# Simandl fingerings

Source: https://arcosounds.com/glossary/simandl
Also known as: Simandl method, 1-2-4 fingering

**Simandl fingerings are the standard orchestral double bass system, using the first, second, and fourth fingers in the lower positions because the hand spans only a whole step there.**

Franz Simandl's New Method for the Double Bass codified the approach in the nineteenth century, and it remains the default in orchestral training. Below thumb position the hand covers roughly a whole step, so assigning one finger per half step means three fingers, not four: the third finger reinforces the fourth rather than stopping its own note.

The consequence is that bassists shift constantly where a cellist would extend. A one-octave scale that a cellist plays with two shifts may take a bassist five or six. This is why bass method books devote so much attention to position changes so early, and why a bassist's intonation depends more on shift accuracy than on finger placement within a position.

The main alternative, the Rabbath method, organises the fingerboard into six pivoting positions and is more common in solo playing.

Canonical source: https://arcosounds.com/glossary/simandl