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New innovation in double bass land!

This instrument is made from flax fiber composite for increased durability and stability.

So I play string bass in my school's symphonic band/concert band/wind ensemble. The double basses are the only string instruments, except for a single violinist who, I believe, plays oboe parts. I usually get bass parts but a bit under half the time I have to play tuba parts.

I was wondering how different my experience would be to playing in a string/symphony orchestra. Obviously there would be other string instruments and I would always have a bass part but what else? How much more challenging would it be? Would I play a different musical role? (For me lots of whole notes in slow songs and root-fifth tuba bass lines in marches, occasionally something more interesting).

Somebody asked me if I learned from the Simandl method and I'm trying to get clarity if my teacher was using that.

Decades ago when I was in college I played electric bass and got into the jazz program and learned double bass from the jazz teacher. I already played cello so I had some technique that crossed over. My teacher taught me good posture, raising the elbow, thumb placement, the 124 fingerings combining ring/pinky until thumb position. He taught me fingerings for all 12 major scales. We probably talked about 1/2 and first position but I don't remember a lot of emphasis on that terminology. Of course a lot of the lessons was jazz theory, transcribing and writing walking bass lines. He taught German but I played cello so I've stuck with French bow since. I don't remember doing etudes but we had so much ground to cover in jazz theory that's mostly what I remember.

We he teaching me with the Simandl Method or some of it?

Would the vibration from the speaker create an insurmountable feedback loop? I was just thinking this might make a fun project some day if it doesn't already exist somewhere.

Hi! I bought this bass recently, it seems to be very nicely made. It's fully carved, there's no marks or labels inside. I bought it from a music school in Austria, they didn't know where they got it from. Any info is appreciated

I have to learn an excerpt in which i am playing sextouplets at 128-136 bpm.

I can play these fast rhythms for a little bit, but my arm quickly freezes do to becoming tense.

Is there any tips fellow German bow players can give me? (What part of arm, etc)

I know of Indy Violin and Paige’s in Indy, wonder if anyone can put in a good word for them.

I had one done by Quinlin and Fabish but the hair they used was breaking in ridiculous amounts, way more than it should.

I know the Bass Cellar is only a couple hours away so that may be where I go if no one has better recommendations.

Thanks

私は日本の高校生で、コントラバスを初めて半年なのですが、「運命の力」の吹奏楽版を1人で弾かなければならなくなりました。この画像の⑦からがどうにも弾ける気がしません。ゆっくりやって少しづつテンポを上げる方法しか私は知らないので、それで練習しています。どなたかこの部分を実際に弾いてお手本になってくれる方はいらっしゃいませんでしょうか？もしできたら録音、動画などがほしいです。テンポはAllegro brillante（120~168）です。

Hello guys, any advice on how to identify brand of the double bass, I checked the f hole with torch but nothing obvious. Likely resale value?

Hello! I'm a bassist at a college, and I teach private lessons here and there. Almost everyone I've taught has been in middle school or early high school with about a year or more experience on the double bass. Recently, my favorite professor (music theory, no string background. not that it's relevant but might provide context as to why i am doing this) reached out to me and asked me to teach his child bass. She is brand new to the instrument, but she is so excited to learn and it brings me so much joy. However, I have never taught someone brand new to the instrument before. I have some sheet music printed out, and for the first lesson I plan to just correct some basic posture issues and maybe talk about pizz for a little, I have ode to joy and a note chart printed out for her to look at. She's using essential elements in her orchestra class so I do have my simandl books on standby if absolutely needed, but I seriously doubt I can keep a 4th grader interested with those.

My main question is does anyone have any tips or suggestions? I started bass after playing Violin and Cello for five years, so I really have no grasp on being brand new to string instruments any more, much less a bass. Literally anything is useful. Thank you guys!

https://youtube.com/shorts/--saAoNVtOU

I just started playing upright and wanted to play prelude. It doesn’t sound like anything I hear. It just screeches. Idk how much my bad technique causes it but i feel like the equipment i use may be contributing as well. Even though I just got the bass, the strings it comes with (daddario flatwood chromes bass strings) may be old. And I used petz medium rosin because I heard soft rosin is preferred in double bass but also that metal strings are usually better with hard rosin, so i thought i would just go with medium. The screeching gets more obvious when my fretting hand gets closer to the bridge. In the video i play something around 5-8 fret area at first and then try prelude, starting with open G. This is the sound it makes acoustically and the sound from audio interface is really not that different. Would you be able to help me identify the problems from the video? Is it only my tecnique or do some equipments need changing as well?

