Art of the Bow

It has been said in print on several occasions that François Rabbath has made as significant an impact on double bass pedagogy as Paganini had on the violin. Many of the greatest teachers, orchestral players, soloists, and jazz bassists have come through his door over the years. The Art of the Bow DVD is the result of 5 years of work, a collaboration between Hans Sturm and François Rabbath. Sturm had traveled several times to Paris to work with Rabbath and had begun to comprehend the basics of his left hand innovations, however Rabbath's bow technique was elusive. At the end of a week-long session, Rabbath confided, that despite the wide spread use of his method and the Vance books based on his techniques, that he has still not found a suitable way to teach the intricacies of his bow arm. While waiting for the plane to depart, Sturm happened upon a golf magazine with an article about the new generation of video games (in 2000). Seeing the potential of capturing professional golfers swing through biomechanics animations, Sturm had an epiphany - if this was capable for a golf swing, then it would be possible to capture and look at the motion of the bow as well! Wanting more than an academic exercise, he worked with Rabbath for several years to create a 3.5 hour double-layer DVD that features biomechanics animations, 4 user-selectable camera angles, as well as teaching demonstrations, live performances, and in-depth interviews with Rabbath about his philosophies of teaching, overcoming performance anxiety, and much more. The Bass World Journal called the project 'a pedagogical tour-de-force that raises the bar for all future string pedagogy projects' and The Strad remarked that 'no bass player's education is complete without having experienced Rabbath's demonstrations.' Rabbath himself said, 'This is my dream. A way to clearly transmit the subtleties of the bow.' While the expense of the DVD is high compared to commercial projects due to the high costs of the technology, for less than the cost of a private lesson with Rabbath it is priceless if you are a serious bassist or serious about string pedagogy.