I’ve sampled a lot of YouTube videos featuring these, but the actual low notes the instruments are capable of are rarely used. The double bass for example is shown playing scores that could easily be played on a cello. So why go to all the trouble of making such a huge instrument if it’s range is largely unused?
You might find this of interest.
Even though they share some of the same range, the contrabass provides a deeper, richer tone by comparison. So, despite its entire range not being used (and we really wouldn’t be able to distinguish between those ultra low tones), it provides a warmth/depth that the cello can’t duplicate.
In addition, owing to its greater size, the double bass is generally much less agile than the cello. It takes a real virtuoso like Gary Karr to convincingly play cello repertoire like the Bach unaccompanied suites on the bass. I think of the bass as a bit like a dancing bear, as Stravinsky portrayed it in the Pulcinella Suite. It brings its own character to music, just as the cello does.
But, depending on what kind of speakers you’re listening to those YouTube videos on, you may not be able to hear those deeper, richer tones.
Note that these instruments are Transposing Instruments - their music is notated an octave above what they actually play. So, it may seem that they are playing the same as cellos, they are really playing an octave below.
Indeed! My wife and I play piano/bass at church, and whenever I see videos of us performing on any regular computer or device, I can’t hear the bass. When I put on good headphones, then I hear the amazing tones of the Fender Precision Bass.
Upright bass and electric bass are transposing instruments, by an octave.
(ninja’d!)
I spent years playing bass thinking that when I played the fifth fret of the G string I was playing Middle C. Indeed, when a bassist sees Middle C on sheet music, they play the fifth fret on the G string (or the 10th fret of the D string or…) but what actually comes out is the C below middle C.
So the low E string on a bass plays one octave below the E that is just below the bass clef.
That makes it difficult to hear those nuances without good headphones or being in person.
Absolutely true. There are many frequencies that once would hear with an orchestra in a concert hall that would be completely lost on, say, a set of earbuds, or certainly any sort of computer speaker unless it was a very high-end system.
Not sure what the OP is talking about. I play upright bass - both bluegrass/oldtime and classical. (Neither of my basses have low-C extensions.) A ton of classical music goes down to the low E (tho, as written on the staff, it is one octave higher.)
As others have mentioned, I often play cello parts which go below the low E, requiring reworking. In orchestral music, it is not uncommon for the basses and cellos to double each other, tho the bass sounds one octave lower. And in bluegrass/oldtime I prefer playing the root off the E string than from the D or G. E-minor may be my favorite key. A ton of music is in G and a lot of bassists feel the high G rings out more, but no one else has the rumble of my low G, so that’s where I live.