Description
Part I of my Double-Bass Method comprises the subject matter of the first term of double bass instruction and deals with three positions (the medium positions included, with six positions in all). The exercises were chosen to enable the student to reach the estimated grade of proficiency with ease and certainty in all respects by the end of the first year of study. I never lost sight of the orchestral function of the double bass. Accordingly, I composed mainly exercises similar in their structure to characteristic rhythmic formulae etc. occurring in the orchestral part of the double bass. The student thus gets a chance to become acquainted with his future part and with the essential character of double bass playing while still studying the rudiments. As there are only few notes which can be played in one position on the double bass, I endeavored to increase their number by using more frequently the enharmonic notation difficult to cope with for the double bass player.
The peculiar character of the double bass requires an utmost knowledge of scales. Since the mensural proportions of the instrument demand a different fingering practically for every scale, each of them has been elaborated separately and is preceded by appropriate preliminary exercises.
In handing over therewith this Part I of my double bass method to my teacher colleagues and their students I wish to express my belief of having set down an adequate material with a view to the objects of the first year of study, aiming at gradual development based on the mastery of such essential factors as 1) the theoretical and practical knowledge of the positions 2) the sureness in the positions, and 3) the correct execution of shifts.
Budapest, June 1962
Lajos Montag
