Plucky Strings and Peppy Percussion Strings and Percussion    

Lesson 14: Double Bass - Goldberg Variation 19

by Johann Sebastian Bach

Performer: Bdegazio

Directions

Study the musical selection for one week.

Over the week:

• Listen to the music daily.
• Recite the composer and composition names.
• Read the synopsis.
• Review the vocabulary terms.
• Read about the instrument category.
• Complete the enrichment activities.
• Study the review questions.

Synopsis

This lesson introduces the double bass, another stringed instrument. Like violins, violas, and cellos, double basses typically have a wooden body, a long neck, and four strings that musicians pluck with their fingers or rub with a bow. However, double bases are the largest instruments and produce the lowest and deepest sound. Musicians may stand or sit to the play the double bass. The musical composition for this lesson, 'Goldberg Variation 19,' by Johann Sebastian Bach, features the music of a double bass. The painting included in the lesson, 'The Woman with the Double Bass,' by Suzanne Valadon, shows a woman standing and playing a double bass.

Vocabulary

Double Bass: The largest and lowest-pitched instrument of the violin family, providing the bass line of the orchestral string section.

Category

Music lessons over the next two years group musical instruments into five major categories: strings, keyboards, percussion, brass, and woodwinds.

String instruments produce sound through the vibration of strings. Strings may be plucked or strummed with fingers, hit with hammers, or rubbed with a bow.

See a picture of strings below. Note that some strings are thicker and some are thinner.

The sound produced by a string depends in part on its thickness, its length, its tightness, and its material.

Instruments have multiple strings of varying thickness. Musicians playing instruments turn pegs to tighten or loosen the strings and change their sounds. Musicians also press their fingers against the strings to control the length of strings that vibrate and produce sound. Strings are made from materials such as nylon or steel.

String instruments include violins, violas, cellos, double basses, guitars, ukuleles, sitars, mandolins, banjos, and depending on who you ask, pianos.

Study the images of strings.

1. Viola Strings

2. Cello Strings

3. Guitar Strings

Enrichment

Activity 1: Study the Parts of a Double Bass

• Study the parts on the labeled picture of the double bass.

Activity 2: Compare and Contrast a Violin, Viola, Cello and a Double Bass

Examine the picture of the violin, the viola, and the cello.

• Which instrument has a scroll?
• Which instrument has a neck?
• Which instrument has a body?
• Which instrument has knobs?
• Which instrument has pegs?
• Which instrument has a chin rest?
• Which instrument has a bridge?
• Which instrument has f-holes?
• Which instrument has a tailpiece?
• Which instrument has an endpin?
• Which instrument is the smallest, and what is its name?
• Which instrument is the largest, and what is its name?

Activity 3: Quiz Yourself: Identify Double Bass Parts

Quiz yourself, and identify the following parts from memory on the double bass:

• Neck
• Body
• Four Strings
• F-Holes
• Tail Piece
• Bridge

Activity 4: Can You Find It?

Study the lesson image, 'The Woman with the Double Bass,' by Suzanne Valadon, and find the following:

• Woman Playing the Double Bass
• Bow
• Double Bass
• Double Bass Scroll
• Double Bass Neck
• Double Bass Pegs
• Double Bass Body
• Double Bass Bridge
• Double Bass F-holes
• Double Bass Endpin
• Double Bass Strings

Activity 5: Listen to a Double Bass

Listen to the recording of a double bass:

Review

Question 1

What are the five major groups of instruments listed in the lesson?

1 / 5

Answer 1

The five major groups of instruments are strings, keyboards, percussion, brass, and woodwinds.

1 / 5

Question 2

Which instrument does this lesson feature?

2 / 5

Answer 2

This lesson features the double bass instrument.

2 / 5

Question 3

How many strings do double basses have?

3 / 5

Answer 3

Double bases have four strings.

3 / 5

Question 4

What are the major parts of the double bass?

4 / 5

Answer 4

Major parts of the double bass include the scroll, pegs, neck, body, strings, bridge, f-holes, tailpiece, and endpin.

4 / 5

Question 5

What part does a double bass have that the violin and viola do not have?

5 / 5

Answer 5

Double basses have an endpin. Violins and violas do not have endpins.

5 / 5

❮ ❯

1. What are the five major groups of instruments listed in the lesson? The five major groups of instruments are strings, keyboards, percussion, brass, and woodwinds.
2. Which instrument does this lesson feature? This lesson features the double bass instrument.
3. How many strings do double basses have? Double bases have four strings.
4. What are the major parts of the double bass? Major parts of the double bass include the scroll, pegs, neck, body, strings, bridge, f-holes, tailpiece, and endpin.
5. What part does a double bass have that the violin and viola do not have? Double basses have an endpin. Violins and violas do not have endpins.

References

'String instrument.' Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. n.p.

'Double Bass.' Wikipedia. Wikipedia.org. n.p.

'Goldberg Variation 19 performed by Johann Sebastian Bach (CC BY-SA 3.0).' Wikimedia Commons. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:J.S.Bach-Goldberg_variation_19.ogg. n.p.