Eddy Yates
Well-known member
I learn well with exercises and wonder if anyone can recommend a method (other than learning tunes and listening!) for working on bellows control while using both hands.
Bellows Control Exercises?
- Thread starter Eddy Yates
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I would recommend a few things to try:
1) Play long notes with a rhythmic bass and concentrate on how the long notes sound. Despite the rhythm you should try to keep the pressure on the long notes constant. You can easily hear variations in volume of the long note and learn to eliminate them.
2) Do a right-hand-only exercise to play a series of slow notes, changing bellow direction between the notes, trying to make them almost legato, thus trying to eliminate any gap in between the notes. You cannot make the gap disappear 100% but try to make it almost unnoticeable. When this succeeds, repeat while playing a rhythm on the bass side along with the slow notes.
3) Check whether you have good bellows movement control (and especially check whether the bass belt is tight enough). A good exercise is bellow shake. You should learn to perform bellow shake effortless by making a wrist-turning motion that makes the movement you make more like up-down than left-right. When you do a bellow shake the wrong way you get tired after less than 30 seconds. When you do it the right way you can easily go on for 10 minutes and not feel a thing.
4) Once you become a bellows master you can move onto ricochet: play triplets of repeated chords by means of pull on the first note, a low push on the second note and a high push on the third note. You can learn this easily by trying a long sequence of triplets (all with the same chord). Then start concentrating on the first triplet of the series. When you can get that right you can try a piece where you encounter just single triplets here and there and get them right as ricochet. But we are talking advanced bellows control here... don't worry if you cannot get this under control: many people cannot do ricochet, even people who completed professional conservatory training.
1) Play long notes with a rhythmic bass and concentrate on how the long notes sound. Despite the rhythm you should try to keep the pressure on the long notes constant. You can easily hear variations in volume of the long note and learn to eliminate them.
2) Do a right-hand-only exercise to play a series of slow notes, changing bellow direction between the notes, trying to make them almost legato, thus trying to eliminate any gap in between the notes. You cannot make the gap disappear 100% but try to make it almost unnoticeable. When this succeeds, repeat while playing a rhythm on the bass side along with the slow notes.
3) Check whether you have good bellows movement control (and especially check whether the bass belt is tight enough). A good exercise is bellow shake. You should learn to perform bellow shake effortless by making a wrist-turning motion that makes the movement you make more like up-down than left-right. When you do a bellow shake the wrong way you get tired after less than 30 seconds. When you do it the right way you can easily go on for 10 minutes and not feel a thing.
4) Once you become a bellows master you can move onto ricochet: play triplets of repeated chords by means of pull on the first note, a low push on the second note and a high push on the third note. You can learn this easily by trying a long sequence of triplets (all with the same chord). Then start concentrating on the first triplet of the series. When you can get that right you can try a piece where you encounter just single triplets here and there and get them right as ricochet. But we are talking advanced bellows control here... don't worry if you cannot get this under control: many people cannot do ricochet, even people who completed professional conservatory training.
Eddy Yates
Well-known member
Thanks, Paul. Very helpful.
Eddy Yates
Well-known member
Nothing to be sorry about! I think the key word in there is "good'. Will do. I'm recording some of my little tunes, and when I play them back, I realize how much work I have to do! Thanks, Zevy.Zevy said:
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