The Bass in Fifths

[Johnny Layton]

Originally Posted by Jeff Moote

• Do any of you currently tune in 5ths?
• Have any of you tried it and gone back? If so why - was it the left hand challenges, or was it lack of acceptance by your peers or teacher(s)?
• For those who are tuned in 5ths: What strings are you using? Who have you studied under - did you keep your teacher at the time, or did you find another (who was either more open minded or a 5ths player themselves)?
• For those who've never tried it: What are your thoughts? Have you heard someone tuned in 5ths perform live?

I tune in 5ths now...have been doing it off and on for almost a year now I think. The hardest part was finding useful fingering patterns to play some things I liked that sat on the fingerboard more conveniently in 4ths.

I went to one of the pros (Jessica Gilliam-Valls) the Austin area last year to take some lessons (something I do whenever I am able), and I had my bass tuned in 5ths when I started. After talking about it with her and trying out a few things, she directed me to Silvio Dalla Torre's 4-finger method. I've been following his method since, though it's written for a 4ths tuned bass. I was pretty much sold on Silvio's method before I went to her for help, because I got to hear him play and prove his fingering ideas when he came to Austin last year.

I picked up a cello method also and am pacing slowly through it...mostly to get accustomed to where the notes sit on the fingerboard, which is different for all but the D string. I have Masuzzo's book now also, and am using that also to train myself to read better. Masuzzo employs Simandl and Rabbath type fingerings in his method, just in case anybody wants to know.

Here in Texas I know of no teachers who use the 4-finger approach all over the fingerboard, and Paul Unger's interest in 5ths tuning is the only evidence I have of any professional bassist and/or teacher using it. When I was taking lessons with Jessica, she herself didn't tune her bass in 5ths and was wary to do so because she also plays the cello and didn't want to take the chance she'd sabotage her muscle-memory for them.

I'm using the Red Mitchell spiro set right now which I like very much with the bow and with pizz, but I haven't found a low C that I'm completely happy with yet. Sometimes I like the spiro C best, other times I find the Helicore hybrid B best. Likely, it's my own bowing technique that is giving me grief and I just need to woodshed it. I've tried other solo/orchestra string combinations...corellis, helicores, flexocores. Though I haven't tried the dominant set Joel Quarrington recommends yet, I'm sure that's a great combo too.

I have few, if any, peers as I'm an amateur bassist and I like to experiment. But like I said we've got at least one pro bassist experimenting with it here in Texas, and as far as my experience in getting help from the pros around me goes they've all been open-minded with me to at least some degree.