Bobby G Hey Bob, that's great to hear. I love that tip too, it's saved me a few times when I have to start a tune :-)

Great stuff Jeff, best of luck with it, cheers Geoff

Chronic Thanks, I'm glad they help. Enjoy your practice, cheers Geoff :-)

Good luck, I hope you enjoy it. Cheers Geoff

Great stuff, I'm glad it helped and that the scroll reference is a good move. Good luck with the harmonics, they are a big help to me. Cheers Geoff

Yes I've used the scroll for years, glad to hear someone talk about it.

+Robert F Else Hey Robert, thanks for checking out the lesson and I'm really glad it helped. Those harmonics take time, but I'm sure you will have them before you know it, cheers Geoff

Great to have you here and to hear you're enjoying the lessons!

Hey Jacob, I've seen some pics and the odd video but never seen one in real life. I would LOVE to give one a try though! :-)

That's a great method!

Hi, my bass is actually made up of a few parts. The back/sides and scroll are a 100 year old German bass, but it has a modern front, about 10 years old. Its also got a new neck so the set up is really good. I use Evah Pirazzi weich strings which seem to suit it well. Cheers Geoff 

Discover Double Bass o

Hi Simon, great question. This is hard to explain in text, so apologies for the long reply. Your thumb doesn't need to be exactly opposite the 2nd finger, there's a bit more range and for most people, that area is from the point between the 1st and 2nd, and the 2nd. You need to keep flexible in the shift and the thumb naturally aligns more with the 1st finger as you hand moves nearer the nearer towards the neck heel...then continues to go past your 1st finger as you move into thumb position. You can hold your hand up in the air and see your thumb position naturally move as you do the motion of moving from half to thumb position. Your thumb will move after the fingers. I've never heard of using your 2nd finger on the D. I normally say that everyone's different and to go with what works for you, but in this case, I don't think the layout of the hand supports that idea as you will have to extend your thumb against the natural position of the fingers. I've also never heard of a method that uses this approach. IMO it's not the most effective way of playing the notes, but without seeing you play it's hard to know for sure. I recognise that everyone's different, so if it's reliable and doesn't add tension to the hand then there's no reason not to do it that way.

We don't recommend it as you will have to turn your head to view the dot which causes problems with your posture and hand shape. However, it is possible to use dots in thumb position as that's already within your line of vision.

@@DiscoverDoubleBass Thanks for great tip. I wish to play double base in small orchestra. And wish to play in tune. Is DB has practice routine of shifting position studies like violin .? Thanks in advance

Absolutely. There are several ways of learning the fingerboard and a few different numbering systems for the different positions. As there are less notes available per position you do need to practice a lot of shifting and maintaining the correct hand shape to play in tune.

@@DiscoverDoubleBass please suggest a book for shifting exercises

I'm afraid I'm not aware of any.

The position of the notes should be the same on each string, so it sounds like your bridge may not be straight or the string may not be in tune with the adjacent one.