Mastering Double Bass Shifting: How to Make Shifting Easy!

42 scales to practice.
32 pages of content to focus on developing and enhancing your shifting technique.

The 5 exercises will help you identify the shift distance and slowly ingrain the fundamental steps to achieving confidence in shifting.

1. Whole ( W ) Step Shifting - In this exercise, we work on controlling and understanding the fundamentals of how our left-hand and arm shifts one whole step.
2. Whole + Half ( WH ) Step Shifting - The "pre-shift" note is introduced to establish where the new finger starts before it shifts. We learn how our left arm can move the same distance with different fingerings. A preparation technique (Letter "H") is also used to make sure the "pre-shift" finger is down, and we say or think of the distance of the shift before we shift.
3. New-Note Finger Shifting - "New-note" finger shifting helps identify where the "new" finger will shift after playing the previous note.
4. End-Note Finger Shifting - We shift with the same ending fingered-note to the next position of the following note before changing to the "new-note" finger.
5. Houdini Finger Shifting - Integrating the "new-note" and "end-note" shifting techniques within each shift will make a clean and almost undetected "Houdini" shift.

"Alden's detailed and comprehensive plan to master shifting on the double bass is an essential resource of instruction for any teacher of the double bass."

- Stephen Tramontozzi, San Francisco Conservatory of Music (Faculty) and San Francisco Symphony (Assistant Principal Double Bass).