
with two notes slurred, two notes separate.
Before studying with Zimmermann, I had
tried to play this section with the separate
notes spiccato. When I complained that
I could not seem to make this work,
Zimmermann said, ‘Why are you trying to
do what even violinists do not do? In very
fast tempos play any combination of slurred
notes with separate notes, on the string!’
I was extremely shocked, and then very
happy to discover that with slow legato
détaché practice of these passages, I could
play them as fast as necessary without
feeling desperate. I had seen dots over
the separate notes, and in my ignorance
interpreted them as ‘you must play them
staccato’. He then explained to me that
dots over notes in fact often mean ‘not
slurred’. How many bassists may have
suffered over this misunderstanding of an
editor’s markings? Context is everything.
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