Bass instrument
A bass instrument (/beɪs/) is a musical instrument that produces tones in the low-pitched range C2–C4.[1] Basses belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles. Since producing low pitches usually requires a long air column or string, the string and wind bass instruments are usually the largest instruments in their families or instrument classes.
A difficulty in categorizing instruments is that some instruments fall into more than one category. The cello is considered a tenor instrument in some orchestral settings, but in a string quartet it is the bass instrument.[citation needed]
A musician playing one of these instruments is often known as a bassist. Other more specific terms such as 'bass guitarist', 'double bassist', 'bass player', may also be used.
Examples
Plucked string instruments
Plucked string instruments classified as basses include the electric bass guitar, the acoustic bass guitar, folk instruments like contrabass guitar, guitarrón mexicano, tololoche, bass banjo or bass balalaika.
The electric bass guitar is usually the instrument referred to as a "bass" in pop and rock music. The electric bass guitar, while invented in the 1930s by Paul Tutmarc, was first mass-produced by Leo Fender in 1951 and quickly replaced the more unwieldy double bass among non-classical musicians.[2]
Bowed string instruments
Bowed string instruments, include the double bass, the cello and the violone.
The double bass is usually the instrument referred to as a "bass" in
Mozart called the cello the most common bass instrument in his time, and in chamber music of the late eighteenth century, the cello was specified more often as the bass instrument (Basso) than the double bass.[4]
Voice
A bass singer has the lowest vocal range of all voice types, typically a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C (i.e., E2–E4).[5]
In SATB four-part choral singing, the letter B stands for bass, which is the lowest of the four vocal sections.
The basso profondo is a subtype of the bass voice type able to sing low notes, extending to C2 and possibly lower.[citation needed]
Wind instruments
A
Other
Washtub bass, a simple folk instrument. Also known as a "gutbucket", it is generally believed to have derived from the African ground bow.[9]
Further reading
- Media related to Bass instruments at Wikimedia Commons
- ISBN 0-674-37501-7. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
References
- ISBN 978-1-4822-0850-4.
- ISBN 978-0-8108-7898-3.
- ISBN 978-0-8108-8444-1.
- JSTOR 830968.
- Grove Music Online. Archivedfrom the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 14 June 2006.; The Oxford Dictionary of Music gives E2–E4/F4
- ^ Hopkins, Lucas. The Bass Saxophone: A Historical Account and Performer's Guide (Thesis).
- ISBN 978-0-521-56522-6.
bass horns serpent tuba.
- ISBN 978-1-317-01837-7.
- ISBN 978-1-61703-343-8.