Minor 7th Arpeggios

To change a major 7th into a minor 7th arpeggio, you flat the third and the seventh notes.  See chart below.

Major 7th Arpeggios

I just enrolled in Geoff Chalmers course, "Double Bass Arpeggios:  the Play Along Collection," at www.discoverdoublebass.com.  The first arpeggios to learn are the major 7th chords, and here is a chart of the major 7th chords that I previously created in Excel.  Bass players are advised to know the notes in each key, and know them cold.  Here are those notes:

Geoff's course provides recordings of each arpeggio, played on a piano, to familiarize students with the sound of each.  He also provides staffs of notes for each as well, with notation on which string and finger to use.  This is very helpful.  You can't learn the proper way to play these arpeggios just by looking at the chart above -- you need to use the proper fingers and the proper strings.  Check out www.discoverdoublebass.com for courses and prices.

I am not proficient in using a bow, but I have a French bow and plan to learn. If you are not playing in an orchestra, you may not have much use for a bow.  However, using the bow for practice is highly advisable, as it emphasizes the sound of each note and arpeggio.  I ordered some Pop's Double Bass Rosin from Amazon, and should have it tomorrow.  Geoff's website also has a course in the use of the French bow, and I plan to take that course in a few more weeks.

Taking Another Crack at Double Bass

The Double Bass

I have two underused double basses.  When I got them, I imagined that it would be fairly easy to move from bass guitar to double bass.  I was wrong.  Double bass (aka acoustic bass, stand-up bass) is a very different instrument.  A double bass requires more precision in setting it up, and more technique to master.  Your left hand fingers have to be just right, creating a "handshake" on the strings.  You need to learn to use a bow, not for playing necessarily, but to practice arpeggios and exercises, because you can hear the sound better that way.

Further, getting a pickup attached so you can increase volume is important, and they are expensive, and you need one that helps stop feedback.

There is no easy or fast way to learn double bass.  I have learned the hard way, that you cannot just ignore the experts and use whatever fingering and plucking you like.  If you don't do it right, your hands will get very tired and you won't make it through a gig.

This week I realized that I do indeed want to be proficient on double bass, and that I need to stop fooling myself and learn all the proper techniques.  You must be patient and take it one practice at a time.  You need to pay careful attention to your intonation -- when playing anything, do it over again until you get the rich bass tones you need.  You need to replace the "thunk thunk thunk" sound with a nice "boom boom boom."

Want to learn double bass?  Do it right, and do it slow until you get it.