What do you call a stand up bass?

The double bass is the largest and lowest pitched string instrument used in modern orchestras. Sometimes it is called the contrabass, string bass, upright bass, or bass fiddle.

What is a bass pedal tone?

In music, a pedal point (also pedal note, organ point, pedal tone, or pedal) is a sustained tone, typically in the bass, during which at least one foreign (i.e. dissonant) harmony is sounded in the other parts.

What makes up the basso continuo?

A basso continuo is, in 17th- and 18th- century music, the bass line and keyboard part that provide a harmonic framework for a piece of music.

Why is upright bass called double bass?

The origin of the name of the double bass stems from the fact that its initial function was to double the bass line of large ensembles. This hefty instrument has several nicknames including contrabass, string bass, bass, bass viol, bass fiddle, or bull fiddle.

Is a stand up bass a cello?

A cello is a smaller instrument played by sitting down and placing it between the knees, a ‘stand up bass’ (double bass) is an octave lower than the cello and is taller than the musician.

What is the sound of double bass?

Heavy, weighty, dark, weightless, wafting, somber, earthy, resonant, rasping, broad, hollow, dull, mighty, menacing, violent, mellow, sustaining, aspirate.

Why are pedals called tones?

Pedal tones (or pedals) are special low notes in the harmonic series of brass instruments. Its name comes from the foot pedal keyboard pedals of a pipe organ, which are used to play 16′ and 32′ sub-bass notes by pressing the pedals with the player’s feet.

What is a sustained tone?

As Abel stated, a sustained tone is one note being held (often continually) while the harmony or chord pattern around it changes. A sustained tone is one that is chosen by the musician or writer, purely for its effect. In this song, it is the D note (3rd fret on the B string) that is the sustained tone.

What is ground bass in music?

ground bass, also called basso ostinato (Italian: “obstinate bass”), in music, a short, recurring melodic pattern in the bass part of a composition that serves as the principal structural element.

What is basso continuo and what is its relationship to figured bass?

Basso continuo refers to a continuous bass line with improvised harmonies in Baroque period music. The term can also refer to the instruments that play the bass line and harmonies. Basso continuo performers play, or realize, a variety of abbreviated music notation symbols called figured bass.