Double Bass 101: Thinking Like A Bassist, A High Calling

“How come we never get the melody?” “My part is boring!”

Perhaps you’ve heard this lament from the bass section of your orchestra or rhythm section bassist. As a middle school orchestra director, I know I’ve heard this sentiment at least a few times now in my teaching career. 

This lament always strikes me because I love the role of the bass in music. I’m a bassist, after all. I love my job as a bassist and I find the instrument to have a almost spiritual quality to it in the role that it is called to play in music. The bass, in my opinion, is a servant instrument or perhaps a servant-leader instrument. Just as we are called to serve others in our lives – to care for them, support them, so a bassist is called to serve the music, whatever it may be. Great bass players play the song and play what is needed. A bassist is called to support the musicians around them and help them to sound their best. Furthermore, the bass is the foundation of the music, the glue that holds everything together.

I’ve seen this mentality at work in the teachers and mentors I’ve been fortunate enough to be around and learn from. You can also hear it in the playing of the bassists many of us love and admire. Service, humility, openness, strength are all qualities, as far as I can see, that a bassist is called to rise to as the role is fulfilled. In other words, a bassist serves the music with humility while being open to the ideas of the musicians around them and strong in their abilities, approach, and rhythmic feel.

This is not to say that the bass cannot or isn’t at times at the forefront of an ensemble, but at the crux of the instrument is the notion of serving the music and being the foundation which everything else can rest on. 

I try to help my young bass students develop this mentality and have a humble pride in their role within the ensemble. If I hear the aforementioned lament, I know my young bassists need a reminder as to what their ‘calling’ is. It is a high calling. 

Foundation of the Music

This high calling is that their role is to be the foundation of the music. I give them the analogy of a house being built. I’m not a contractor nor do I know about the “in’s and out’s” of a houses’ construction, but without a foundation a house wouldn’t have much to stand on. The foundation of a house is what the house is built upon. It’s what makes the house able to stand and anchors it to the ground. And so, the bass is the foundation of the music. The bass is what all the other instruments are built upon and the bass anchors the ensemble in harmony, rhythm, and groove. Just as a house needs a foundation, so an ensemble needs the bass to be a  strong foundation – what everything else can be built upon.  

Therefore, the bass player should be one of the strongest members of the group. This is so because the ensemble rests upon the bass. It’s apparent when a student is missing from class or the intonation in the low string section is a bit off or the rhythm is not steady. Of course, every member of an ensemble is responsible for solid pitch and rhythm, but bassists especially need to have solid intonation, time, and ‘feel,’ out of all the members of the group, because the ensemble rests upon them. 

Engine of the band (or orchestra)

Similarly, the bass is the engine of the band (or orchestra). A car cannot move without the engine. The engine drives the car. The bass is the engine of the ensemble, the driving force behind the music. The bass provides rhythm, groove, the steady pulse, the heart-beat of the music. This idea exists in all types of music, especially music founded in dance. 

Bass Mentality

Bassists understand their role in the music. This idea, the bassist mentality, is what I hope to inspire my young bassists to understand and take pride in. To reiterate, the bass is the glue that holds everything together. The foundation for which the ensemble can rest easily upon. The engine that drives the group. This is the bassist mentality.

How can we foster this?

Point out the importance of the bass part within a piece. Play examples of world class bassists with excellent time, pitch, and feel. Acknowledge the ways in which the bass is driving the ensemble and is the foundation of the music. Point out when the bass has particular harmonic or rhythmic power within the ensemble In all these ways, we can help our young bassists develop a love and appreciation for their instrument and a pride in the important role they play within the music.

*Note: In writing this, I am grateful to three very special teachers who informally and formally, through their words and playing, stressed the role of the bass in music. Thank you Douglas Mapp, Mike Boone, and Jesse Kessler. Three world class bassists, teachers, and musicians. Also, to the stalwarts of the bass – past and present – who we all admire.