page_title: Double bass
section_title: Body and hand position
hierarchical_section_title: Double bass / Playing and performance considerations / Body and hand position
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Renaud Garcia-Fons, französischer KontrabassistEnglish: Renaud Garcia-Fons, French double-bass player and composerFrançais&#160;: Renaud Garcia-Fons, contrebassiste et compositeur français
context_page_description: The double bass, also known simply as the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra.
  The bass is a standard member of the orchestra's string section, as well as the concert band, and is featured in concertos, solo, and chamber music in Western classical music. The bass is used in a range of other genres, such as jazz, 1950s-style blues and rock and roll, rockabilly, psychobilly, traditional country music, bluegrass, tango and many types of folk music.
  The bass is a transposing instrument and is typically notated one octave higher than tuned to avoid excessive ledger lines below the staff. The double bass is the only modern bowed string instrument that is tuned in fourths, rather than fifths, with strings usually tuned to E₁, A₁, D₂ and G₂.
  The instrument's exact lineage is still a matter of some debate, with scholars divided on whether the bass is derived from the viol or the violin family.
  The double bass is played with a bow, or by plucking the strings, or via a variety of extended techniques. In orchestral repertoire and tango music, both arco and pizzicato are employed.
context_section_description: Double bassists either stand or sit to play the instrument. The instrument height is set by adjusting the endpin such that the player can reach the desired playing zones of the strings with bow or plucking hand. Bassists who stand and bow sometimes set the endpin by aligning the first finger in either first or half position with eye level, although there is little standardization in this regard. Players who sit generally use a stool about the height of the player's trousers inseam length.
  Traditionally, double bassists stood to play solo and sat to play in the orchestra or opera pit. Now, it is unusual for a player to be equally proficient in both positions, so some soloists sit (as with Joel Quarrington, Jeff Bradetich, Thierry Barbé, and others) and some orchestral bassists stand.
  When playing in the instrument's upper range (above G₃, the G below middle C), the player shifts the hand from behind the neck and flattens it out, using the side of the thumb to press down the string. This technique—also used on the cello—is called thumb position. While playing in thumb position, few players use the fourth (little) finger, as it is usually too weak to produce reliable tone (this is also true for cellists), although some extreme chords or extended techniques, especially in contemporary music, may require its use.
caption: French double-bass player and composer Renaud Garcia-Fons during a performance
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