GG: The Double Bass

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Gnomon's Guide

The double bass is the largest of the stringed instruments in the orchestra played with a bow. It looks very much like an enormous cello. Like the cello, it is played standing on its end on a spike which rests on the floor. The sound is made by stroking the strings
with a horsehair bow. The notes are changed by holding the strings down against the fingerboard. Unlike in guitars and mandolins, the fingerboard has no frets, so there is great scope for playing out of tune. The double bass is truly enormous: when standing up, the top is about 6 feet off the ground. The player has to sit on a high stool to play it. Many players prefer to play standing up.

Double Basses in the Orchestra

The double bass started life as a member of the viol family. Viols were a type of instrument similar to a violin but with certain subtle differences. They were popular up to the 17th century but became obsolete because of their quiet nature which made them unsuitable for public performances. The double bass was adapted to make it more like a violin, with the same tone and volume. Nevertheless, it retained some characteristics of the viol family, mainly for practical reasons.

The double bass was used in early orchestras for "doubling the bass", that is, playing the same bass line as the cello but an octave lower. This is how it got its present name. The composer did not write out a separate part for the double bass player. The cello music was used and played an octave lower.

In later years, the double bass started to get its own score. Usually this was still a harmony bass line, but occasionally the double bass would get a solo theme. In Beethoven's 9th Symphony, the famous "Ode to Joy" theme is first played on all the double
basses together, before being joined by the rest of the orchestra.

A modern symphony orchestra may have as many as five double basses. The standard string quartet used for chamber music does not normally include a double bass, but occasionally there is a place for one in chamber music. Schubert's Trout Quintet, for example, uses piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass.

Jazz

The double bass somehow made its way into jazz groups. Here it is always played by plucking the strings (known as pizzicato) instead of by bowing. This produces a dull thumping sound which can provide rhythm as well as a cool bass line for the jazz group. In jazz circles, the double bass is normally played standing up. This lets the player spin the instrument on its spike to provide a flourish at the end of the music.

Five-string basses with an extra high string are popular with jazz groups.

Features of the double bass

The double bass has a number of features which make it different from the violin, viola and cello.

  • The strings are tuned a fourth apart instead of a fifth apart. In layman's terms, if the lowest string is do, the next string is fa rather than so. This pattern continues for all the strings. The strings are tuned to E1, A1, D2, G2. These are the same notes as a bass guitar. * The reason for tuning the strings in this way is because they are so long compared with a cello or the other smaller instruments that the gaps between notes are very far apart. If tuned the normal way in fifths, the player's hand would have to do a lot of jumping up and down the fingerboard. This tuning in fourths is one of the viol characteristics which has been retained in the double bass.
  • The strings are under much greater tension than in the cello, so a geared tuning head like that on a guitar is used rather than a simple peg like on the cello. This makes the tuning pegs stick out the back rather than out the side, giving the head a different look.
  • Where the body of the double bass meets the neck, there are sloping shoulders. This is a viol feature which has been retained because it leaves room for the player to reach around the instrument. The straight shoulders of a cello would get in the way when scaled up to the size of a double bass.
  • Many double bass players still play with a viol bow rather than a violin bow. This is a different shape and is held at the end like a hand saw, rather than with the hand over the bow. This style of bowing is compulsory in many German orchestras and is normally known as "German bow".
  • While most double basses have four strings, there are three-string and five-string models available. The five-string can have either an extra low string (often used for playing low C) or an extra high string.

Playing Low C

Because the double bass often has to play the cello part an octave lower, it needs to be able to play down to C1, an octave lower than the cello's lowest note. But the lowest note on a normal double bass is E1. There are two main ways to get the extra notes:

  • Some double basses have a fifth string which provides the extra low notes.
  • Some double basses have a gizmo that looks like a rocket launcher mounted at the head on the lowest string. This is called a C extension. It extends the string upwards, providing the extra length needed for the extra notes and also provides keys for playing the low notes, since the fingerboard does not extend that far.

Other ways of playing the low C are not so common:

  • The lowest string can be tuned down to C from its normal E note. This slackens the string, which changes the pressure on the bridge and throws all the other strings out of tune, so it has to be done very carefully and is not really recommended.
  • In a group of double basses, it is possible to simulate a low C without anybody playing it. By playing two particular notes on two double basses, the two notes can be made to "interfere", causing a low note which is lower than either. Its frequency is the difference in frequencies between the two notes that produce it. It sounds tricky, but it has been used occasionally.
  • A small but vociferous group of bass players propose tuning the double bass in fifths, like a cello, viola or violin. The strings are tuned to C1 G1 D2 A2. This requires a totally different technique to play, so it is not a step to be undertaken lightly. The principles of playing in this manner have not yet been fully investigated.

Names for the Double Bass

The double bass has gone under many different names and even now the players themselves are unsure what to call it. The normal name "double bass", as explained above, comes from the practise of doubling the cello's bass line. Other names which are sometimes
used are bass, bass viol, bass fiddle, string bass, upright bass, contrabass and even bull fiddle!


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