Effortless Technique - Renaud Garcia-Fons Double Bass Masterclass Preview

► The Renaud Garcia-Fons Masterclass is out now courses.discov...
This is a preview snippet from our new Masterclass with legendary double bassist, Renaud Garcia-Fons. In this video, Renaud explores his practice routine and tips that have helped him build up effortless technique through his lifetime of playing the bass whilst preventing strain and injury.
If you want to learn more from Renaud, check out our 3-hour in-depth interview-style Masterclass, exclusively out now on Discover Double Bass: courses.discov...
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[@Tugend8]

For me, Monsieur Renaud Garcia-Fons is without any doubt one of the best and most versed and genious doublebass-players on the planet ...!!! His techniques are mind-blowing and his playing, his compositions are absolutely soulful ....!!! He is a lovely source of inspiration to me. - God bless you all. Love & peace on earth! Best regards from Leipzig/Germany.

[@crieverytim]

Incredible intonation and technique

[@jamescammack6720]

Fantastic musician!We had a concert opposite of him in Europe many years ago, and I was totally impressed with his effortless virtuosity

[@DiscoverDoubleBass]

That sounds amazing. What a cool experience!

[@theadamgardener]

RG-F is a quite tremendous player, even mind-blowing technically sometimes. Geoff, you look a bit intimidated ha ha! (Love the DDB channel by the way, it's my go to on YT when I need to be reminded how limited a bassist I am & looking for inspiration.) BUT also I think he has a marvellous melodic ear and some of his tunes are really beautiful. Also he is in a deep exploration of southern European, middle Eastern and north African traditions--the entire mediterranean sometimes is his sonic landscape. I feel he is under-appreciated in the jazz world even though he is an astounding improviser. (I did ask a leading EU jazz club director why this was the case a few years ago and he told me that people--jazz bassists?--said to him that RG-F was ... too perfect. Come on, guys, credit where it's due.)

[@DiscoverDoubleBass]

I couldn't agree more. RGF is one of the bass-world's finest artists, plus his compositions stand alone as great works. He really is a musical giant! . . . and I was very intimidated! 😂 He's the best!

[@leepuckettmusic883]

I wish players would stop saying “use arm weight.” If you use arm weigh, you’re arm will fall to the side. The shoulder and pectoral muscles hold up and control the arm while bowing, therefore it is impossible to separate the force from these muscles from the force of the weight of the arm, and to measure the weight of the arm since the force from the muscle can increase or decrease the weight of the arm

[@mrbluemoose4296]

If your arm is falling to the side, then you just have bad technique. You should relax your arm, while still maintaining proper curvature in your arm. Yes, some muscles in your arm are still being used to hold parts of your arms up, but in general, it is the relaxation of your arm that transfers the weight of your arm into the string. You should not “press” with your hand.

[@leepuckettmusic883]

@@mrbluemoose4296 No what I'm saying is even if your arm is directly over the strings, if you totally relax your arm and allow its weight to fall, it will fall to the right which demonstrates that the muscles of the chest, shoulder, and back are exerting force to hold the arm up, and at what point can you say the downward force is a contribution from the arm and not also the force from the chest and back? ...how can you separate them? How do you know how much weight is from the arm and not from the other muscles? The force from the chest, shoulders, and back are is not just lateral (from side to side) ; they must also be contributing to the lift of the arm. It seems impossible to separate all of those factors and therefore I don't see how just arm weight is actually possible.

[@crieverytim]

It seems to be working for him. Or maybe the nuance of his idea is lost in translation 🤷‍♂️

[@kamikan22]

where are the points of contact with that curved endping? Is it possible to have the bass that infront of you instead of the hip with a regular endpin?

[@DiscoverDoubleBass]

I've only played with an angled end pin for a short period, but from memory the bass does sit nearer to the centre of your stomach than the position you have with a regular endpin. It feels like the bass is floating in front of you (IMO) and is quite different from a straight end pin.

[@MrDaraghkinch]

Check out the DDB François Rabbath master class. He was Renaud's teacher and devised this end pin set-up.

[@johnwilliams3075]

His whole "low weight" approach would seem to lend itself towards irritation and injury free playing.