What Musical Family Is the Double Bass in
2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Musical Instruments
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The double bass is the largest and lowest pitched bowed cord instrument used in the modern symphony orchestra. It is used extensively in Western classical music equally a standard fellow member of the cord department of symphony orchestras and smaller string ensembles. In addition, information technology is used in other genres such as jazz, dejection, stone and curlicue, psychobilly, rockabilly, and bluegrass. Every bit with most other string instruments, the double bass is played with a bow (arco) or by plucking the strings ( pizzicato).
Origins and history
The double bass is generally regarded as the only mod descendant of the viola da gamba family of instruments, a family which originated in Europe in the 15th century, and as such information technology can be described equally a "bass viol."
Before the 20th century many double basses had only three strings, in contrast to the five to six strings typical of instruments in the viola da gamba family or the 4 strings of instruments in the violin family unit.
The double bass' proportions are dissimilar to those of the violin; for instance, it is deeper (the distance from top to back is proportionally much greater than the violin). In improver, while the violin has bulging shoulders, about double basses have shoulders carved with a more than astute slope, like members of the viola da gamba family. Many very old double basses take had their shoulders cut or sloped to aid playing with modern techniques. Earlier these modifications, the design of their shoulders was closer to instruments of the violin family.
The double bass is the only modern bowed string instrument that is tuned in fourths (like viola da gambas), rather than fifths (see Tuning, below).
The event of the instrument's exact lineage is still a matter of some debate, and the assumption that the double bass is a directly descendant of the viola da gamba family unit is an issue that has not been entirely resolved.
In his A New History of the Double Bass, Paul Brun asserts, with many references, that the double bass has origins as the true bass of the violin family unit. He states that, while the outside of the double bass may resemble the viola da gamba, the internal construction of the double bass is about identical to that of other instruments in the violin family unit, and is very different from the internal construction of viols.
Terminology
A person who plays this instrument is called a bassist, double bassist, double bass player, contrabassist, contrabass player, or simply bass player.
The instrument's standard English language proper noun, double bass may be derived from the size of the double size, since it is approximately twice as large as the cello, or because the double bass was originally used to double the cello part an octave lower. Information technology has also been suggested that the name derives from its viol family heritage, in that it is tuned lower than the standard bass viola da gamba. The name likewise refers to the fact that the sounding pitch of the double bass is an octave below the bass clef. The name contrabass comes from the instrument'due south Italian name, contrabbasso .
Other terms for the instrument among classical performers are cord bass, bass viol, or only bass. Jazz musicians oftentimes call it the acoustic bass to distinguish it from electric bass guitars. Particularly when used in folk and bluegrass music, the instrument can likewise exist referred to as an upright bass, standup bass, bass fiddle, bass violin, doghouse bass, dog-house, bull fiddle, hoss bass, or bunkhouse bass.
Design
Example of a Busetto-shaped double bass: Re-create of a Matthias Klotz (1700) by Rumano Solano
The design of the double bass, in contrast to the instruments in the violin family, has never been fully standardized.
In general in that location are 2 major approaches to the design outline shape of the double bass, these being the violin form, and the viol or gamba form. A third less common design chosen the busetto shape (and very rarely the guitar or pear shape) can also be found. The back of the instrument can vary from being a circular, carved dorsum similar to that of the violin, or a flat and angled back similar to the viol family unit (with variations in betwixt).
The double bass features many parts that are similar to members of the violin family unit including a bridge, f-holes, a tailpiece and a scroll.
Unlike the rest of the violin family, the double bass still reflects influence and can be considered partly derived from the viol family of instruments, in particular the violone, the bass member of the viol family.
The double bass as well differs from members of the violin family in that the shoulders are (sometimes) sloped, the back is often angled (both to allow easier admission to the instrument, particularly in the upper range) and car heads are nigh ever used for tuning.
Lack of standardization in pattern ways that one double bass tin sound and look very different from another. To see some of the variations and structure approaches discussed above visit the websites quoted below.
Tone
The sound and tone of the double bass is singled-out from that of the fretted bass guitar and is similar to a cello. The differences in audio come up from several sources.
The double bass'south strings are stopped past the finger straight on the wooden fingerboard. This tends to brand the cord buzz against the fingerboard near the stopped position. The fretted bass guitar's strings are stopped with the aid of metallic frets and buzzing does not generally occur.
