Viennese Bass Method - Lesson 1.

Lesson 1. - Scales

As you may have already noticed, the Viennese system has this inconvenience, that it uses three clefs (bass, tenor and treble), thus presenting us with a question of how to best introduce these. Shall we present them one by one consecutively or introduce all three at once. I have decided on the later one, as I believe it is helpful to start developing an immediate feel and familiarity with the different pitches in all three clefs. Thus, when one encounters the original literature, one will be ready to face different clefs within the same composition or at least have some idea where to look at the supplied Fingerboard Charts.

However, although all the same scale is introduced in all three clefs, you are allowed to have certain freedom in regard to which clef or clefs you would like to learn first. This depends also on the type of literature you would like to perform. If your goal is to start with classical chamber and orchestra literature, than mastering the bass clef will be sufficient. If your goal is to be able to read the Haydn solos in his symphonies, than both the bass and tenor clef should be familiar - the same applies to Dittersdorf concerti. However, should you be inclined to undertake this study for the sake of performing the standard Viennese solo literature, than it is preferable to start learning all three clefs at once. This may appear a bit daunting at first, but it is exactly the type of skill that period performers had used in order to read and perform solo music at their time.

We will start here with a ubiquitous D major scale that will follow us throughout this tutorial and much of the original literature. This scale is written in the following Lesson 1. pdf, in three clefs consecutively. The idea is to read (not just play, but literally stare at the notes all the times), while playing the same scales - one after the other - in different clefs. Once you master the bass clef, the exact same notes will follow in the other two clefs, thus all you need to do is carefully read and observe the notation differences. The fingers should already be familiar with the pitch places.

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Posted:          June 6, 2009