The Elephant C. Saint-Saens Double Bass Mandolin Orchestra

[Custardfishfingers]

I love playing this piece (: I learnt it in year 6...

[chiMITCHanga]

He is not holding the bow wrong. There are two styles. German grip (the one he's using) and French grip, which is more traditional

[FilmComposeRaHoppe]

Your double bass sounds outstandingly good and your performance is great either.

[ibkpepper]

i play the bass i am in 6th grade. he is good. go bass players

[thumpie0619]

Wow! What a wonderful Bass! It has AWESOME sound!

[hiyathere981]

quite nice, but it doesn't seem like an elephant stomping. it sounds gentler than that.

[lamagala]

adoro esta pieza!!

[cbrashawnm]

nice for a key change but i prefer Bb major :o

[TJTJ2009]

i am in year 8 in school

[TJTJ2009]

Im in year 8 and im doing this peice in same key

very, very hard

[StopTheMoti0n]

year 8 of what

[BassBroMike]

Wow ive never heard this played in a different key than the original

[TimHowardII]

@BassBroMike I somehow played that tune to calm a toddler down using my mouth playing a trombone (or tuba), but I did it in E-flat, and I stuffed up the first key change.

[be4user]

Hmm the idea of a huuuuge, earthshaking animal is not expressed too much, to be frank i would call that piece "Little Elephant". Yet, very good interpretation as it suits the mandolins very well, the legatos, as i presume, are played also to lighten the sound a bit. I like it. But in my humble opinion Elephant should be Elephant - played with tons of POPS Rosin, steady, hard german grip and accented on the staccatos.

[Sabrina483]

Humble? you call that response to this video humble?!

That's inane! Work on your humility, and practice the bass yourself instead of criticizing professional performances, smartass.

[be4user]

well, i am practising about 4-6 hours a day. I am sorry if i seemed rude to you, that comment wasn't supposed to be criticising, and i don't think it is. Once again i say it is a beutiful piece of music and an interesting interpretation, very very well done to suit the sound of the mandolins.

[Sabrina483]

:]

It's good to know that you're an ambitious person.

I practice at least an hour at home daily, then again, I'm just a high school teenager. However, Saint-Saens is a wonderful composer. I remember playing this piece as a solo performance at my last concert.

[JupiterAdept]

Good playing, but his bow hold is too loose and elegant for this piece. In fact, I've never seen such a delicate german grip xD.

Maybe he did it on purpose because it wouldn't suit the light sound of a mandolin orchestra, though..

[naitsianoymom]

Isn't he holding the bow wrong? Just saying.

[exavian1]

No he is using the german bow and for the german bow there is really no wrong way to hold it.

[lexiwaswrong]

There are right and wrong ways to hold it.. because I use german..

and I'm pretty sure he's holding it right but it does look a little weird

[exavian1]

Yea but what i ment is there are many different ways to hold the german bow.

[combustionexplosion]

@exavian1 i think that he is holding the bow right, but there are wrong ways to hold it, just many many less wrong ways than the French bow. I'v eplayed both, and I agree that the german is much harder to play wrong though. :)

[violinistx100]

no I believe it's the German technique of bass bowing.

[hugh4893]

lol oh... the elephant... there's not much else to say.

[jrloser]

sounds cool!

[syren345]

Sounds good. I think it's in a different key than the one I usually hear though.

[syren345]

The mandolins give this peice a very foreign sound. Quite a unique sound! Very exotic.

[catstuffer]

it is a very famous song. Any yes, i think the idea is that its a big elephant prancing along (as best as an elephant can)

[futurebass09]

i would like it better if it was a more elephant like stomping...if it makes sense. i picture an elephant walking when i listen to this song. otherwise, nice.

[13thMaster]

I am going to be performing this piece as a Double-Bass solo for my Music GCSE, and this video is really helping my practice. Watching the movements of your bassist encourages me to continue practicing, and shows how well the piece can be played. =)

Well done and thank-you!

[guitars2112]

sounds great, i never knew bass had such a bold timbre like this.