Double Bass Had your bass mistaken for a cello?

[rolandm]

Didn't matter if it was sitting on it its stand or if I'd already been playing it. Three separate gigs, all inside one week. I'm beginning to worry the bloody thing might actually BE a cello, and I just haven't realized it yet.

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[james condino]

Yup; I feel your pain. It seems like almost every gig someone calls it a cello. This past Friday I had a woman insisting it was a cello and then proceeded to follow me around for ten minutes on the set break arguing about well, why isn't it tuned like a cello and why didn't I play the cello....

 

[matt holt]

I have this happen to me at least every other gig or so. It actually kind of surprises me that the cello is more well known than the upright bass-all the early Elvis videos have uprigh bass in them, every cartoon with a jazz/hillbilly band has a bass in it. It would seem that someone with minimal musical knowledge would know about the bass before the cello. But apperently not-or maybe cellists get their instruments called basses even more than we get the cello thing. Be interesting to ask some cellists about...

 

[rolandm]

You have a point there, Matt. I know a few cellists, perhaps I should conduct a poll.

 

[Rayjay]

Hmmmm, let me think, oh yeah, only....EVERY TIME I TAKE IT OUT IN PUBLIC....that's all though!

 

[devnulljp]

 

[Feral Feline]

Never. Not once.

What's a "cello"? Is that like "hi" and "ciao" combined?

 

[brianrost]

Someone once came up to me and asked if I was playing an oboe.

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[Feral Feline]

Well, were you? At the time?

Doubler-troubler...

 

[jmlee]

I was walking into a concert gig with a BSX electric upright (black stick with a rotating rest) in its gig bag. A fellow sitting outside with his children said, "You're either a musician or an assassin." I felt like telling him that the way I played it was all the same.

 

[rolandm]

On occasion I take my Dean Contra to gigs where I can't play the Chadwick (like Sunday, when we're doing an outdoor Christmas parade on a float). It always tickles everyone to death when I show up with that big, long case, like I'm hauling in an RPG or something.

 

[HateyMcAmp]

I've come to peace with the cello misunderstanding. What still kills me though is when people ask about my "big guitar."

 

[groooooove]

i get it all the time.

i once sent a picture of a new bass of mine to a friend shortly after buying it. she replied "thats a fricken' cello"

sigh. this person knows i play the bass..

 

[lcpierce]

Yep! My favorite is, "That's a big cello for such a little lady." As if I went cello shopping and said, "Ah, yes. The biggest one, please, so I can amuse strangers."

 

[Violin+Bass4life]

All the time. Kids tell me it's a cello. Many people ask the weirdest questions.

 

[samson3382]

Cello all the time. Once a giant ukulele.

 

[bigshiny]

Cello? Ya, all the time. Once a lady asked me what my instrument was called. When told her "A Bass." she then asked "So then what is a Tuba?".

 

[chuck3]

lol ... yes, I have had the cello reference a number of times. My bass is a 3/4. Maybe with a 4/4 this wouldn't happen. Or maybe it would.

 

[BobKay]

11 weeks in a row is my record at my regular Friday night bar gig. But best one ever was last year when a listener told me her nephew was learning to play the same instrument - "it's a bassoon, right?"

 

[bopeuph]

Almost every gig, or when I'm carrying it around...or pretty much whenever it's out in public with me.

My favorite are the kids that look at it all interested, and the well-meaning mother says "that's a cello!"

Someone once came up to me and asked if I was playing an oboe.

Have a friend that this happened to on the subway. He said "really? You're joking, right? No! It's a double bass!"

That woman broke down crying, telling him he didn't have to be so mean about it. Still one of my favorite stories.