Upright Bass Bows & Rosin

Video Transcript

"Okay, we're talking, we're back learning about beginning to play the upright bass. And right now, we're going to talk about the bow and the rosin that you use to make the bow activate the string. The bass is unique among the string instruments. There are two types of bows. This first is called the French bow and you'll notice it's pretty much just shaped like a large violin bow and that's pretty much how you hold it, just like a large violin bow. You want to get your fingers along the top edge and your thumb balancing it. Now the essential parts of the bow, you have the stick and you have the hair. And at this end, which is called the frog, you have the knob to tighten and loosen the hair. And you want to get that tightened up a few turns, till there's some tension on there and you can't quite push it to the stick too easily. When you're done playing, you just want to loosen that three times. You hold the bow such and just draw it across the string like so. Now the other type of bow that you'll see is called the German bow. And this is held in an underhand style like so. Otherwise, everything is the same. You have the stick, which you'll notice is curved inward by a great degree, the hair and, at this end, the knob to tighten the hair. This bow is held underhand. You're going to put a couple of your fingers in between the hair and the stick. Again, balance it in your hand and you'll draw it like so across the string. Those are the two bows. Now let's move on to playing some notes on our bass."