Also, the double bass is an acoustic musical instrument with a hollow trunk that selectively amplifies the tone of the plucked or bowed strings. In contrast, bass guitars are oftentimes fabricated with a solid wood body, and the sound is produced by electronic distension of the vibration of the strings, which is "sensed" by magnetic pickups that likewise add to the characteristic tone.
Construction
A diagram of a violin-class bass
The double bass is closest in construction to the violone (literally "large viol"), the largest and lowest member of the viola da gamba family. Different the violone, however, the fingerboard of the double bass is unfretted, and the double bass has fewer strings (the violone, like most viols, generally had six strings, although some specimens had five or four).
An important stardom betwixt the double bass and other members of the violin family is the construction of the pegbox. While the violin, viola, and cello all use friction pegs for gross tuning adjustments, the double bass has car heads. This development makes fine tuners unnecessary. At the base of operations of the double bass is a metal spike called the endpin, which rests on the floor. This endpin is mostly more robust than that of a cello's due to the greater mass of the musical instrument.
The soundpost and bass bar are components of the internal structure. The materials most often used are maple (back, neck, ribs), spruce (peak), and ebony (fingerboard, tailpiece). The exception to this are the double basses sometimes used by blues, rockabilly, or bluegrass bassists, which have plywood- laminate tops and backs. All parts are glued together except the soundpost, bridge, nut and saddle, which are kept in place by string tension. The tuning machines are attached to the sides of the pegbox with wood screws. The key on the tuning machine turns a worm, driving a worm gear that winds the string.
Strings
Historically, strings were made of gut, only since the 20th century steel has largely replaced gut due to its amend playability. Gut strings are present mostly used by individual players who prefer their tone. Some bassists who perform in baroque ensembles use gut strings to go a lighter, "warmer" tone that is more than appropriate for music equanimous in the 1600s and early on 1700s. In addition, bassists in rockabilly, traditional blues bands, and bluegrass groups often utilise gut strings, because they produce a "thumpy," darker tone when they are played pizzicato (plucked), which ameliorate approximates the sound heard on 1940s and 1950s recordings. Rockabilly and bluegrass bassists besides prefer gut because it is much easier to perform the "slapping" upright bass way (in which the strings are percussively slapped and clicked against the fingerboard) with gut strings than with steel strings. (For more information on slapping, run across the sections below on Modernistic playing styles, Double bass in bluegrass music, Double bass in jazz, and Double bass in popular music).
Gut strings are more vulnerable to changes of humidity and temperature, and they break much more easily than steel strings. The change from gut to steel has also affected the instrument's playing technique over the last hundred years, because playing with steel strings allows the strings to be set up closer to the fingerboard, and, additionally, steel strings tin be played in higher positions on the lower strings and withal produce clear tone. The archetype 19th century Franz Simandl method does not apply the depression E string in college positions because with older gut strings fix high over the fingerboard, the tone was not articulate in these higher positions. However, with modern steel strings, bassists tin can play with clear tone in higher positions on the low E and A strings, especially when modern lighter-gauge, lower-tension steel strings (due east.m. Corelli/Savarez strings) are used.
Tuning
E-A-D-Thousand; the standard tuning of the bass's open strings
The double bass is generally tuned in fourths, in dissimilarity to the other members of the orchestral string family unit, which are all tuned in fifths. This avoids likewise long a finger stretch (known equally an "extension"). Modern double basses are normally tuned (low to high) Due east-A-D-G. The lowest string is tuned to E (the aforementioned pitch equally the everyman E on a modern piano, approx 41 Hz), near iii octaves below middle C ); and the highest string is tuned to M, an octave and a fourth below heart C (approx 98 Hz).
A variety of tunings and numbers of strings were used on a variety of confusingly-named instruments through the sixteenth to the early twentieth centuries, by which fourth dimension the four-stringed tuning mentioned in a higher place became almost universal. Much of the classical repertoire has notes that fall below the range of a standard double bass. Some bassists use a fifth string tuned to B three octaves below middle C.
