The double bass, also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched chordophone in the modern symphony orchestra. It has four or five strings, and its construction is in between that of the gamba and the violin family.
In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners.
Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of instrument:
Zither is a class of stringed instruments. The modern instrument has many strings stretched across a thin, flat body.
The fingerboard is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The strings run over the fingerboard, between the nut and bridge. To play the instrument, a musician presses strings down to the fingerboard to change the vibrating length, changing the pitch. This is called stopping the strings. Depending on the instrument and the style of music, the musician may pluck, strum or bow one or more strings with the hand that is not fretting the notes. On some instruments, notes can be sounded by the fretting hand alone, such as with hammer ons, an electric guitar technique.
Franz Simandl was a double-bassist and pedagogue from Austria-Hungary most remembered for his book New Method for String Bass, known as the "Simandl book", which is to this day used as a standard study of double bass technique and hand positions.
Brand X were a British jazz fusion band formed in London in 1974. They were initially active until 1980, followed by a reformations between 1992 and 1999 and 2016 until 2021. Despite sometimes being considered to be a Phil Collins side project, the band was in fact centred on a core composing/playing trio of John Goodsall (guitar), Percy Jones (bass) and Robin Lumley (keyboards), with Lumley also playing a prominent production role. Other members of the band at various times included Morris Pert, J. Peter Robinson, Kenwood Dennard, John Giblin, Mike Clark, Frank Katz, Kenny Grohowski and Chris Clark.
Jazz bass is the use of the double bass or electric bass guitar to improvise accompaniment ("comping") basslines and solos in a jazz or jazz fusion style. Players began using the double bass in jazz in the 1890s to supply the low-pitched walking basslines that outlined the chord progressions of the songs. From the 1920s and 1930s Swing and big band era, through 1940s Bebop and 1950s Hard Bop, to the 1960s-era "free jazz" movement, the resonant, woody sound of the double bass anchored everything from small jazz combos to large jazz big bands.
Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking. The term "fingerstyle" is something of a misnomer, since it is present in several different genres and styles of music—but mostly, because it involves a completely different technique, not just a "style" of playing, especially for the guitarist's picking/plucking hand. The term is often used synonymously with fingerpicking except in classical guitar circles, although fingerpicking can also refer to a specific tradition of folk, blues and country guitar playing in the US. The terms "fingerstyle" and "fingerpicking" are also applied to similar string instruments such as the banjo.
The electric upright bass (EUB) is an instrument that can perform the musical function of a double bass. It requires only a minimal or 'skeleton' body to produce sound because it uses a pickup and electronic amplifier and loudspeaker. Therefore, a large resonating structure is not required to project the sound into the air. This minimal body greatly reduces the bulk and weight of the instrument. EUBs must always be connected to an amplifier and speaker cabinet to produce an adequate audible sound. The EUB retains enough of the features of the double bass so that double bass players are able to perform on it.
Juan Alderete de la Peña is an American musician. He is best known as the longtime bassist of Racer X and for his tenures in the Mars Volta and Marilyn Manson.
A fretless bass is an electric bass guitar whose neck lacks frets and thus is smooth like traditional string instruments, and like the neck of an acoustic double bass. While the fretless bass is played in all styles of music, it is most common in pop, rock, and jazz. It first saw widespread use during the 1970s, although some players used them before then.
Do They Hurt? (1980) is the fifth album by British jazz fusion group Brand X. The tracks on this album are outtakes from the Product sessions.
John Goodsall was a British-American progressive rock and jazz fusion guitarist most noted for his work with Brand X, Atomic Rooster, and The Fire Merchants.
Wal is a brand of electric bass guitar manufactured by Electric Wood Ltd, first in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire and later in Fetcham, Surrey, England. The company was started in 1974 by a guitar builder and an electronics expert Ian Waller and luthier Pete Stevens. Since 2009, the company has been run by Paul Herman.
Product is the fourth studio album by British jazz fusion group Brand X, originally released in 1979. It features primary member Phil Collins back once again on drums following his absence on Masques. Drummer Mike Clark and bassist John Giblin also appear on this album. Two of the album's tracks - "Soho" and "Wal to Wal" - were largely recorded at Phil Collins' Old Croft home in Shalford, Surrey.
Masques is the third album by the British jazz fusion group Brand X. This was the band's first studio recording without drummer Phil Collins. The rear of the album cover has a photo of the crowd from the Knebworth Festival, 1978 — a bill that included both Brand X and Genesis, Collins' other band.
Robbie Merrill is an American bassist, best known as a founding member of the rock bands Godsmack and Another Animal. He was featured in the Behind the Player interactive music video.
Guitar picking is a group of hand and finger techniques a guitarist uses to set guitar strings in motion to produce audible notes. These techniques involve plucking, strumming, brushing, etc. Picking can be done with:
In music performance and education, thumb position, not a traditional position, is a string instrument playing technique used to facilitate playing in the upper register of the double bass, cello, and related instruments, such as the electric upright bass. To play passages in this register, the player shifts their hand out from behind the neck and curves the hand, using the side of the thumb to press down the string; in effect, the side of the thumb becomes a movable nut (capo).
