You’ve worked through the Simandl method. Your F major scale sounds good in half position and you can get through the exercises. But when you warm up, you’re really warming up half position and a little of the G string, and that’s where your hand stays when you play.
Quick answer
The Simandl method teaches half, first and second position very well, but it doesn’t warm up the whole bass. The New Simandl re-fingers the first half of the book so the same exercises cover the whole fingerboard. Most fingerings stay exactly the same, and the open strings are what get you from one part of the bass to another.
The Simandl does what it does very well. I just wanted a warmup method that teaches the entire bass, so I re-fingered it. That became The New Simandl, and the crazy thing I found while writing it is how little of the fingering had to change.
What does the Simandl method teach well?
The Simandl teaches half position, first position and second position, and it does it very well. The old method begins with the F major scale in half position. That’s great. Half position is fundamental, and everyone needs to know it. If you’re a working upright bass player, you have to have a good sound in half position. It’s essential, and it’s where most of your money comes from.
But bass players improvise now. When the Simandl was written, back in the 1800s, bass players weren’t improvising that much. So I wanted a warmup method that works for today’s upright bass player, one that covers the rest of the bass too.
Bass Tetris and the 75% we ignore
When we practice our major scales, we’re not warming up the entire instrument. We’re warming up half position and some of the G string. I often call this bass Tetris.
People are playing bass Tetris. They’re not playing the whole instrument.
Cole Davis
Our tendency is to stay in the same few spots, and we’re ignoring 75% of the real estate. I say this in like every YouTube video, so my bad if you’ve heard it before. But I do think it’s really important.
The idea for the book came from the Storch etudes. It’s a tremendous book of etudes, but it’s also excruciatingly hard, and it gets progressively harder as it goes on. I warmed up with them every day, and of course my technique got a lot better. But starting my day at 7 or 7:30 with that kind of excruciating mental exercise, playing through as many of them as I could, I found it anxiety-inducing. As a morning warmup, that’s too much. I still wanted to warm up the whole bass, though. I wanted to play the entire bass every day, so I’m ready to play the entire instrument and not just half position.
Same fingerings, different part of the bass
I took the first half of the Simandl and re-fingered it, so the exercises sit in a different part of the bass. Each one shows you the old Simandl fingering side by side with the new one, so you feel the difference under your hand the first time you play it, and then I explain how the old and new versions are different.
And you know what the crazy thing is? Most of the fingerings are exactly the same. I did months of work re-doing this old method book, wondering whether I should even be doing it, and then I realized the part of the bass we ignore isn’t that different. In one exercise, the old version and the new version use literally the same fingering, the open strings and fingers in the same order, just in a different part of the instrument.
So your muscle memory already knows those fingers. You just have to redistribute them into a different part of the instrument.
Don’t treat my fingerings as law, either. Our hands come in all different shapes and sizes, so if a different fingering works for you, that’s totally fine. I switch up the fingerings all the time. In The New Simandl, the fingerings are more of a suggestion of the shape and position to play each exercise in. It’s the polar opposite of the old Simandl: way less rigid and way more fluid.
How do you use open strings to get around the bass?
What makes the rest of the bass available is the open strings. That’s the concept: getting around the fingerboard with the open strings, so you have all that real estate to use.
You can feel what happens without them in F sharp major. I’ve called it the single worst key in the history of upright bass, and I’d actually say it’s the worst key in the history of human beings. Once you’re in half position in F sharp major, it’s very hard to get out, because there are no open strings. So I try to get out of half position as quickly as possible. In a key that hard, think like an electric bass player. Think in one shape, and instead of shift, shift, shift, pivot, almost like you’re gliding across the fingerboard.
The low notes need planning too. The low F and G only exist down at the bottom of the bass. That’s why they have so much power: you can’t get them anywhere else. So if you want the low F, you have to think ahead and position yourself so there’s an open string coming up. In the B-flat major exercise, I use the D to get to the B flat, then to the F. It’s kind of a physical cadence, because you end up in half position.
You’re not moving up the neck to stay up there. Bass playing is the whole instrument. You play down low, you go up, you come back down. If you want to see what that looks like, watch some videos of Ron Carter and check out how he addresses the whole fingerboard. Open strings do the same job in real tunes, too. They’re how I get Teen Town up to speed on upright.
It pays off on the bandstand. The B-flat blues is one of the most commonly called things in all jazz, and even at neo-soul, rock or blues jam sessions they’ll play one. If you can walk a B-flat blues around the whole bass instead of only in half position, you’ll get called a lot more. People get tired of half position. What they don’t get tired of is keeping everything fresh.
Try this today: one scale, the whole bass
These patterns are based on the major scales, and that’s the foundation we learn the instrument from. I’ve often said that if you can play your 12 major scales on the bass in more than one position, you’ve gone farther than 50% of upright bass players. This instrument is massive and very physical, so just learning your major scales is an achievement. Improvising on them is a pathway to learning the entire fingerboard.
- Start where Simandl starts. Play the F major scale in half position, the way you already know it.
- Play it on one string. Instead of practicing the scale the same way every time, play it using just one string. It’ll increase your understanding of that individual string, and if a string ever breaks on you, you can play the same stuff on a different string.
- Move it with the open strings. Play the scale in another part of the bass, using the open strings to change position.
- Plan your way back down. Decide where you want the low F and set yourself up so there’s an open string coming up to get you there.
- Improvise on it. Stay inside the scale and use the whole fingerboard. Down low, up high, back down.
Every exercise in The New Simandl comes with a backing track, and because the tracks use the tonality of the scale, improvising on the scale sounds like you’re playing changes. It’s a way to address the whole fingerboard and learn to use it for improvising, which is the whole reason I wrote it.
Tomorrow morning, warm up the part of the bass you usually skip.
Go deeper
The New Simandl
Fifteen Simandl exercises with the old and new fingerings side by side, my commentary on each, and a backing track for every one.
FAQ
What does the Simandl method teach on upright bass?
It teaches half position, first position and second position, and it does that very well. The old method begins with the F major scale in half position, which everyone needs to know. But it was written in the 1800s, when bass players weren’t improvising that much, and it doesn’t warm up the rest of the instrument.
Are the New Simandl fingerings different from the old Simandl?
Less than you’d think. The exercises move to a different part of the bass, but most of the fingerings are exactly the same. In one exercise, the old and new versions use literally the same fingering. Your muscle memory already knows those fingers. You just redistribute them into a different part of the instrument.
How do I get out of half position on upright bass?
Use the open strings. They’re how you get around the fingerboard. In a key without them, like F sharp major, it’s very hard to get out once you’re in half position, so get out as quickly as possible. Think like an electric bass player: one shape, and pivot instead of shift, shift, shift.
Do I have to use the exact fingerings in The New Simandl?
No. Our hands come in all different shapes and sizes, so if a different fingering works for you, that’s totally fine. I switch up the fingerings all the time. The fingerings are more of a suggestion of the shape and position to play each exercise in. It’s the polar opposite of the old Simandl: way less rigid and way more fluid.
How many major scales should I know on upright bass?
All 12, in more than one position. I’ve often said that if you can do that, you’ve gone farther than 50% of upright bass players. This instrument is massive and very physical, so just learning your major scales is an achievement, and improvising on them is a pathway to learning the entire fingerboard.
