Dumb Question of the Day

  • Thread starter Thread starter andyhix
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Cuz there's 2 of em??? Sorry, I don't really know... :o
 
double: tuned an octave lower than (from the fact that a string or pipe that is twice the length of another gives a pitch an octave lower)
 
OK. I kinda had a feeling that was the case...so what is it an octave lower than? a violin? a viola? cello? A single bass?
 
olfunk said:
a bass guitar is also an octave lower, is it not?
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Bass guitar and upright bass (double bass, bass fiddle) use the same tuning - E A D G - in the same register.
 
See? It's not such a dumb question after all. The reason I call it "upright bass" - and I've been playing one for 30 years - is because I never understood why it's called "double bass"!
 
beebe said:
i always thought a double bass was a double kick pedal.
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It would if this were the drum forum, but it's the guitars and basses forum. You crazy drummers... :rolleyes:
 
Definition of a drummer: Someone who likes to hang around musicians!


Only Joking! :D :p
 
Also known as contrabass, string bass, upright bass, standup bass, acoustic bass, bass viol, bass violin, doghouse bass, dog-house, bull fiddle, hoss bass, and bunkhouse bass.

It would have been called a double bass because of the lower octave. Remember at the time that was the typical bass intrument until about 1951 when Leo Fender made the Precision Bass, the first mass produced electric bass, as a result of the inconveniences found with the double bass, being an entirely acoustic intrument, being drowned out by horn sections and other electric instruments.
 
Got this from Wikipedia.org:

Many four-string basses have a 'C extension' which extends the lowest string down as far as low C, a note an octave below the lowest note on the cello. This may take the form of an extra section of fingerboard mounted up over the head of the bass, which requires the player to reach back over the pegs to play, or of a mechanical lever system where keys are positioned next to the neck in the positions which the corresponding notes would occupy if the instrument had a fifth string. The extension is invaluable in classical music, because the bass often does not have a separately written part but is told to play the cello part an octave lower, a practice known as 'doubling'. The string bass is known as the double bass because it transposes down one octave.
 
ShaunMadrid said:
Got this from Wikipedia.org:

Many four-string basses have a 'C extension' which extends the lowest string down as far as low C, a note an octave below the lowest note on the cello. This may take the form of an extra section of fingerboard mounted up over the head of the bass, which requires the player to reach back over the pegs to play, or of a mechanical lever system where keys are positioned next to the neck in the positions which the corresponding notes would occupy if the instrument had a fifth string. The extension is invaluable in classical music, because the bass often does not have a separately written part but is told to play the cello part an octave lower, a practice known as 'doubling'. The string bass is known as the double bass because it transposes down one octave.
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Finally - the answer I was looking for! Thanks, Shaun! Thanks to the rest of ya's too. Got some good info from the other posts.
 
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