A low C extension
Professional person bass players with four-string double basses sometimes have a depression "C extension" which extends the everyman string down as far equally low C, an octave below the lowest note on the cello (more rarely, this string may exist tuned to a low B). The extension is an extra section of fingerboard mounted upward over the caput of the bass, which requires the player to reach back over the pegs to play, or use a mechanical lever system. Notes beneath low "E" announced regularly in double bass parts in the Baroque and Classical eras, when the double bass was typically doubling the cello office an octave beneath. Every bit well, in the Romantic era and the 20th-century, composers such as Mahler and Prokofiev specifically requested notes below the low "Due east."
A small number of bass players choose to tune their strings in fifths, like a cello but an octave lower (C-Thousand-D-A low to high). This tuning is mostly used by jazz players, every bit the major tenth can be played easily without a position shift, but is increasingly used by classical players, notably the Canadian bassist Joel Quarrington. Tuning in fifths can as well brand the instrument louder, considering the strings have more common overtones, causing the strings to vibrate sympathetically.
In classical solo playing the double bass is ordinarily tuned a whole tone college (F#-B-Due east-A). This college tuning is called "solo tuning," whereas the regular tuning is known as "orchestral tuning." String tension differs so much betwixt solo and orchestral tuning that a unlike set of strings is often employed that has a lighter gauge. It is not uncommon for students that require solo tuning for a short period of time to tune up orchestra strings. Therefore the strings are always labelled for either solo or orchestral. Sometimes published solo music is also bundled specially for either solo or orchestral tuning.
Pitch range
The bass (or F) clef is used for most orchestral double bass music.
The lowest notation of a double bass is an E1 (on standard four-string basses) at 41.twenty Hz or a B0 (when 5 strings are used) at 30.87 hertz, and the highest notes are almost down at the bridge.
In many double bass concertos harmonic tones are used. The use of natural harmonics (a technique oftentimes used by Giovanni Bottesini) and sometimes fifty-fifty "false" harmonics, where the thumb stops the annotation and the octave or other harmonic is activated by lightly touching the cord at the relative node point, extend the double bass' range considerably.
A solo thespian will cover some v or 6 octaves on his instrument using these harmonics, whereas in almost orchestral music, the double bass parts seldom exceed three octaves.
Since the range of the double bass lies largely below the standard bass clef, information technology is notated an octave higher (hence sounding an octave lower than written).
This transposition applies even when reading the tenor clef and treble clef, which are used for the instrument's extreme upper range.
Playing posture
Double bassists have the option to either stand or sit while playing the musical instrument. When standing, the double bass' superlative is set (by adjusting the endpin) then that the player may easily place the right hand close to the bridge, either with the bow (arco) or plucking (pizzicato). While personal opinions vary, often the endpin is set past adjustment the outset finger in either first or half position with the thespian'southward eye level. While sitting, a stool (which is measured by the player'due south seam length) is used. Soloists often stand and extend the endpin higher than normal while also adopting a sloping opinion over the shoulder of the musical instrument in order to more comfortably reach the upper register in high passages.
When playing the extreme upper range of the musical instrument (above the Thousand below middle C), the player shifts his hand out from behind the neck and flattens information technology out, using the side of his thumb as a finger. This technique is chosen thumb position and is also a technique used on the cello. While playing in thumb position, the little finger is rarely used simply because its range is inefficient.
Bows
The
frogs of a French and German language bow
The double bass bow comes in two distinct forms. The "French" or "overhand" bow is like in shape and implementation to the bow used on the other members of the orchestral string instrument family, while the "German" or "Butler" bow is typically broader and shorter, and held with the right hand grasping the frog in a loose fist.
These ii bows provide for different ways of moving the arm and distributing force on the strings. The French bow, considering of the angle the hand holds the bow, is touted to be more maneuverable and provide the player with better control of the bow. The German bow is claimed to permit the histrion to apply more arm weight- and thus more than force- on the strings. The differences betwixt the two, still, are minute for a proficient player trained in using his/her respective bow. Both bows are used by modern players, and the choice between the two is a thing of personal preference.
German bow
German-style bow
The German bow Dragonetti is the older of the two designs. The bowing style was handed downwards from the time when the bows of all stringed instruments played had to be held in that fashion (middle three fingers between the stick and the hair) to maintain tension of the hair before screw threads were used.
