Where does the range of a Cello

[crobbins]

Fall in a standard bass scale?

[terryc]

Got this from Wikipedia..thinking of playing some cello stuff on the bass crobbins??..there are plenty of midi files out there which you can download and open up in Cakewalk for the stave
 
 

[crobbins]

I started learning the Bach Cello Suite I Prelude. Still have a long ways to go. I figured it might be helpful for my playing technique.
 
http://abel.hive.no/trumpet/bach/cellosuite/

[terryc]

that looks a interesting piece to play,all 16th notes..I think I will have a go of that myself, thanks for the link crobbins..a challenge for future

[adriaan]

Steady as she goes, no need to play fast. 60 bpm should be fine, make sure it sounds like a dainty sort of dance.

[crobbins]

[bass6]

The open c is your fourth fret c on your a string. The open g ( on the cello ) is your open g. The open d is your 7th fret d on your g string and the open a is your 14 fret on the g string of your bass. Hope this helps out.

[bass6]

I see a mistake. The low c of the cello is the 3rd fret of the a string not the 4th.

[JimmyJ]

The confusion comes from the fact that bass (or double-bass) actually sounds an octave lower than written.  So if you are reading the cello music on a 5-string bass it is actually sounding an octave below the cello.  
The Bach suites are great practice material with the exception of the bits in tenor clef (which stop me cold) and #5 which was written for special tuning (!!)  Decoding that would take some thinking...
Jimmy J

[crobbins]

So far I'm just learning one measure at a time.
 
Has anyone tried tuning a 4 string bass like a cello?
 
Cellos are tuned in fifths, starting with C2 (two octaves below middle C) as the lowest string, followed by G2, D3, and A3. It is tuned the same way as the viola, but an octave lower.

[JimmyJ]

Good question!  Violin, viola, and cello are all tuned in fifths so that means somebody (several hundred years ago) decided the string length of the double bass either made the reach too large, or the top string too thin, or whatever, and they went to fourths.
 
Double bass string length is generally somewhere between 42-44 and cello is around 27.5.  So one would think that a short scale electric bass at around 30 could be played in fifths with a bit of effort...  Mandolin is fifths and roughly the same scale as violin but with frets.
 
I had heard a rumor that Jack Bruce used to do this.  I know he was a cello player so it could have happened, but I'm not sure.
 
And Allan Holdsworth, who also played violin, used a fifths tuning occasionally while playing the SynthAxe.  Some songs switched tunings mid-song.  He also had a couple guitars strung that way.  Yeah, crazy.
 
Jimmy J

[harald_rost]

Also the Chapman Stick (a Tapping instrument) has the bass strings tuned in 5th with the standard tuning!
Harald

[terryc]

just downloaded all pdf files, I think I had better get my Royal School of Music Theory book out of retirement and have a read.
Just a quick overview of this stuff would make a great bass solo!
It is actually an alto clef, the tenor one is a stave line higher

[terryc]

just downloaded all pdf files, I think I had better get my Royal School of Music Theory book out of retirement and have a read.
Just a quick overview of this stuff would make a great bass solo!
It is actually an alto clef, the tenor one is a stave line higher

[rami]

That piece is well transcribed  in J.S. Bach for Bass.  It also has tabs which help for positioning.
 
There's some really great stuff.  Cello Suites, Violin Partitas and Sonatas - all transcribed for the electric Bass.
 
Good luck -