What does double bass tuning mean in music?

The instrument

Double bass tuning

Also: bass tuning, EADG

The double bass is tuned in perfect fourths, E1, A1, D2, G2, unlike the rest of the string family, which is tuned in perfect fifths.

The reason is hand span. On a string as long as the bass's, a perfect fifth exceeds what a hand can cover in one position, so fourths keep each position reachable. This is also why the bass inherited a fingering tradition from the viol family rather than the violin family, and why Simandl fingerings use three fingers rather than four in the lower positions.

Many orchestral basses add a low C extension on the E string, operated by mechanical levers, to reach the notes below E1 that composers from Beethoven onward wrote. A five-string bass with a low B is the other common solution.

Simandl fingerings: Simandl fingerings are the standard orchestral double bass system, using the first, second, and fourth fingers in the lower positions because the hand spans only a whole step there.
Transposing instrument: A transposing instrument is one whose written notes sound at a different pitch than notated, such as the double bass, which sounds an octave below what is written.
Open string: An open string is a string played with no left-hand finger stopping it, sounding the pitch the string is tuned to.
Position: A position is a fixed placement of the left hand on the fingerboard, numbered by which note the first finger falls on, so that a set of pitches is reachable without moving the hand.

Every term in this glossary is taught in context somewhere in Arco's curricula, on the staff, on the keyboard, and on your own fingerboard at the same time.

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