The German bow has a taller frog, and is held with the palm angled upwards, as used for the upright members of the viol family. When held in correct manner, the thumb rests on top of the stick. The index and middle fingers are held together and back up the bow at the point where the frog meets the stick. The little finger supports the frog from underneath, while the ring finger does not back up the bow at all.
French bow
French-style bow
The French bow was not widely popular until its adoption by 19th-century virtuouso Giovanni Bottesini. This style is more similar to the traditional bows of the smaller cord family instruments. It is held as if the hand is resting comfortably by the side of the performer with the palm facing toward the bass. The thumb rests at the border of the U-curve in the frog while the other fingers curtain on the other side of the bow. Various styles dictate the bend of the fingers and thumb, every bit do the style of piece- a more pronounced curve and lighter hold on the bow is used for virtuosic or more than delicate pieces, while a flatter curve and sturdier grip on the bow provides more power for rich orchestral passages.
Rosin
In order to permit the pilus to grip the cord, string players utilize rosin on the pilus of their bows. Double bass rosin is generally softer and stickier than violin rosin, to permit the hair to grab the strings ameliorate, only players employ a broad variety of rosins that vary from quite hard (like violin rosin) to quite soft, depending on the weather, the humidity, and the skill and preference of the player.
Stick material
Pernambuco is regarded by many players every bit the best stick material, simply due to its scarcity and expense, other materials are used in less expensive bows nowadays. Less expensive pupil bows may be synthetic of solid fibreglass, or of less valuable varieties of brazilwood. Snakewood and carbon fibre are too used in bows of a variety of dissimilar qualities. The frog of the double bass bow is usually made out of ebony, although Snakewood is used by some lutheirs. The wire wrapping is gold or silver in quality bows, and the hair is usually horsehair. Some of the lowest-quality student bows feature synthetic fibreglass "hair". Double bass bows vary in length, but average around 24" (seventy cm).
Stringing
The double bass bow is strung with white or black horsehair, or a combination of black and white (known as "salt and pepper") every bit opposed to the customary white horsehair used on the bows of other cord instruments. The slightly rougher black hair is believed by some to "take hold of" the heavier strings amend; similarly, some bassists and luthiers believe that it is easier to produce a smoother audio with the white diversity.
Practical problems
Loudness
Despite the size of the instrument, it is relatively tranquillity, primarily due to the fact that its range is so depression. When the bass is existence used as an ensemble instrument in orchestra, ordinarily between four and eight bassists will play the office in unison. In jazz and blues settings, the bass is normally amplified. When writing solo passages for the bass, composers typically ensure that the orchestration is light, then information technology volition non encompass the bass.
Dexterity
Performing on the bass can be physically taxing because the strings of the bass are larger and thicker than those of a smaller stringed instrument. Also, since the bass is much larger than other stringed instruments, the space between notes on the fingerboard is larger. As a event, bass parts have relatively fewer fast passages, double stops or big jumps in range. The increased use of playing techniques such as thumb position and modifications to the bass such as the utilise of lighter-gauge strings have reduced this problem to some caste.
Intonation
Equally with all unfretted string instruments, performers must learn to precisely place their fingers to obtain the right pitch. Because the bass is larger than other string instruments, the positions for the fingers are much further apart. As a consequence, more shifting of position is required, which increases the likelihood of intonation errors. As well, for bassists with smaller easily, the large spaces between pitches on the bass fingerboard may present a claiming, but is not that big of a claiming for the dedicated player.
Size
Until recently, the large size of the bass meant that children were non able to start the bass until their hand size and height would permit them to play a 3/4-size musical instrument (the most commonly-available size). In the 1990s and 2000s, smaller half, quarter, eighth and even sixteenth-sized instruments became more than widely available, which meant that children could beginning at a younger historic period. Also, some teachers employ cellos strung with bass guitar strings for extremly young students.
Transportation issues
The double bass' large size, combined with the fragility of the wooden elevation and sides and the wood bodies' sensitivity to temperature and humidity changes can make information technology difficult to transport and shop. Although double basses made of more damage-resistant carbon-fibre laminates or plywood laminate are available, these are less likely to exist used by professional classical or jazz bassists.
Modern playing styles
In pop music genres, the instrument is usually played with distension and almost exclusively played with a form of pizzicato where the sides of the fingers are used in preference to the tips of the fingers.
