Technique: double bassist Alex Henery gives tips on controlling left-hand finger pressure

Discover more Technique articles like this in The Strad Playing Hub

When I first learnt to play the double bass, the left hand was treated like a typewriting machine: the left arm went up and down the instrument as the fingers pressed down in the right places with the hand shape only encompassing a single tone. More recently, players such as Franco Petracchi, Joel Quarrington and François Rabbath have instead been using pivots, extended thumb position and rolling of the forearm to extend the reach of the hand; pivoting from the thumb to allow the hand to reach up and down the neck; or using low thumb position to increase the number of notes in any given position. These methods are fantastic and have led to major advancements for the instrument, but how best to put the fingers down while using them is not discussed enough. If done incorrectly, extending or stretching the hand can require more energy and lead to fatigue – and that fatigue will impact negatively on players’ intonation, vibrato and shifting.