Eugene Levinson's 'School of Agility' Double
Bass Book
Here is another super useful book for those that want and need to
practice scales and of course learn a good system of fingerings to
achieve the most effective system for maximum ease and dexerity.
Once a player solidifies a 'system' or
two, their playing will really
'take-off' in that they will easily recognise patterns, both
visually and by muscle memory. This is a significant book and
is more exhaustive and substantial than say, Morton's "Miraculous Scale
Fingerings" book.
For many years Mr. Levinson was the
principal bass player with the New York Philharmonic and quite a
great player for sure not ot mention that he's had tons of very
successful students. He definitely has his own system or
playing and his students pretty much all learn this 'school' and
scale patterns. He has these GREAT arpeggio ideas and
fingerings. Eugene also has a way of thinking out of the box:
One great example of this is when you see and hear a good
player playing the Mozart symphony excerpts higher up the neck where
the note spacings are closer (perhaps easier to reach) some even in
thumb positioning! Super clean, and "easy", is one of
Eugene's typical fingering. This book has every key and a
distinct fingering for major and minor scales etc... Over 240 pages
worth of practice here! This is just another worthwhile book
that any serious player or student to keep and include in their practice
routine. You won't want to play out of this book all day, but
you'd simply pick a key (say...for a week) and practice his scale
fingerings until you can play it effortlessly. After a while, you'll
forget what fingerings you use, but you'll notice you're doing it!! This is
one of those books that can really help make your playing more solid
and you'll certainly start to (almost subconsciously) recognize scale
patterns that you did (first slowly) then, with lots of "Agility"!
Order The School of Agility book here:
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