Double Bass On transposition...

[Andy Mopley]

I quote from a website I saw "Avoid keys that put instruments playing sharps alongside instruments playing flats. In this syllabus we talk of F# and Gb as the same note. This is true for tempered instruments like the piano. For instruments in the violin and brass families where the note is felt for, F# and Gb are subtly different.

Is the last comment correct, and I assume also valid for double bass, and if so, how so? Or what is the author actually referring to, in this passage?

Thanks for reading!

 

[smeet]

It's absolutely true, but it's a pretty subtle thing. On violin, one generally plays notes against open strings to check intonation. Depending on which strings you check against, you will play an audibly different pitch. A string quartet will tend to play in something close to a non-tempered system, depending on the style and the players' ears. Thirds will ring out as nice pure intervals rather than the weird beating intervals you hear from a piano.

But on an instrument as low-pitched and lacking in high harmonics as bass, I don't feel it's very important, especially when playing pizzicato. The margin of allowable intonation error is much bigger on double bass that violin or trumpet.