• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Double Bass Tuning down if you do not have a C extension

C

camullen

Nov 17, 2008
5
0
#1
I am learning the bass part for the Beethoven 6th Symphony for an amateur community orchestra. I have a normal upright bass and do not have a C extension.

The piece has a few spots where the lowest notes drop to D or C.

I was planning to simply play the notes an octave up. However, my bass teacher suggested the alternative of tuning down for those passages.

I have only been playing upright bass for two years (but have played electric guitar and bass for more than 10 year) and am nervous about tuning up and down during a complicated piece giving my inexperience.

What do the members of the forum do?

Craig Mullen
 
#3
If there's a lot, tune down before the piece. Don't fiddle with the tuners during the work, that's going to be a disaster. Some basses will tune down without the other strings going completely unstable, others won't. Mine copes, and I've many times played individual works and entire programmes with my bass tuned to D on the bottom.

However, Beethoven? Don't worry about it, he wasn't expecting the basses to play those low notes.
 
#5
I've tuned down to a D -- my bass nor the E string would do a low C any justice. However, I wouldn't necessarily do it on a classical piece like the Beethoven, but have most recently for Bartok and Kodaly, where the bass is specifically orchestrated, rather than doubling the cello.

I'll leave it tuned for the entire piece as well.
 
#6
I've played that piece, and the conductor requested that we tune down. It worked, but I didn't like the sound. Unless requested, don't tune down. Just play it up an octave, which will sound fine IMO.
 
#7
In the height of my playing days, I used 3 alternate tunings: DADG,
CADG, and CGDG depending on the work. BUT I kept the tuning for the entire concert AND I had to buy a C string. The E tuned down worked for D but not C. :bassist:

Tom Gale
 
#8
I should have mentioned that the DADG tuning was the easiest. Just think an octave lower than you normal D string. I wrote out some exercises for the three tunings and I would play through that one tuning exercise a day or two before the concert.
TG :cool:
 
#10
I play with DADG tuning all the time now. I found my bass didn't like it when I switched back and forth from D to E. I also would get confused about which tuning I was in and made a few honking errors in concert.

Also, tuning up and down in concert is a guaranteed way to play out out-of-tune notes as it takes a while for the string to settle and it's hard to get in tune when under pressure.

See my Alternate Extension Solution thread for more details.
 
#11
My last concert was a classic! I was tuned DADG because of Carmina Burrona (Sp?) As we were tuning on stage, my A peg shattered and no time to leave and come back. So, I had to play the whole concert with a tuning of DDG. It actually went well but my stand partner had to keep way to the right because it was driving him nuts! The only note I missed was a E harmonic in a Ravel piece only available on the now-dead A string. I do not recommend this tuning.
Tom Gale
 
#15
I am working on that piece now for my community orchestra, and in the places where there is just an occasional drop to low D or low C, I just play that note in the phrase up an octave.

However if there are several notes in that range I play the entire passage up an octave. I believe there is a whole section of the fourth movement of the piece that, in my music is marked to be played an octave up.

I have always felt that in general it depends on the phrase and the flow of that phrase - sometimes playing the occasional note up will not destroy the line (to my ear) - at other times it sounds disruptive and you need to preserve the flow of the line by moving the whole passage.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back