How to Tune the Upright Bass

Series Summary

From its original uses in medieval and classical music, to its ubiquitous use in jazz, the upright, or double bass is the monster of the low-toned family of instruments. Perhaps called “double” because of its uses as a low octave double for the cello, the upright bass is the backbone of any orchestra or band because it lays the sonic foundation for the movement of the notes and beats within a song.

Our expert will show you the basics of upright bass playing, including just figuring out what all the parts are called, how to make clear, precise notes, and how to maintain the bass and keep it in tune. For advanced players, he offers several lessons that can help expand your double bass playing into different styles and genres, as well as various techniques you can incorporate to add color and excitement to your basslines.

Some of the more skilled double bass players, such as Stanley Clarke, have made entire careers as solo artists, and perhaps you will too, if you pay close attention to the advice our expert gives in this video series.

Video Transcript

"Hi! I’m Branson Garner again, on behalf of Expert Village. In this segment, we are going to be talking about tuning the bass. Now the bass, to think about it, is tuned in fours, which means that each string is tuned a fourth step above the other one. The bass, this one, is tuned E, A, D, G. As you can see, that one is out of tune. So we’re going to ahead and tune it. In order to tune it, first, you take the bow, you hold it in the French styling, as you can see here; we will get to that later, in the later segment. You take the tuning pegs, according to each string. In this case, the G string is out of tune. You hit the harmonics, which are these notes that I’m playing right now. As you can hear, they are badly out of tune. You tune them up to make it sure that it is in tune. Almost there. As you can hear, it’s in tune, and the bass is now tuned."