When was double bass invented

Composers have always called for scordaturas to produce the following effects: to make fingering easier in particular keys or to alter the timbre. The most important rule for a scordatura is to tune the instrument so that the principal key of the piece to be performed contains as many open strings as possible. This ensures that the overall timbre is brighter. The fewer open strings are played the duller and darker the timbre; this effect may also be desired.

In the mid 18th century most double-basses were made with three strings, a practice that continued until shortly before the end of the 19th century. The three-stringed double-bass had a more powerful sound, a clearer, harder and more assertive timbre; on the other hand its range in the lower register was smaller. Composers from the period of Viennese Classicism all had three-stringed double-basses with which to perform their orchestral works.

From the s onward four-stringed double-basses were reintroduced; until the end of the century both types existed side by side, the four-stringed model eventually replacing the three-stringed as standard. The four-stringed bass had a more mellow, smoother and weaker sound than the three-stringed version, but its range in the lower register was larger to E1. To compensate for its weaker sound the number of instruments in the orchestra was increased. In addition, new low-pitched wind instruments such as the bass clarinet and the contrabassoon began to support it.

For the performance of 20th century works five-stringed double-basses have become necessary. The five-stringed instrument has the advantage of a range that goes down as far as B0, a note which has now become indispensable. The disadvantage: it is harder to play because of the wider fingerboard.

In early jazz the bass part was played by the tuba or the sousaphone. The double-bass did not appear until the Classical period. In addition, many early examples included a type of gut fretting that was created by wrapping gut strings horizontally at various intervals along the fingerboard to generate frets at each semitone.

Perhaps the best information available concerning the history of the string bass is recorded by musical theorist Michael Praetorius , who wrote Sintagma Musicum His text reveals a Gross-Contra-Bass-Geige , which is generally held to have evolved into the modern double bass.

Unlike other members of the violin family violin, viola, and cello , the double bass has never been fully standardized in shape or construction, which means that their appearance and sound is widely irregular.

For example, the two most fundamental outline shapes can be classified as either violin form or viol de gamba form, although lesser common busetto or pear-shaped instruments do exist.

The height of the ribs, creating the hollow body, has varied over the history of the string bass and is still subjective today. And, many of the disputes concerning the origins are based on the combination of similarities utilized during the construction of the double bass, such as:. The merging of these two styles allows for much personal taste when crafting this instrument, and offers different playing advantages.

Throughout the history of the string bass, playing styles have adapted to meet the needs of the music. Although originally played using bowing techniques, many modern techniques heavily incorporate some form of pizzicato plucking or slapping. The slap style is created by pulling the strings away from the fingerboard so that they bounce off the fingerboard, providing both the pitch and beat. He played double kick patterns in his solos as well as in beats in songs. And his drum set looked cool.

Thanks to this tune, the frenetic double-bass drum shuffle was forever frozen in audio. The twin bass drums played a R-L pattern, but the rhythm swung with a galloping feel.

The success of Cobham and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and the emergence of prog -rock bands like Yes, King Crimson, and Genesis, ushered in a period of creative drumming that highlighted some innovative double bass drummers. And though hard rock music was not the only popular music, it was the style most likely, outside the waning camps of prog-rockers, to include double bass drumming.

This next generation of rockers were influenced both by punk rock — clearly not a haven for double bass drumming — and the joy of Marshall stacks. But even during this era, hard rock mutated into a style that was very friendly to double bass drum users.

Whether speed metal, thrash metal, death metal, or black metal — it all was played hard and fast, loud and crunchy, by young men full of ideas. Band like Anthrax, Metallica , Megadeth, and others layered guitar riffs over double bass licks, but nobody on the speed metal scene would have as much influence as Dave Lombardo did with Slayer. Slayer re-wrote the book of dark rock that Black Sabbath penned so perfectly back in Sabbath played slow, sludgy tempos, and drummer Bill Ward hardly played many double bass beats in songs.

Lombardo, with his fleet feet and his ridiculous endurance, emerged as the poster boy for a new direction in double bass drumming. Slayer was crowned the princes of this new style of hard metal: faster, darker, heavier. And now those speeds sound quite normal to many young drummers. Drummers like Joey Jordison, Derek Roddy, Gene Hoglan, Jason Bittner, Chris Adle r and a whole crop of others have set new standards in speed and endurance, emulated by bedroom bashers all over the world.

A new frontier in bass drumming is being blazed by drummers that treat their feet just like their hands and play more complicated, and often more interesting patterns though Bellson and others did practice rudiments with their feet.