In traditional jazz, swing, rockabilly, and psychobilly music, it is sometimes played in the slap style. This is a vigorous version of pizzicato where the strings are "slapped" against the fingerboard betwixt the main notes of the bass line, producing a snare pulsate-like percussive sound. The main notes are either played ordinarily or by pulling the string away from the fingerboard and releasing it so that it bounces off the fingerboard, producing a distinctive percussive assault in improver to the expected pitch. Notable slap way bass players, whose use of the technique was often highly syncopated and virtuosic, sometimes interpolated two, 3, iv, or more slaps in betwixt notes of the bass line.
"Slap manner" had an of import influence on electrical bass guitar players who from most 1970 developed a technique called " slap and pop," where the thumb of the plucking hand is used to striking the cord, making a slapping audio but however assuasive the note to ring, and the index or eye finger of the plucking hand is used to pull the string dorsum so it hits the fretboard, achieving the pop sound described higher up.
Classical repertoire
Orchestral excerpts
In that location are many examples of famous bass parts in classical repertoire. The scherzo and trio from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is a very famous orchestral extract for the double bass. The recitative at the outset of the fourth movement of Beethoven'southward 9th Symphony is as well an extremely famous orchestral excerpt. Both of these examples are oftentimes requested in orchestra auditions. Another prominent example would be the opening of the prelude to human action I of Wagner'south Dice Walküre.
Orchestral solos
Some composers such every bit Richard Strauss assigned the double bass with daring parts and his symphonic poems and operas stretch the double bass to its limits. Some solo works have been written such as Mozart aria "Per questa bella mano" (By this beautiful hand), K. 612, for bass voice, double bass, and orchestra, featuring the double bass equally an obbligato. "The Elephant" from Camille Saint-Saëns' The Carnival of the Animals is as well a well known example of a double bass solo. The third movement of Gustav Mahler's 1st symphony features a solo for the double bass which quotes the children's song "Frere Jacques", transposed into a minor key. Sergei Prokofiev's "Lieutenant Kijé Suite" features an important double bass solo in the "Romance" movement. Later pieces with solo parts for the bass include a duo for cello and double bass by Gioacchino Rossini. Popular with bassists is Niccolò Paganini's Fantasy on a Theme by Rossini, a 20th-century transcription of the violin original. Benjamin Britten's The Immature Person'due south Guide to the Orchestra contains a prominent double bass solo.
Quintets
The Trout Quintet past Franz Schubert added the double bass to the traditional piano quartet, creating an ensemble consisting of 4 members of the bowed string family plus piano. Antonín Dvořák wrote a much less well known quintet with double bass. The Prokofiev Quintet is a challenging piece, which features the violin, viola, double bass, clarinet and oboe. Other pieces written for string quintets with a double bass added onto a string quartet be by Darius Milhaud, Murray Adaskin, Giovanni Bottesini, Domenico Dragonetti and Edgar Meyer.
Concertos
Domenico Dragonetti influenced Beethoven to write more than difficult bass parts which nonetheless remain every bit some of the most challenging bass parts written in the orchestral literature and he wrote a large number of works for the double bass which include ten concertos and various pieces for double bass and piano.
Joseph Haydn wrote a concerto for double bass, Hob. VIIc one (now lost), for Johann Georg Schwenda, at Esteháza. Haydn wrote solo passages in the trios of the minuets in his symphonies numbers half dozen, seven and 8 (Le Matin, Le Midi and Le Soir). Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf wrote two concertos for double bass and a Sinfonia Concertante for viola, double bass, and orchestra. Johann Baptist Vanhal as well composed a concerto for the double bass which remains standard repertoire today.
In improver to being a virtuoso histrion, Johannes Matthias Sperger was a very prolific composer and equanimous a large number of works for the double bass. Among his compositions include 18 double bass concertos, effectually xxx double bass sonatas, and cord symphonies. Giovanni Bottesini, a 19th century virtuoso on the instrument, wrote a number of concert pieces for the musical instrument, including ii concertos for the double bass and various bedroom works for double bass and piano.
