The Tenor Violin

[gsmonks]

There's actually one on YouTube:

(2) Tenor Violin / Octave Violin / Tall Man’s Fiddle - YouTube

I decided to track down makers and get prices. It took some doing, but I found some:

Tenor Violin (half-size cello tuned GDAE) | Gainesville Strings & Things | Reverb

This one was made by Singing Woods Violin Shop. Some are made by the company that makes New Violin Family instruments.

Why mention this on a bass forum? Partly because of the percussive things you can do on the low strings, that you can't do on a violin or viola. You can play a resonant "chunk, chunk, chunk," rinse and repeat, that's rich with harmonics.

As a collector and player (of strings, woodwinds, and brass), I've been putting together a set of strings for my little group: piccolo violin, violin, viola, tenor violin, cello, bass violin (not a contrabass).

We're currently playing very old music, but I want to play ALL NEW music! The old music can be pretty boring if you're not playing the melody.

Everyone needs a hobby that sucks money directly from the wallet!

 

[bholder]

Everyone needs a hobby that sucks money directly from the wallet!

Get a boat - it's not widely known it's actually an acronym for "Burn Off Another Thousand".

 

[fdeck]

Sounds like a blast! During the lockdown, I've been teaching myself to play jazz on the cello.

As mentioned in the second link, the ability to play fiddle music is a benefit of GDAE tuning. I attend a summer "fiddle camp" and there are some cellists. One of them is a good professional cellist, but for fiddle camp she brings a 5 string cello so she can jam along with the fiddlers. Sure you can run up the A string, but a lot of fiddle tunes "work" because of the mechanics of the violin. She built the cello from a wrecked cello body and a Chinese neck that she bought online.

The impression I've already formed from playing the cello is that it's a great melodic instrument (I'm treating it like a tenor sax), but is not a substitute for double bass. When I play bass parts, I usually play them arco.

 

[gsmonks]

Get a boat - it's not widely known it's actually an acronym for "Burn Off Another Thousand".

Ha! Definition of a boat: "A hole in the water into which you pour your life's savings!"

 

[gsmonks]

Sounds like a blast! During the lockdown, I've been teaching myself to play jazz on the cello.

As mentioned in the second link, the ability to play fiddle music is a benefit of GDAE tuning. I attend a summer "fiddle camp" and there are some cellists. One of them is a good professional cellist, but for fiddle camp she brings a 5 string cello so she can jam along with the fiddlers. Sure you can run up the A string, but a lot of fiddle tunes "work" because of the mechanics of the violin. She built the cello from a wrecked cello body and a Chinese neck that she bought online.

The impression I've already formed from playing the cello is that it's a great melodic instrument (I'm treating it like a tenor sax), but is not a substitute for double bass. When I play bass parts, I usually play them arco.

She sounds like a professional luthier. I wouldn't know where to start, putting something like that together.

Y'know . . . guys have been playing jazz and blues on cello for well over 100 years. Even back then guys were tuning the cello in 4ths, using various tunings.

I've always wondered why they don't make bass strings for cello.

Actually . . . come to think of it, they do. Some guys buy short-scale strings, put them on a cello, and tune it in 4ths. And there are 1/4 basses and smaller.

You're exactly right- cello is a great melodic instrument. Very much suited to jazz, in my opinion.

 

[fdeck]

About the tuning, I'm actually enjoying the challenge of making it work in 5ths. It's not a quantum leap for me -- cello was my first instrument, and I played it through high school, while also playing electric bass in the jazz band. At the time, it was like I had two brains, and even sight-reading on both instruments was not a hurdle.

Of course my brain is more fossilized today, but it's coming back gradually. However, I can still think more quickly on the bass, for instance, following the pianist when he suddenly decides to modulate the key by 1/2 step. Also, it seems like there are more awkward shifts on the cello in some keys, but that might just be a matter of getting my technique back.

I'm experimenting with a strap, a la Rushad Eggleston. There are kind of two schools of thought on standing up with a cello, the other one being Mike Block's creation, and we own an earlier generation Block Strap as well. But at least so far I'm finding there's no avoiding a loss of technique compared to sitting with the instrument.

 

[MD]

Y'know . . . guys have been playing jazz and blues on cello for well over 100 years. Even back then guys were tuning the cello in 4ths, using various tunings.

I've always wondered why they don't make bass strings for cello.
Actually . . . come to think of it, they do. Some guys buy short-scale strings, put them on a cello, and tune it in 4ths. And there are 1/4 basses and smaller.

You're exactly right- cello is a great melodic instrument. Very much suited to jazz, in my opinion.

Not really "bass" strings, but D'Addario, I think it's them, makes a fourth tuning set EADG. It's an octave up though, so I guess that would make it a piccolo bass in a plain cello wrapping.

 

[gsmonks]

About the tuning, I'm actually enjoying the challenge of making it work in 5ths. It's not a quantum leap for me -- cello was my first instrument, and I played it through high school, while also playing electric bass in the jazz band. At the time, it was like I had two brains, and even sight-reading on both instruments was not a hurdle.

Of course my brain is more fossilized today, but it's coming back gradually. However, I can still think more quickly on the bass, for instance, following the pianist when he suddenly decides to modulate the key by 1/2 step. Also, it seems like there are more awkward shifts on the cello in some keys, but that might just be a matter of getting my technique back.

I'm experimenting with a strap, a la Rushad Eggleston. There are kind of two schools of thought on standing up with a cello, the other one being Mike Block's creation, and we own an earlier generation Block Strap as well. But at least so far I'm finding there's no avoiding a loss of technique compared to sitting with the instrument.

Hey, you sound like Paul McCartney! He played cello early on and electric bass, which are roughly the same scale (and trumpet, if I'm remembering correctly).

Heh- a "quantum leap" is something like -10 to the 35th power. It refers to the quantised expansion or contraction of an electron shell, adding or subtracting a photon in the process.