Grade 1 Challenge...., ..over to you folks Options

[AmandaL]

From what I've read, I'd speculate that playing double bass would be somewhat incompatible with playing the violin at a high level. On the ICS cello forums, there's a poster called "cellobass" who learnt cello after bass, and he claims that playing those two instruments is not compatible: basically, the left hand finger patterns, spacing, and pressures involved are similar but different, and this complication is highly confusing to the brain.

Hmmmm,......I would argue the point a bit there. How come I can switch freely between the cello and violin without any problems? The difference in fingering between those two instruments is even greater than between the cello and double-bass.

On the violin, the fingering is the bog-standard 1-2-3-4 with various extensions of each when required, but on the cello there's three basic finger patterns: 1-3-4 or 1-2-4 and sometimes 1-ext2-4. Using a wrong digit there results in the player being an entire semi-tone out.

I have never once got fingerings confused and personally I can't imagine how it would even be possible to get them confused, they are such different instruments. Maybe it's because I took up the violin as a child and didn't take up the cello until 12 years later. The fingering patterns for both instruments are so hard-wired into my head I don't even have to think about it. The only 'problem', for want of a better word, on the double bass, is remembering that the strings are tuned in 4ths to compensate for the fact that in first position you can only play an open string, plus two more notes before having to move up to the next open string.

Which leads me to an interesting bit of trivia:
The portion of the brain that controls fine motor actions in the left hand is larger in the brains of those playing bowed string instruments. This is due to the amount of hand and muscle memory that is developed to enable string players to feel their way around the fingerboard and play with good intonation.