I had double bass lessons with a rented instrument between age 16 and 20, but haven't had access to a bass since. When it emerged that Cowley Orchestra owns a bass in need of rehousing, I offered to look after it, so now, for the first time in nearly 40 years, I get the chance to play bass on a regular basis.
First impressions: this thing is bloody big and heavy - I must conclude that the instrument I played way back when was a small size version. I am told 3/4 basses are now quite commonly used even in serious orchestras, but they are only a few centimetres shorter. So it is quite possible that the music school rental instruments were 1/2 sized ones. There wasn't a choice of size, I remember they had a whole row of identical ones. The big one also takes some serious amounts of energy to play, so I'm only doing something like ten minutes a day right now.
I don't want to confuse my cello-sightreading brain by reading bass, so I am on the lookout for easy tunes that I know already and that sound nice in the bass register. A first example is the German carol Maria durch ein Dornwald ging, of which I have made a very rough video, just as a first impression of the sound of this bass:
inspired by the Berliner Blockflöten Orchester who do it much better, of course.
For something a bit more lively, Bella ciao would be an option, but watch this space. Might try an ironic rendition of Silent night too. And unless a real bass player steps up to use this instrument at orchestra, this month may well mark the beginning of a bass period in my zodiac of instrument obsessions introduced last month.
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