Before anyone says anything, yes I do think I’m under qualified to play this piece. Do my directors think that, No. They in fact put me in my schools mastery orchestra because one of the 2 basses broke their arm. The video attached is the intro to “Ruslan and Ludmilla”. I’m playing it really under tempo the original tempo being half note = 135. How can I quickly improve my speed and overall confidence? I also have some other music to learn so if you would like to give me any additional advice on learning difficult music quickly? I really don’t wanna be seen as an outlier in my section or even the whole orchestra.

I am a guitar bass player but recently started upright bass i will share my progress with you guys

Hi, today i got myself an Ibanez UB804, it is a 34 inch scale upright electric bass. I want to get rid of the low E and add a high C instead. Apparently the lowest cello string and my A string would only be 3 semitones apart. So I was wondering if I should buy a cello bow instead of a bass bow. Does anyone have any experience? Or heard from anyone who tried? I'm planning to get Daddario chromes flatwound bass strings for it if it matters.

hi sorry if this is a pretty common question but I’m really scratching my head for advice.

I used to play double bass in high school, my school had no orchestra class but we had three double basses for some reason (two were absolutely destroyed though) and after a lot of begging I finally convinced my band teacher my senior year to let me switch from piccolo to double bass.

there was no one to teach me besides our percussion teacher (who also played electric bass) and while I had a year of experience on electric bass I definitely wasn’t very good at double bass because I had to learn everything on my own. despite it all though I really enjoyed playing bass with the concert band ensemble (ik that’s weird but we were a small not competitive band, we weren’t exactly balanced to begin so he just let me play bass with the concert band for fun)

long story short I really want to get back into playing double bass, and actually get lessons and learn but my issue is I don’t know what to do or where to go. I guess I should rent a bass but most rentals I’ve been looking at are insanely expensive, like 350-500 a month and that’s just not something I can do right now. and that’s not including lessons or the expenses of like rosin and a case etc etc

so am I fucked until I can afford to rent a bass? I really want to get back into it and maybe play with an adult ensemble or a college ensemble (I’m on a gap semester rn before community college) but I clearly need more time with a bass and some good lessons, which I can’t get unless I get a bass (I presume.)

any advice would be appreciated but I understand if there’s really nothing I can do in this situation.

I’ve been looking into the QSC K10.2 to use with a Fishman Full Circle/Platinum Pro pre-amp. I want a small, portable setup, are there any drawbacks vs a traditional bass amp combo? Playing mostly pizzicato, for restaurants, weddings, small venues. These are powerful, light, rugged, small. Is the 1x10 ok sounding? Vs the 1x12?

I just took my first private lesson in a while today. I am a multi instrumentalist high school junior with a year on the instrument who recently just got moved into my schools mastery orchestra. With this change I have to play super hard music, like I have to have the intro to “Ruslan and Ludmilla” concert ready by the end of this month. Today I went to take my first private lesson. My teacher was nice I do like her. She is assistant orchestra teacher at a local middle school who I found out majored in double bass. I have taken other advanced music lessons on my other instruments and know that it is mainly self paced, so i know it won’t just be technique the whole time. An issue i found was she plays with a French bow and I play German. I have had too much formal teaching bowing. Aside from a few months of lessons last year I have mainly tot myself how to hold and play with it. Do you think I should look into finding another teacher?

I can think of a few high profile bassists, and plenty in my region, that play plenty of both acoustic upright bass and regular fretted bass guitar, but that hardly ever or even plain never play any kind of fretless bass guitar. This strikes me as peculiar: I often enough hear some fusiony acoustic jazz and think “I could easily enough hear this as bass guitar” and vice versa, plenty of music with bass guitar that I hear just as well in my head if it was upright instead. So I figure the imbeteeen option would sometimes seem to be the best of all options. And yet McBride, Patitucci, Chris Wood, and all the bassists in my region of NY metro area ignore Fretless bass.

It’s further curious because Fretless bass guitar comes in a variety of scale lengths, hollowness, mixes of magnetic and piezo pickups, and of course the option to swap string type.

Hi, I'm trying to get a double bass player to join an online music project. We're guys between 25 and 35 years old. United by a passion for music. I'm looking for a double bass for an online experimental music project.

This project is based on the idea of creating a group of people united by a passion for music and the desire to make music together. I will take care of the vocals, the lyrics, and, if desired, even the video editing. I like to play low tones, in the style of Gregorian chants. Add to this drums, a flexible bass, a guitar, and also... a synth, a turntablist, a wind instrument player. And I was also thinking of a double bass. I will also take care of giving form to this variety of musical opportunities, combining, imagine, techno with introspective, decadent, or even demented lyrics of various nature. The idea is to create various strange and daring musical interweavings, to create a particular sound. How is it possible to give direction to all this? From an idea, from ideas that are then implemented in a specific and articulate way in the concrete field.

If you're interested, message me. Good vibes only. 👻👻

Any help would be much appreciated!