Facts About The Double Bass

In January I wrote about the different families of musical instruments, or ways of categorising musical instruments. You can read my post by clicking here:

Facts about Families of Musical Instruments

I have spent the first few months of this year looking at the different instruments of the string family. I have already written about the violin, the cello, the viola and now I want to move on to another member of the string family – the double bass.

Facts About The Violin

Facts About The Cello

What is the double bass and how do you play it?

• The double bass is a member of the string family of instruments. This family is called the string family because they are all played by either plucking, strumming or running a bow along a number of strings.
• A person who plays the double bass is called a double bass player, or a bassist.
• The double bass is the largest instrument in the string family. It has longer and thicker strings than the cello, the instrument it is most similar to, that produce lower pitched notes.
• The double bass generally has 4 strings tuned to the notes (going from the lowest string to the highest) E, A, D and G. Sometimes a fifth string will be added either below the lowest string and tuned to the note C (below the pitch of the E string), or above the highest string to allow higher notes to be played more easily. As an alternative to the additional string being added, many basses use a mechanical device that lengthens the G string using levers and this allows lower notes to be played.
• The strings on the double bass run from the scroll at the very top of the instrument, to just below a bridge under the S-shaped holes. The strings are wound around pegs that go through the scroll, and these pegs will be turned to tune the instrument. Today double bass strings are generally made from steel or nylon.
• Double basses come in 5 different sizes so that children can learn to play as well as full size ones for adults. The smallest double basses are 1/8 of an adult size for the youngest children of around 5-7 years old. 1/4 and 1/2 size double basses are aimed at children aged 7-9 and 9-13 respectively. There are two further size of double bass, a 3/4 size for teenagers and smaller adults, and a full size double bass for adults.
• The body of the double bass is made out of wood, often a wood such as spruce or maple. The viola will be hollow inside to allow air to vibrate inside the body of the instrument. There are two S or F-shaped holes carved into the front of the double bass to allow the air, and so the sound produced, to escape the instrument.
• Double Bass players can use two different types of bow to play their instrument. One that is short and narrow and played with the bow held downwards like the bows used for violins and violas; and a broader bow that is held palm upwards.
• To play the double bass, you need to either pluck the strings or run a bow along them to make the string vibrate. Each string is tuned to a particular note, and to change pitch a player will press down on a string along the neck of the double bass. This has the effect of shortening how much of that particular string can vibrate and producing a higher pitched note that if the string was played without pressing it down anywhere. Plucking or bowing any string without pressing a finger down on it is called playing the open string.
• Plucking the strings produces a very short note, and playing this way is called playing pizzicato. Bowing, on the other hand, produces a smoother, longer note.
• The bow used to bow the strings has hair on it. While some bows are made using synthetic hair, the majority of bows are made using horsehair. The difference between synthetic hair and horsehair is down to its electromagnetic properties. Synthetic material repels dust particles, including particles of rosin dust whereas horsehair attracts it. A player will need to apply far more rosin and far more often to a synthetic bow than a horsehair bow to help the bow to grip the string and produce sound.
• Double bassists will rub something called rosin onto their bow before playing, which helps the hair on the bow to “grip” the string.
• The double bass, like other members of the string family, can be played with a bow, known as arco, or by plucking the strings, known as pizzicato. Playing pizzicato is much more of a feature of double bass playing, especially in jazz music, which often heavily features the double bass.
• In an ensemble the double bass will play the lowest pitched notes, and generally have the bass line in a piece of music.

History of the double bass

• The ancestors of the double bass are the viola da gamba family of instruments which were played in the 15th century in Europe.
• While on first glance you may think double basses look rather like the rest of the string family – the violin, viola and cello, there are some key differences. For example, it has slightly different proportions being larger from the top of the instrument to its back, the shoulders on a double bass are sloped much more sharply than the other string instruments showing its origins as an instrument in the viola da gamba family.
• Double basses used to have just 3 strings, though there are records of early basses having up to 6 strings.
• Many early double basses would have gut strings wrapped horizontally around the fingerboard on the neck of the double bass, at various intervals to make frets, a bit like the frets you would find on a guitar or ukulele) marking each semitone.
• The double bass is usually given the role of playing the bass line of a piece of music, and the percussive nature of playing the bass pizzicato helps fulfil this role. In fact early recording artists noted that the way players played the instrument, especially when playing pizzicato, amplified the bass line of the music, helping them project the sound of the music in early recordings.
• The double bass did not really feature in the orchestra until the 1700s after the gut strings on the instrument started to be covered by copper wire, and wooden pegs used to tune the instrument were replaced with a mechanism using small metal cogwheels. This meant that the instrument could be tuned more precisely, and the new strings meant that players could play the instrument much more agilely, and faster, and more dynamic passages could be played by the double bassists.

Famous double bass players

• There are a number of people famous for playing the double bass including, in no particular order, Edgar Meyer, Charlie Mingus, Ray Brown and Esperanza Spalding.
• If you have read a few of my “Facts about” posts, you will know that I usually include a number of people who are famous for other reasons, but who also play the instrument of the month. I will be honest and say here that I found very few references to famous people who also play the bass, though the one I did find was Sir Paul McCartney of The Beatles reknown.

Double Bass World Records

• The World Record for the largest double bass is held by Erwin Lustenberger. This double bass, completed on 28 October 2006 measured an absolutely enormous 5.55m tall by 2.13m wide, that is 18ft 2.7in tall by 7ft wide.
• The World Record for the most expensive double bass was set at Sotheby’s in London, UK on 16 March 1999, when a Domenico Montagnana double bass was sold for £155,500.
• On 13 November 2000, 22 members of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales all played a single double bass at the same time, performing a version of the Bolero by Maurice Ravel, and earning them the World Record for the most musicians to play a double bass.

If you have enjoyed reading my blog post, thank you. I am always looking for ideas for the blog, so would love to hear from you with suggestions for topics you would like me to cover in the future. Also, if you would be interested in supporting me to keep this blog running, buying the books to review here, and supplies to make the DIY instruments, for example, I would be absolutely delighted if you would consider buying me a coffee using the following link: Buy Me A Coffee Thank you!!