Description
Part II of my Double Bass Method covers the study of the IV to VII fundamental and intermediate positions, six in all. In addition to the major scales, it contains some minor scales with corresponding exercises. The basic study of the instrument is continued and extended, and the guiding principles laid down in Book I are strictly to be observed.
A thorough mastery of Book I is, in fact, absolutely essential before this second course is attempted, because of its concise and intensive nature. The exercises have been designed for students of average talent, but if they present any difficulties they should not be attempted without further thorough study of the position in question.
A correspondingly more difficult selection has been made in the examples from orchestral bass parts and the solo pieces, thus enabling the student simultaneously to cultivate technique, expression and taste, his horizon being in every direction gradually extended.
Some of the ways in which the exercises have been written, and some fingering and dynamic markings may strike the student as unnecessarily difficult or arbitrary, but in these special cases my object has always been to emphasize some particular practical advantage.
In the present Book, music of Hungarian character is again included. I have been careful however to choose only pieces which reconcile the characteristics of Hungarian music with the peculiar genius of the instrument.
Budapest, July 1955
Lajos Montag
