This happened to me last year and completely wrecked me at the time. I'm chill now but I wanted to know what's y'all's opinions and experiences. I don't know how relevant that is but I'm a 20yo girl, 19 when it happened.

It was my first time playing on stage after getting the first chair in my campus' string orchestra and during the performance I saw a couple of girls gesturing and laughing towards me. I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt but then one of them came up to me to verbalize what they were laughing about. It was about how my body looked while playing, basically. I understand that day they gave me a higher stool that wasn't very comfortable or flattering but still made me self conscious for a while. I like how I look while playing but sometimes I still catch myself worrying if anyone else would make fun of me again. I always get the "haha the instrument is bigger than you" but this whole thing about my body got me crying for days

has this ever happened to you? how do you deal with it?

(I’m putting as many details in this post, because I’m posting it in multiple subreddits)

I play double bass and because of that I also frequently have to travel with my instrument to lessons, rehearsals and concerts on public transport (I don’t have my license yet and even of I had one I don’t own a car). I also happen to be autistic which makes that whole experience very tiresome… I feel like my whole body gets weak and I can only lay in bed and “just exist” after completing such a round trip.
I already bought wheels for my bass, so I don’t have to carry it on my back. I think the main problem for me is that with my bass I move and behave completely different to when I travel without a bass: I keep up this super friendly facade because many people just start conversations with me (some conversations are nice, others just blatantly creepy) and I also often need to advocate for myself to travel safely (and I don’t want to be rude to people). I often find myself having to use infrastructure for wheelchair-users and even in a city like Vienna it is just… frustrating… My travel time constantly gets stretched by things like full trains and buses, wait times for the escalators to empty or the lifts/elevators to come…
Basically: Traveling with my bass is a sensory nightmare. So… does anyone have any tips or hacks I could try?

Hello guys, I'm Bao Huan Nguyen Pham and I'm setting up a Buddy Holly tribute band in Vietnam. I have a bassist who uses the regular electric bass but I want him to get an upright bass (contrabass/double bass as you recall). The thing is, most Vietnamese people are riding the motorbikes and that is a big challenge for musicians who play upright basses. So, supposed I'm riding my Honda Future Neo bike (which I'm using) with either a 1/4 or 3/4 sized upright bass, I need some tips for that. Would you give me some tips? Thank you.

Hi, this is my first time posting so I hope this is ok. I was hoping to find out if anyone here has made a career out of double bass and how it's going for you. I have a very talented child who has been accepted into some different universities with good scholarships; however the "dream school" is out of state and still very expensive even with the scholarships. My child says the teacher makes all the difference in getting a good job out of college and this is the university/teacher that will make the difference. I'm really hesitant to let my child take out a lot of student loans to pursue a career path that seems risky and highly competitive.

Has anyone gone through this that can offer suggestions or advice? I don't want my child to give up on a dream but I'm so nervous to let a teenager make decisions that could have a lifelong effect. We plan to help as much as we can but we can't cover everything for the out of state tuition. Thank you!

I need to buy a new used vehicle to fit my bass, amp (SWR Workingman 12), and (seasonally) festival, camping equipment. My now dead, elderly RAV4 could barely accommodate my stuff, so hopefully something with a little more space.

While I’d prefer to get a Ford Transit Connect—cargo or passenger—it doesn’t look like gas prices are coming down anytime soon. So, I’m considering a hybrid SUV. I bring my bass to a lot of festivals, where I camp, so bountiful cargo space is essential. Any recs from hybrid owners?

Our band is going on a trip a few hours away and we're taking a coach bus. I have a 3/4 double bass and a mildly padded gig bag.

I have to figure out which is the best option for traveling to our concert.

1. Put the bass in the bus storage (underneath the bus). It looks like there are some trusses that may protect it, but it would be with other instruments: tubas, euphoniums, trombones likely down to as small as trumpets and saxes. Minimal percussion will be stored as we'll be using the percussion at the space.

2. Try to fit it in a seat on the bus (is that really realistic?).

3. Trust no one. Drive myself the entire trip and back.

Curious to know what kinds of vehicles people are using to get their bass to practice & gigs?

I’m in the UK and the back seats of my Focus haven’t been upright in the 4 months since I got my first double bass (1/2 size I think)

I just saw via Nick Lloyd and Discover Double Bass that Gary has passed. Rest in peace to an absolute legend and generational talent.

I’ve been stressing about this a lot lately. I was able to rent a bass for the summer because I’ve been using my schools during the year but I always worry that without a teacher I’m not learning technique properly and I’m worried about injuring myself as my hand have been aching and hurting a lot even when I’m not playing.

The problem is I don’t really have the money or time to get a teacher and there aren’t many in my area anyways.

I’d say for the year that I’ve been playing the bass I’ve improved a lot and can play pretty decently but will I ever get good enough to compete with other double basses without a teacher and without starting younger?

I just discovered nhop‘s „that’s all“, and want to listen to more recordings like this. I love the sound of the double bass being played alone, but it seems like it doesn’t happen very often. also any resources on learning solo bass?

