I am learning to play the bass through both Youtube and the Beginner to badass course.
I just came to realize that if I go to the music store I have no idea what the different parts of the bass - and other musical terms - are called in my own language
So I thought a little English vs. X-language dictionary might be useful. I did some google-ing and can now present to you all the terms in Danish.
Maybe players from other countries can continue this thread
I thought I was interesting that in Polish, fretboard is podstrunnica (lit. understrings ) instead of deska progĂłw (lit. board of frets). .
I think a pickup is either a pickup or a przetwornik.
@Ed
Gryf = neck
Menzura = scale (like: the scale of my bass is 34")
I also know the term “przystawka” for a pickup (“przetwornik” is probably a more professional, electric term)
Wait til you hear it pronounced… it is not like you think
To make a feeble attempt: the first part (“slag”) is more like “slow” (but rhyming with “cow”); the second part (“plade”) is two syllables (pla-de), the first sounds like the start of “plea(sure)” and the second like a very soft “the”
They say Danish is easier to pronounce when you have a potato in your mouth
@soren_ladegaard : I think you got most of the important ones. You could add “bridge”, which is not necessarily exactly the same as a saddle (I always think of the saddle as part of the bridge) - I don’t know whether this part is called “bro” in Danish!?
Also, “scale length” could be included; might be “mensur” in Danish!?! (From the term used in German)
And perhaps “action” could be translated to “strenghøjde” eller “strengehøjde”??
In Denmark you also hear a lot of people saying a c-scale like this:
c d e f g a H c
I don’t know if it’s an urban legend but I’ve been told that “a thousand years ago” a Danish munk was writing about music notation and because of sloppy handwriting the letter “b” looked like a small “h” and that has stuck ever since.
It wasn’t until I started the Beginner To Badass course that I realised that obviously it’s the alphabet going from A to G and that it doesn’t make sence throw an H in the mix
That is indeed an urban legend. Back then notation was invented (the first version only had pitches, no note lengths), there were 2 b’s:
The b-rotundum
and the b-quadratum.
They were one halfstep apart.
So in some languages, the b-rotundum became became the b (bb in english).
The b quadratum, as it has similarities with an h, became the h, because the original symbol didn’t translate well into print, many printers didn’t had a type for it.
Also: the symbol for b-quadratum later became what we now know as ♯ (sharp). And today again, this symbol often is written as a # (hash), as we can’t find it on a keyboard.