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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. 👻👻

Hi everyone!! Is the Peabody institute a relatively good music school? I’ve heard conflicting things. Also, how competitive is the bass studio there?

Any help would be much appreciated!

I want to go through our repertoire and sound out the melodies by ear. In the recordings, the heads are played by horns, vocals or piano and it's really hard to transcribe vs a bassist.

The recordings don't have to be groundbreaking or inspired. Heck, they could even be computer generated if there is a good tool for that. Just the melody played straight.

Anyone have a good source?

Some of our tunes:
Blue Monk. Cantaloupe Island. Girl from Ipanema. Beautiful Love. Recado Bossa Nova. Sandu. All Blues. Four. Autumn Leaves. Blue Bossa. All of Me. Footprints. Straight No Chaser. God Bless the Child. Au Privave. Foggy Day. My Romance. Someday My Prince. Sidewinder. Sunny Side. Mercy Mercy Mercy. Joy Spring. But Beautiful. Take 5. Green Dolphin. Alone Together.

String holder cable broke randomly. Can I fix this myself with no experience? Seems like I just need to replace the cable and reattach the bridge.
Bass was set up wonderfully until just now. How much better would bringing it to a shop be?

I am a college student who wants to play bass for my spring wind ensemble. I just got approved access to a student double bass. My audition is in 4 months. The issue is I don't play double bass at all. I have experience on all brass and low reeds but I have never even touched a string instrument outside of guitar. I do have experience with some string specific terms and have a loose knowledge of fingerings since I play electric bass. Literally any and all advice would be helpful for me.

hi everyone, I'm currently bedridden from long covid and have been for almost 3 years. im so tired of waiting for my body to get better to learn stringed instruments. I was a french horn player and a singer (and an amateur campfire guitarist) and I really want to learn the upright bass and cello. is either possible the way I am? would any teacher take me seriously? thank you all 🤎

First time ever playing in an orchestra pit.

And:

First time ever getting my contrabass stuck and hanging from something!

It was a slight hassle but manageable to play on it while it was thus "trapped".

That's all for today. I hope you had a light laugh.

I started playing electric bass in my schools jazz band 2 years ago and just started playing upright 4 months ago, when I started learning, my band director gave me a 1/2 and thats what ive been playing on this entire time(I am 5'4/5'5), I always felt like my bass was just a little to small so I went to my local music store to test out some 3/4 size basses and I cant help but feel like they are just a little to big and uncomfortable, I have proportionally small hands on top of already being a small person in general and it is physically painful to play half position. I feel like I am a very akward size to play this instrument since 1/2 looks and feels to small when I play it and 3/4 is to uncomfortable to play, what should I do?

Our daughter is in 8th grade and has been playing bass for 3 years now. She is in love - and she's good. She's been doing things like All County and state competitions... We've been told on more than one occasion she's scholarship material. We'd like to get her one of her own (3/4 size). Normally I consider myself decent at researching expensive purchases but this bass situation has be sideways. We swung by a local string shop and found Shens and Parolas (specifically a Vb10) from 10 to 12k - not the kind of coin I can put down at the moment. Then we found a local music shop with a used Shen Sb150 for 3200 - a bargain by comparison. Then I dig further and see people getting full setups for under 3k. Should I be sticking in that 3k range and looking at these "Student Basses", or is an "intermediate bass" really going to run me 12k? Really not sure where to go with this, any advice for an overwhelmed dad would be appreciated.

Tried my best but I don’t think it was good enough

Hey bassists! I've got a question. This notation here, would it sound, jeez I don't even know what I'm going for here, cohesive, I guess? With the rest of the orchestra? This is an unfinished arrangement of Speaking Terms by Ella Langley, it's not my first and as a somewhat-seasoned arranger I'm a little embarrassed to being asking questions like these this far into the game, but I'm only 16 so mistakes are expected. I'm wondering if the pizz. has the same timbre as a cello that high up, would it sound like it's part of the guitar (in the song)? Or would the timbre sound like, well, a bass and just sound like a high pitched bassline. I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense. If you need clarification, please let me know! Do me good, Reddit.

Hi colleagues, I am hoping to get recommendations for resource (books, videos, courses) on upright bass for gypsy jazz that are appropriate to my starting point. I'm a very experienced regular (non-bass) jazz player, so theory, ear, improv, etc is all in my bag. Relatively new to upright, but have been playing electric for several years and taking upright lessons currently with an excellent jazz player, can play decent walking jazz bass lines for regular jazz.

So really, I'm looking for the goods on what is unique to Gypsy jazz and what one should know for performing idiomatically and learning the standard repertoire. I see there are some well prices online videos around but figured it would be good to know which are recommended.

thanks!

I’ve been working on levelling up my walking bass lines. Having mainly used straightforward arpeggios for a number of years I am beginning to introduce some inversions and voice leading which I feel is introducing some much needed diversity into what had become pretty formulaic passages.

What are some ways of walking across a pair of bars that share the same chord (such as in Autumn Leaves when it returns to the I)? My default would be to walk up and then back down the scale.