Bass (instrument)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There are a range of musical instruments that can be collectively be regarded as bass instruments since they are in the bass range. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles, often going well beyond simply providing a rhythmic and harmonic foundation for other instruments to build on. What they have in common is that they are the lowest tuned and largest instruments of their respective families.
As will be seen from the page on musical instrument classification, categorizing instruments is far from simple but examples grouped by general form and playing technique include:
- Electric bass (also known as the bass guitar) and acoustic bass guitar, instruments shaped, constructed and held (or worn) like guitars, that play in the bass range.
- Double bass from the viol family (usually the instrument referred to as a "bass" in European classical music and jazz. Sometimes called a "string bass" to differentiate it from a "bass horn".)
- A bass horn, such as a tuba, serpent, and sousaphone from the wind family and low-tuned versions of specific types of brass and woodwind instruments, such as bass clarinet, bass trombone and bass saxophone, etc (less common usage)
- Washtub bass, a simple folk instrument
A musician playing one of these instruments is often known as a bassist, certainly in the first two cases, although other terms such as 'bass guitarist', 'double bassist', 'bass player', etc may be used instead.
