Are you struggling with double stops?

Question of the week February 12, 2018
Micro - lesson
A FiddleHed student named Heather recently wrote saying, “I really struggle with double stops though so any advice or tips would be great.”

So here you go, some brief advice on playing double stops…

1. Don’t use extra pressure, just get the angle right.

2. Alternate between single stops and double stops.

First practice just alternating between D and A strings:

D0-A0 with peri-diddle

Then practice alternating between separate bows and double stops:

D0-0-A0-0 D0A0-D0A0-D0A0-D0A0

D0-0-D0A0-D0A0

Repeat on other strings and with more complex double stops (adding rhythms, fingerings, longer phrases).

Repeat a thousand times

You have practice double stops a lot each day. There’s no shortcuts to mastery!

Here are some double stops exercises on open strings:

Double Stop Exercises I

Here are some in which you add first finger:

Double Stop Exercises II

Double Stops Exercises III

Go fiddle with it…

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