In 1905, Serge Koussevitzky (better known as a conductor) wrote a concerto for the instrument. Reinhold Glière, composed 4 brusque pieces for double bass and pianoforte (Intermezzo, Op. nine.1, Tarantella, Op. 9.2, Preladium, Op. 32.ane, and Scherzo, Op. 32.2). Eduard Tubin wrote a concerto for double bass in 1948. Other works for double bass and orchestra include Gunther Schuller's Concerto (1962), Hans Werner Henze's Concerto (1966), Jean Françaix's Concerto (1975), Einojuhani Rautavaara'southward Angel Of Dusk (1980), Gian-Carlo Menotti's Concerto (1983), Christopher Rouse's Concerto (1985), and John Harbison'due south Concerto for Bass Viol (2006). Other pieces for solo double bass include Luciano Berio's Psy (1989), for solo bass; Composition II (1973) by Galina Ustvolskaya, for eight double basses, drum and piano; and a sonata for double bass and piano by Paul Hindemith (who also wrote a number of other pieces for unusual solo instruments).
New works
Over the final 30 years or so players such every bit Bertram Turetzky and Gary Karr have deputed a big number of new works. Player and composer Edgar Meyer has written two concertos for solo double bass and a double concerto for double bass and cello for the instrument and had made arrangements of Bach's unaccompanied cello suites. Meyer as well includes the double bass in the majority of his sleeping room music compositions.
Histrion and teacher Rodney Slatford, via his company Yorke Edition, has published both onetime and new music for the double bass. Frank Proto, erstwhile bassist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, has published a big number of his own compositions also as new editions of classic double bass repertoire via his visitor Liben Music . George Vance, noted instructor and author of "Progressive Repertoire for Double Bass", provides numerous publications from his company Slava Publishing. Norman Ludwin, bassist and composer, has published with his company Ludwin Music over three hundred pieces for the bass, including many original works every bit well as transcriptions.
Other composers that have written for solo double bass include Christian Wolff, Salvatore Sciarrino, Hans Werner Henze, Emil Tabakov, Vincent Persichetti, Miloslav Gajdoš, Henrik Hellstenius, Hans Fryba, Ase Hedstrom, Tom Johnson, Arne Nordheim, Luis Jorge Gonzalez, Oliver Knussen, Giacinto Scelsi, Bezhad Ranjbaran, and Asmund Feidje.
Use in jazz
An instance of pizzicato jazz bass technique
Beginning around 1890, the early New Orleans jazz ensemble (which played a mixture of marches, ragtime, and dixieland music) was initially a marching band with sousaphone (or occasionally bass saxophone) supplying the bass line. Equally the music moved into bars and brothels, the double bass gradually replaced these air current instruments. Many early bassists doubled on both the "brass bass" and "cord bass," as the instruments were and so ofttimes referred to. Bassists played "walking" basslines, scale-based lines which outlined the harmony.
Because an unamplified double bass is more often than not the quietest instrument in a jazz band, many players of the 1920s and 1930s used the slap way, slapping and pulling the strings then that they make a rhythmic "slap" sound against the fingerboard. The slap style cuts through the sound of a band improve than simply plucking the strings, and allowed the bass to be more easily heard on early sound recordings, as the recording equipment of that time did non favour low frequencies. For more about the slap style, encounter "Mod playing styles," above.
Double bass players take contributed to the evolution of jazz. Examples include swing era players such as Jimmy Blanton, who played with Duke Ellington, and Oscar Pettiford, who pioneered the instrument's apply in bebop. Ray Dark-brown, known for his virtuosic bowing technique, has been called "the Fritz Kreisler of jazz double bass playing." The "absurd" style of jazz was influenced by players such equally Scott LaFaro and Percy Heath, whose solos were melodic. Paul Chambers (who worked with Miles Davis on the famous Kind of Blue album) achieved renown for beingness one of the starting time jazz bassists to play solos in arco (bowed) mode.
Free jazz was influenced by the composer/bassist Charles Mingus (who also contributed to hard bop) and Charlie Haden, best known for his work with Ornette Coleman. Outset in the 1970s, some jazz bandleaders such every bit saxophonist Sonny Rollins and fusion bassist Jaco Pastorius began to substitute the electrical bass guitar for the double bass. Autonomously from the jazz styles of jazz fusion and latin-influenced jazz, the double bass is still widely used in jazz .
