I finally got my bass violin

Subject: BS: I finally got my bass violin
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 08:57 AM

Are there any resources, teachers, websites that you might personally recommend to help kidk start my bass ambitions.

Kick ass bass lines dot com didn't show any results ;) but there are plenty of you tube videos of interest.


By the way have you seen 4 people playing one cello yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxiQji0CGrA



Which reminds me, I tok my electric 6 string cello and converted it to a bass and was amazed how well the pick up under the bridge works for the deepest notes.

The 50 watt bass amp speaker is not sufficient to reproduce high frequencies.


Is there a modest speaker amp that might do both bass and treble frequencies???

Subject: RE: I finally got my bass violin
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 01:10 PM

That video is amazing and fun! Looks as though they had fun and are quite skilled to be able to do that. I liked all of it but the off notes just at the end, before the final few notes.

Congrats on getting your bass!

Subject: RE: I finally got my bass violin
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 02:10 PM

Thanks for the link, Donuel.

Is your new instrument the same as a contrabass? If so, see this:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5032130_play-double-bass.html

Note the images on the right, too. I like their idea of playing along with recordings in different styles.

Also, isn't there a bunch of sites called 'Something' Village where they give free lessons? I can't find it right now.

Subject: RE: I finally got my bass violin
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 02:23 PM

You probably mean expertvillage. A lot of their advice is dire. Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BccifzVxQwk

Subject: RE: I finally got my bass violin
From: s&r
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 03:14 PM

Best laugh I've had this year. Thanks for the link Jack

Stu

Subject: RE: I finally got my bass violin
From: GUEST,Seayaker
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 06:24 PM

I can't believe that they've left that video up for four years!!

Subject: RE: I finally got my bass violin
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 11:37 PM

Methinks his sharps may sound a bit flat.

Subject: RE: I finally got my bass violin
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 07:59 AM

OMG - where is BMG when we need you? Better luck here:- http://www.banjomandolinguitar.org/ .

Ross

Subject: RE: I finally got my bass violin
From: s&r
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 08:22 AM

Never heard it called bass violin before. Double bass, contra bass, bass fiddle , string bass, bass viol but never bass violin.

Stu

Subject: RE: I finally got my bass violin
From: s&r
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 08:25 AM

going back to post one, you oculd add a pieso horn tweeter if it's physically possible

Stu

Subject: RE: I finally got my bass violin
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 03:52 PM

While the double bass has some differences to the violin, it is still a violin and a rightful member of the violin family because it is internally constructed identically to a violin. It's tuned in 4ths instead of 5ths like a violin but that's because you couldn't finger a bass in 5ths for the most part although Red Mitchell actually did--don't ask me how. It should be noted that the cello was originally called the bass violin but lost the title to the double bass.

As far accessories for your bass, go to Lemur Music. Don't have the link offhand but just type it into your browser. That is where professional bassists go to get stuff. You can get pickups, amps, strings, cases, quivers, bows--whatever. In fact, if you have factory-installed strings on your bass right now--change them! Don't wait, there's no point to it. I ordered D'Addario Helicore medium tension hybrid steel strings for mine and I love them. The type of string depends on your playing style. Some are made for bowing, some are made for plucking. Hybrids are made to do both. Weed-whackers have a lot of stretch and are made for slapping although I slap pretty well with mine. I don't recommend gut strings but some guys only use gut. I recommend steel strings.

When changing strings, do them one at a time and tune it to the right pitch before changing the next string to maintain proper string tension. Failure to do this may cause the soundpost to fall over. The soundpost is essential to the sound of the bass but is held in only by string tension. If it falls over, you'll have to find a luthier to put it back. You can do it yourself if you know what you're doing.

Check your string height. Hope you have an adjustable bridge with the little wheels on them. You don't want the strings buzzing against the fingerboard. They should be a good half-inch above the end of the fingerboard.

