The German Bow in Tango Music

This artistic research compares French and German bow techniques in Tango music. I have been playing for a couple of years with a German bow when I play classical repertoire, and a French bow when I play tango. Considering that Tango has changed and added many things throughout its history, I wanted to investigate why the tradition of playing with a French bow is still extremely strong. So that is why the main question of this work is how to approach Tango music for double bass using a German bow technique? To answer this question I have been studying the method "The bass in tango" published by Tango sin fin, that approaches all of the elements from the perspective of the French bow. However, I have studied this using the German bow technique. I have found that you can play Tango with both techniques, but you cannot follow the same instructions to find the same results. This is mainly because of the anatomy of the bow. Additionally, because there is not a strong tradition outside of Argentina of typical orchestras or soloists that play beyond Piazzolla the tradition of playing with a French bow is still strong. After finishing this research, I would like to continue working on this subject through a new repertoire in a personal search to improve my performance as a tango player and then share this knowledge playing concerts or teaching with other double bass players.

Author: Maria Alejandra Bejarano Salazar