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Hey, guys?
It's Lauren with Discover Double Bass.
Today I wanted to teach you one of our most
beloved technique exercises, "The Vomit Exercise."
Now, this is also known as the shifting drill,
but that's not nearly as fun to say and so
it is affectionately known as, "The Vomit
Exercise."
And if you're not familiar with this, then
I think after watching this lesson you'll
quickly realize why it's referred to as The
Vomit Exercise.
Now, there are many different ways that you
can do the vomit exercise but I'm gonna be
teaching you how I learnt it.
And have included a link to the PDF of this
exercise underneath this video and that has
my bowings and the fingerings that I'm gonna
be talking about, and the notes so it might
be easier for you to follow along.
So, go ahead and get that out if you would
like.
Now, the vomit exercise or the shifting drill
is a shifting exercise.
And it is essentially a scale, a progressive
scale, in intervals all the way up and all
the way back down.
So, you shift from the first note of the scale
which in this case we're gonna be doing A
major.
You shift from that first note to each note
in the scale, up and then back down.
So now, you're gonna shift a C sharp, that
was B. And then D. So on and so forth, until
you get all the way up to the octave .
And so, then I work my way all the way back
down.
And what I do is I use the same finger pattern
for one take all the way up and all the way
back down.
And I'll get into this a little bit more later
but there's a handful of fingerings that you
can use.
And in this case, I was going from one to
two.
So, if you're following along at home and
you're playing with me, then let's do one
to two together.
So, the first thing that I do when I'm doing
this exercise is I put a drone on.
I always practice this exercise with a drone
and I put it on the tonic note or the note
that the exercise is gonna be in which in
this case, again, it's gonna be A or A major.
And the reason that I practice with a drone
is because I'm focused on many things on this
exercise.
But one of biggest things is intonation.
And when I have a drone on the tonic note,
I can hear every interval very clearly against
that tonic note.
So, let me do this now and show you a little
bit of it.
So, I'm even matching that very first note
that can be a tricky one to match.
And then so, I'm gonna work my way up.
So that interval of a second can be really
tricky.
All of these can be tricky.
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So, when you're practicing this, do exactly
what I did.
I went to that D, and it wasn't quite in tune.
So, I stopped on it, adjusted until I got
it right in the center of the pitch, and then
went back and did it twice again.
Now, I repeat each interval shift two times.
I play B, A to B twice, A to C-sharp twice,
so on and so forth.
And because this is a big part of this exercise
is intonation work, then you wanna make sure
that you're really focusing on that.
And if you're consistently playing an interval
out of tune, don't just keep going, stop and
make sure you've gotten in tune and then move
on.
That's a really important part of this exercise.
So, the way that I play this is I repeat each
note twice, like a said, and I slur two notes
together.
And I do this because I include that glist,
that shifting sound as you can hear.
And when I'm slurring the two notes, it's
a lot easier for me to hear that shifting
sound in between.
Now, the reason why I include that shifting
sound is because I'm also practicing the technique
of shifting.
So, I'm practicing intonation, but I'm also
practicing my shifting technique.
And so, sometimes that shifting sound is gonna
be more or less.
In this case, if I'm first starting out with
a key, I'm really gonna lay it on because
I'm new to the key and I wanna focus on getting
comfortable shifting.
Anytime we do something new, any key, any
exercise, we're gonna be a little bit uncomfortable
which gonna cause a technique to slip.
So, you really wanna go slowly and hear that
shifting sound.
Now, you've got a lot that you need to fit
into one bow.
You need to hear that first note very clearly.
And then you also need to hear the shifting
sound.
And then, I also need to hear that second
note.
So, slow bows, this is also great for bow
control.
So, I wanna hear first pitch, gliss, second
pitch.
And if you have the drone on, that's gonna
be great for your intonation.
Now, one thing that I wanted to mention earlier
is that when you're checking the intonation
on...throughout the whole drill, I'm mostly
focused on the intonation of the second note.
But a really tricky one is the lower note.
Sometimes it feels like this shifting drill
is actually a shifting drill just going back
to the original note.
But that A or whatever key you're in, that
bottom note is always a little bit sharp,
it always has that tendency, so you wanna
watch out for that.
And because you have the drone on the tonic
note, it doesn't mean that it's easier to
hear that bottom note.
It's really still difficult.
So, you wanna make sure that you're going
all the way back and focusing on both pitches.
Let me put the drone on.
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So a couple of times, I was a little bit flat
on A because I was over shooting.
And so, you wanna find your tendencies when
you're doing this shifting drill, and with
anything, really, in practicing.
The idea is to not play it perfectly every
time, that's an impossible goal, but to figure
out where your tendencies are.
Are you over shooting for, say, the A to the
E, or you're going to high on that E?
Once you figure that out, then you'll know
the next time you do that shift, "Okay, I
don't have to go as far," and that helps develop
your muscle memory and it also helps you hear
it more in tune, of course.
So let's talk about the different finger patterns.
Now, when you're in the key of A major, you
can start this in the first position, right?
On the G string, that's where you start it.
And so, the options for fingers that you gonna
on are one and two.
So, the finger patterns that you have available
to you are one to one, one to two, one to
four or three when you get up to thumb position.
I start using third finger when I get to the
F sharp on the G string, but some people will
use fourth finger there, that's fine.
But when you get into thumb position, you're
gonna use third finger as opposed to fourth
finger.
So of course, when you do one to four, starting
at the beginning of this, you're not gonna
have a shift, and then you will.
So, those are the available finger patterns
starting on one.
You can also start in two in A major, two
to one, two to two, and two, again, to four
or three.
Now, you can do this exercise in any key all
the way up, the G string, D string, even the
A and the E string, all those, those are a
little bit harder.
And let's say you're starting and you're doing
a D major shifting drill, then you have all
of the finger patterns I mentioned, but then
also you have fourth finger available to you
as well.
So, you can start four to one, four to two,
and four to four or four to three.
And so, like I said, you can do this on any
string starting at any position.
And when you're doing this shift, this can
be really a tough exercise on your fingers
and on your hands, so you wanna watch out
for tension in your hand.
The idea is that you wanna do the proper shifting
technique all the way up.
So, you wanna be pulling back with the left
hand.
Jeff has a great exercise on left-hand weight,
and that's the idea.
When you're shifting, you wanna be using the
weight in your arm, not squeezing, and you
wanna keep your fingers planted in the shift.
That's really important.
No lifting the fingers up.
That defeats the purpose of this exercise.
So really, glide, shifting on that planted
finger all the way up and all the way back
down.
And I go all the way up to the octave and
then back down.
And so, if you have any tension or any pain
in the middle of it, don't try to be hero,
don't keep going, just stop, figure out where
that pain is coming from, and then it might
just be that you're new to this exercise and
when you do something new, sometimes things
get a little bit uncomfortable, as I mentioned
earlier.
So, I'm gonna play this whole exercise for
you , I'm gonna put the drone on, and I'm
just gonna go through the whole thing so you
can see what I'm doing, all the way up and
all the way back down.
And I'm gonna use the finger pattern that
we've been doing this whole time, bar one
to two.
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And when you're practicing this exercise,
the main thing I want you to remember is to
not play this to fast.
This isn't a speed exercise, this is a slow
practice on the motions and on your intonation.
So, I hope that this lesson helped.
If you have any questions over this or anything
else, please leave a comment underneath this
video and I'll answer you as soon as I can.
If you enjoyed this lesson and you'd like
to learn more from me, please check out my
full-length thumb position course available
exclusively on discoverdoublebass.com.
Thanks for watching.
See you next time.