As far as websites for intruction--forget it. Don't use Expert Village. It's funny to go to these clips and read the comments because everybody is so pissed off at the instructors but if you're going to those clips for instruction, you'll never learn anything anyway. Those commentors are NEVER going learn the bass that way and if they had an instructor they wouldn't go to those clips because there's no need. You have to get a teacher. You'll NEVER learn this instrument on your own. It has so many secrets that only someone who has mastered it can teach them to you. Especially using the bow. I can bow reasonably well now but could never have learned it without an instructor.

The neck is divided into positions and you really need an instructor to teach them to you. It is virtually impossible to learn them on your own unless you have a tremendous natural aptitude for an exceedingly difficult instrument (you bought it so you may as well know it is not going to be an easy journey). You have to know your major and minor scales and memorize the note names because when you start walking the bass, you can't do it without knowing the note names in every position in every key. When you hear some jazz guy walking that bass and you wonder how he can just go on and on never doing the same thing twice and yet holding everything together, he knows what notes he's going to play before he plays them. Even improvising, you have to know the notes you're going to use or you're just meandering around puttering off random notes that sounds completely amateurish.

You have to learn to SIGHT READ very well. If you play this instrument and don't know how to sight read or how to bow, you're wasting your time. And once you get to learn your way around the fingerboard above the body, you have to learn the thumb positions playing high up that fingerboard because all the fingering techniques to employ above the body don't work below the body. You have to switch to thumb positions. Eventually, you'll have to learn how to go back and forth between the two fingering styles seamlessly.

As for books, when you get a good instructor, he'll tall you what books to get. Your basic book, though, should be "New Methods of the Double Bass" by Franz Simandl. It is the bass-player's bible. If you're not learning from that, I would question the quality of the instruction. If all you want to do is keep time on the bass, you wasted your money. It's an expensive time-keeper. If you invest in one, learn it right. It takes dedication and lots of practive--every single day. Every. Single. Day.

Finally, I hope you laid out some decent coin for this thing and didn't buy some cheap-ass $600 piece of junk off the internet. A decent double bass is going to cost in the $2000-$3000 range just for a good student bass. A pro model is upwards of $4000. I've seen them for $20,000.

Just the wood costs more than $600. It has to be the right wood, properly cured, seasoned and sawn and it has to be cut and shaped by a master. There's no way an $800 bass could be worth a crap. A good luthier wouldn't waste his time constructing a piece of junk so the workmanship is going to be garbage. It may look alright and sound alright but soon it will start to tell on you, e.g. it will start to come apart, start pull out of shape, refuse to stay in tune, etc. Also, it has no resale value. No reputable music dealer would buy it from you because it's junk.

But look at it this way: a decent student bass costs no more (and often less) than a good Martin guitar.

Subject: RE: I finally got my bass violin
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 10:59 PM

////Never heard it called bass violin before. Double bass, contra bass, bass fiddle , string bass, bass viol but never bass violin.////

It's also called a bull fiddle and a doghouse bass and, yes, a bass violin.

However, a bass viol is a different instrument. The viol has 6 strings and the neck is fretted for precise intonation. The frets were made of strips of gut or rawhide wrapped around the neck. They are wetted, tied around the neck at the precise spot and then dried in the sun. As the strips dry, they shrink until they are bound so tightly around the neck that they will never move.

The viol is much quieter than a double bass. Double basses boom but the viol is meant for a more intimate setting. They are not built at all like violins internally and are actually lined inside with linen to deaden the sound. They have c-holes instead of f-holes (although you might come across an occasional f-holed viol).

Double basses and viols are both tuned in 4ths. That's about all they have in common. Viols also have flat backs. Cheaper bass violins have flat backs but most have carved backs. Gasparo de Salo, the great luthier and bassist, did make his first bass violins with the bodies of viols but they were internally constructed like violins. Not sure how many strings they had as 3, 4 and 5-string basses were common back then as were all sorts of tunings.

Subject: RE: I finally got my bass violin
From: s&r
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 05:40 AM

I don't mind if it's called a bass violin - just an observation that I've never heard that before. Perhaps its more common in America.

Stu

Subject: RE: I finally got my bass violin
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 15 Jan 12 - 02:48 PM

Donuel, where art thou?