Teaching music students about the Double Bass and Cello?

Here are a few simple classroom games you can play to help your students learn about the cello and double bass in the music classroom.

To help students learn the parts of the instruments: play Pin the Parts on the Cellor or Double Bass (a variation on Pin the Tail on the Donkey). Simply have one student blindfolded and they have to pin the paper instrument parts (e.g., endpin, scroll) on a poster of a cello or double bass.

Another game they can play is to gather objects of different sizes, or collect pictures of such objects, or simply make a list of such objects (e.g., telephone, tree, beach ball, baseball, etc.)Show or speak pairs of objects, and have the students indicate the relative size relationships with the words cello (for small) and double bass (for large).e.g. baseball, beach ball would be cello, double bass, and train, feather would be double bass, cello This will reinforce the relative sizes of these instruments, which may be a little tricky to remember. If you have already covered the violin and viola, you can extend this game to include all four string instruments, i.e., comparing violin with cello and so on.

Here are a few excellent pieces featuring the cello and double bass:

Camille Saint-Saens, Carnival of the Animals, V. The Elephants (featuring double bass section). Several commercial recordings are available.

Pablo Casals plays J. S. Bach Suite No. 1 for Solo Cello (music begins at 0:53)

Elgar Cello Concerto, first movement