J.P. Waud: 30 Progressive Studies for double bass (ed. David Heyes)

About the Book

These 30 studies are taken from J.P. Waud’s Progressive Tutor for the Double Bass, first published by Augener Edition. They are ideal for the intermediate bassist, remaining in bass clef throughout and employ a range of accessible keys, bowings and articulations across the orchestral register of the instrument.

The tutor begins with the rudiments of music after a short preface about the need for good tuition in the early stages of learning.

THE DOUBLE BASS
To become a proficient player on the Double Bass, it is most indispensable to have at the commencement a Master, to show the Student the proper method of holding the Bass, Bow &c:, as a wrong method contracted in the beginning is very difficult to get out of, and it depends very much upon the way the Bow is laid upon the strings, with a proper use of the wrist, whether the performer will ever produce an agreeable tone. [J.P. Waud]

As with other tutors published at this time, the instrument is tuned in 4ths and 5ths (G-D-G-D) but apart from a few open string exercises the studies do not extend below low G (3rd string) and can still be played by today’s double bass tuned in 4ths.

ON TUNING THE BASS
The Double Bass, as used in all English Orchestras, is tuned by 4ths and 5ths and by adopting this method of tuning the Student can learn on a 3 or 4 string Bass, as the fingering is exactly the same on the 3rd and 4th strings as on the 1st and 2nd, therefore making this matter very simple. All the great Masters have written their Bass passages down to D below the stave, and it is now the custom in all our Concert Orchestras to tune the 4th string to that note. [J.P. Waud]

The fingering system suggested by Waud is a combination of the German and Italian systems, using 1-4 as whole tone (whole step) and 1-3 or 2-4 for a semitone (half-step).

ON FINGERING
When long holding notes are to be played and a firm grip of the Instrument is required, the whole four fingers can be used for half tones, with the fingers close together; for moving about rapidly, and to save shifting the hand too much, the 1st & 3rd or 2nd & 4th fingers will be found the best. [J.P. Waud]

In the tutor each scale is followed by a number of short studies, ending with 25 Progressive Exercises, to which five studies from earlier in the method have been added. It may be helpful to play the relevant scale and arpeggio before tackling each study.

About J.P. Waud

Joseph Pritchard Waud (1833-1905) was born in Chelsea (London) on 30 July 1833, and in the 1861 census, he was 26 years old and described as “proffesser of music,” but in later census entries, he was a “teacher of music.” He married Eliza Walford in 1858, and the disparity in age between husband and wife, taken from each census, ranges from two or four to seven years. They had three children, a son who died at the age of four or five and two daughters who also became music teachers.

J.P. Waud’s biography on a family tree website states: “He performed on the pianoforte, double bass, and violoncello, is engaged at the Crystal Palace in the permanent band of the company also at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, and at various concerts. He also has private teaching.”

Alongside his Progressive Tutor for the Double Bass, Waud also composed 6 Solo Studies for double bass & piano which will be published by Recital Music in a new edition and two pieces which may be lost - Adagio in C and Andantino in A, both for double bass and piano.

Joseph Pritchard Waud died on 7 July 1905 in Hove, West Sussex at the age of 71, and his will states that he left “all his money in his Post Office Savings Bank, all his land at Caterham Surrey and two double basses now in possession of nephew James Haydn Waud” to his youngest daughter Miriam Priscilla Waud, described as a spinster.