Holding an Upright Bass

Video Transcript

"Okay, this is Don Rovero. I'm back talking with you about beginning to learn the upright bass. Now we're going to talk about how to set up your bass and get it ready to play. You'll notice, if you watched the earlier clips, the bass is a lot lower now. My goal, when I'm playing, is I want to have this part of the bass, the nut, up above my eye level. Right now, if I was to try to play, I would be leaning over a lot and I would just be asking for back problems and having a lot of problems playing. So what I'm going to do first, is lay the bass down on its side carefully, and I'm going to unscrew the end pin and pull it out to the height that I need in order to be able to play comfortably. Now, I happen to know for this one, I need these three notches out, I'm going to tighten up and make double sure that it's in there. And then, we stand it back up and you'll notice now, this is above my eye level, just about at eyebrows. I can comfortably reach up here and I can play on the bass without bending or stooping. Now to hold the bass, you're just going to turn it, move it into your body like that, your leg will hold it in back and, ideally, you won't need any hands to hold it. Keep them close just in case and let's get started with playing more on the bass."