Mastering Double Bass Shifting: How to Make Shifting Easy!

You will feel confident about shifting.
Detailed instructions on how to analyze shifting.
You will discover new ways to approach practicing shifts.

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 the ability to control and understand 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 is starting from before it shifts. We learn how our left arm can shift 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 from where the "new" finger will shift after the previous note is played.
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).