Use in bluegrass
The string bass is the most commonly-used bass instrument in bluegrass music and is nearly ever plucked, though some modern bluegrass bassists take also used a bow. The Englehardt or Kay brands of basses have long been popular choices for bluegrass bassists. While nearly bluegrass bassists use the 3/4 size bass, the full and 5/8 size basses are less ofttimes used.
The bluegrass bass is responsible for keeping time in the polyrhythmic atmospheric condition of the bluegrass tune. Nearly of import is the steady crush, whether fast, dull, in iv/iv time, 2/4 or 3/4 fourth dimension.
Early pre-bluegrass music was often accompanied by the cello, which was bowed as often as plucked. Some contemporary bluegrass bands favour the electric bass, only it has a dissimilar musical quality than the plucked upright bass. The upright bass gives energy and drive to the music with its percussive, woody tone. Slapping is a widely-used bluegrass playing technique.
Common rhythms in bluegrass bass playing involve (with some exceptions) plucking on beats 1 and iii in 4/iv time; beats ane and ii in two/four time, and beats ane and 3 and in 3/iv time (waltz time). Bluegrass bass lines are usually extremely elementary, typically staying on the root and fifth of each chord throughout much of a vocal. There are two main exceptions to this "rule". Bluegrass bassists ofttimes do a diatonic "walkup" or "walkdown" in which they play every trounce of a bar for i or two bars, typically when at that place is a prominent chord change. In addition, if a bass player is given a solo, they may play a walking bass line.
The get-go bluegrass bassist to rise to prominence was Howard Watts (also known as Cedric Rainwater), who played with Bill Monroe's Blueish Grass Boys kickoff in 1944. One of the about famous bluegrass bassists is Edgar Meyer, who has at present branched out into newgrass, classical, and other genres.
Use in popular music
In the 1940s, a new fashion of dance music called rhythm and blues developed, incorporating elements of the before styles of blues and swing. Louis Jordan, the offset innovator of this style, featured a double bass in his grouping, the Tympany Five. The double bass remained an integral part of pop lineups throughout the 1950s, as the new genre of stone and curlicue was congenital largely upon the model of rhythm and dejection, with strong elements also derived from jazz, state, and bluegrass. However, double bass players using their instruments in these contexts faced inherent bug. They were forced to compete with louder horn instruments (and later amplified electric guitars), making bass parts difficult to hear. The double bass is difficult to amplify in loud concert venue settings, because it tin be decumbent to feedback "howls". The double bass is large and awkward to ship, which likewise created transportation problems for touring bands.
In 1951, Leo Fender independently released his Precision Bass, the first commercially successful electric bass guitar. The electric bass was hands amplified with its built-in pickups, easily portable (less than a pes longer than an electric guitar), and easier to play in tune, thanks to the metal frets. In the 1960s and 1970s bands were playing at louder volumes and performing in larger venues. The electrical bass was able to provide the huge, highly-amplified stadium-filling bass tone that the pop and rock music of this era demanded, and the double bass receded from the limelight of the pop music scene.
The upright bass began making a pocket-sized comeback in popular music in the mid-1980s, in part due to a renewed involvement in earlier forms of rock and country music. In the 1990s, improvements in pickups and amplifier designs for electro-acoustic horizontal and upright basses made it easier for bassists to get a practiced, clear amplified tone from an acoustic instrument. Some popular bands decided to anchor their sound with an upright bass instead of an electric bass. A trend for "unplugged" performances further helped to raise the public's interest in the upright bass and acoustic bass guitars.
The double bass is also favored over the electric bass guitar in many rockabilly and psychobilly bands. In such bands the bassist ofttimes plays with great showmanship, using slapping technique, sometimes spinning the bass effectually or even physically climbing onto the instrument while performing; this style was pioneered c. 1953 by Marshall Lytle, the bassist for Bill Haley & His Comets, and mod performers of such stunts include Scott Owen from The Living End.
Double bassists
Notable classical players of historical importance
- Domenico Dragonetti (1763-1846) Virtuoso, composer, conductor
- Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889) Virtuoso, composer, conductor
- Franz Simandl (1840-1912) Virtuoso, composer
- Edouard Nanny (1872-1943) Virtuoso, composer
- Serge Koussevitzky (1874-1951) Conductor, virtuoso, composer
Source: https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/d/Double_bass.htm
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