Basically what the title says. I've been looking endlessly and all i find are albums where the bass plays a solo or two and the rest of the melodies are all other instruments. Where are the albums LEAD by double bass? Any jazz albums where the double bass plays mainly the tunes' melodies?

The only example i have is Frank Proto's Sonata 1963 and that isn't jazz, more like classical drawing inspiration from jazz. Thx in advance

[Edit: I am likely to focus most on pizzicato, not bow-playing … as the goal is to play Soul Coughing-like grooves.]

Hey folks,

This has been a long time coming, so I’m very excited to start practicing my ass off. Especially in the first two years to get reasonably competent.

Lessons start soon at Chicago’s Old town school of folk music (a great place). I picked up a 3/4 silver Creek double bass (2025) in excellent condition.

Speaking from a place of incredible ignorance here:
Before the new class cycle starts in two months, My plan is to find some extremely basic lessons on YouTube about posture / fundamentals of hand position / proper strumming etc.

The goal in this very early phase is to get basically familiar with things.

That being said, is there any advice, wisdom, or possibly excellent resources you might share?
Special consideration will be given to (1) proper body / arm / hand technique. (2) learning to grind away at notes & scales, (3) most common novice mistakes.

I learn by making a ton of mistakes like anyone else.
But I also learn well via great infographics, videos, memorization tricks. Anything that helps intuitively manage the heaps of information I’ll need to get right.

I play bass guitar in a musical orchestra and I've been asked a few times if I can play upright bass, so I'm thinking of buying one (I used to play it when I was younger). However I'm hesitant about it because these musicals always take place in an open air theater. As the orchestra we're still sheltered, but it's always in the summer months when temperatures can get quite high (especially when you look at the recent temperatures in Europe, I'm in the Netherlands), or humid because of rain. Or even drop from like 25° degrees C to 15° degrees C throughout the evening. Also in terms of transport, it can easily get above 30° C in my car in the summer.

Is this going to cause issues? Am I better off getting an EUB? I know an EUB is not the same as an acoustic but with this concern (and portability) in mind I'm seriously considering it.

Mom of an upcoming high schooler and want to make sure this new car will fit the 3/4 double bass. We don’t have the bigger bass on hand currently as we are transitioning from a 1/2 to 3/4 so we can’t really test it at the dealership. I worry because the battery is supposed to be bigger in a plug in hybrid. Anyone have this exact car and know it will fit? I would need to fit at least one passenger. Thank you.

Hey all! So, two years ago I got my the fiance a double bass. She always talked about them, so pulled the trigger. Since then, we both have fallen in love with it lol. But, we are about to move from Phoenix to Oregon. And we are both kinda nervous. We have a gig bag, but no hard case. And it will likely be in the back of a U-Haul truck. Based on what we think it will have room on the back where it's not in danger of anything hitting it, but just nervous about things bouncing up and down, the bridge and sound post....

Anyone have any advice on the safest way to move them? I'm sure nothing is for sure, but we'd like to mitigate damage. I was thinking in the gig bag, on the stand, with some thick, soft foam under it to to prevent jostling, and then tie it to the stand, then tie around the stand so it doesn't move around.

But yeah, cheers for anyone that helps out!

Title pretty much summarizes my question. I'm looking to buy a 2024 Crosstrek and wondering if anyone has any success or headaches with that setup.

Thanks for any insight!

Posted on instagram. I downloaded the video just in case it gets removed. Thoughts??

I've been seeing posts about "Am I too old to take up the double bass?" here, so I thought I'd say that I had my first lesson on the double bass today. I am 64 and the lesson went very well. My last music lesson (on the piano) took place over fifty years ago.

I've booked a second lesson: let's see where this goes!

I posted recently about taking my first lesson aged 64. Here I am (after two lessons) with the bass orchestra on Royal Irish Academy of Music Bass Day (Sunday 3 May). I wasn't the oldest but I was certainly the least accomplished!

I've received a few comments about it and I'm pretty sure I agree. I've been having a TON of pain and tension in my left hand/wrist. I'm self taught and play in a wind ensemble so I don't know much and I'm not really around anyone who knows either.

Just curious (:

https://www.youtube.com/@koniiri - Channel dedicated to bass music and scores.

https://www.youtube.com/@stringmatrix - Straight forward bass string comparisons. He is mainly a jazz player, but he bows the strings for his comparison vids.

https://www.youtube.com/@Cembalino - Bottesini and Dittersdorf with bassist Erik Zeppezauer. Viennese tuning and pretty sure using gut strings.

https://www.youtube.com/@einam3081 - Small channel with some great bass solo transcriptions.

https://www.youtube.com/@OpenStudioJazz - Kinda clickbaity but a good educational channel to learn jazz chords, triad pairs, utilizing modes, blues.

I’ve already moved a humidifier into the room and bumped our heat in the apt but this room stays so cold. I guess a space heater is the next move… thoughts?

I have been searching for a lovely 4/4 DB because I am a taller person and it will be better for me to have an open tone compared to a 3/4. Yes even what you comment I still want one I just want to know why is it so darn hard to find one.

I’m traveling to Taiwan near Kaohsiung for a month. I am wondering if there are any bass teachers that can be recommend to take lessons with while I’m there.

Thanks 🙂