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Re: Eberhard's intonation...



List;

As an electric upright player who has always considered Eberhard to be my hero, i feel compelled to respond on the subject of his intonation. Though i never studied with him, i did receive advice from him during my formative years concerning what to practice and how. Eberhard (as most all upright players, myself included) studied the Simandl method. One of the principal emphases of the Simandl is on developing flawless intonation. Eberhard is not only a brilliant conceptualist but also a very skilled technician. At the same time, anyone can (and will) have a bad night. Given that his intonation is so
impeccable, it may be hard at times for some of us to know what is and is not intentional on any given night of an Eberhard Weber performance.

Concerning Eberhard's 'thumb position playing': given that Eberhard plays the "hi-five" (five string with a high 'C' string) he rarely plays high up on the fingerboard. Because he plays seated and his bass has no 'body' in the traditional sense, when he does play high he doesn't have to use his thumb. In other words, i've never known Eberhard to play in 'thumb position'. Then again, i haven't seen him play live in a number of years so maybe he's started using his thumb high up on the instrument.

On the matter of lined verses unlined fretless: for myself it's all about muscles and the ears. The way the 'classically' oriented teachers taught the bass when i was coming up involved discouraging pupils from looking at the fingerboard and taught us to use a combination of muscle memory and our ears. As one teacher used to remind me, "...the music is on the page, not your fingerboard". Aditonally, unlike in pop music, intonation in many other musics becomes a musical device just like pitch, timbre or rhythm. Subtle pitch variations are a very effective means of expression. Playing a fretted instrument or a lined instrument often hinders a musicians ability to access these
sophisticated techniques. Given the infatuation with equal temperament/pitch in 'mainstream music' this doesn't really matter at all.

Thanks for letting me burn a little bandwidth.

JPW








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