Advice please:

Daughter started playing double bass in Sept '10, and has taken to it really well. So well in fact that she will be playing in a couple of youth-group concerts at the start of March. Although the DB (1/2 size) itself is provided by the music service, I need to provide a stool and a foot-holder-thingy (do they have a name?).

I am finding it very hard to find a suitable stool, as they all seem too short (drum/piano stool) or too tall (bar-stool), and it will need to be a "concert" colour. It doesn't help that dimensions are usually given in cm, and my brain still sees height in inches!

I realise that it will depend on the leg length, but I need to know how a player should be using the stool. Is it:
Fully sat,
Cheeks on the pad
Perch, almost standing

Any advice would be gratefully received. And suggestions for on-line suppliers.


If you are wondering, she currently sits/perches on the edge of a set of plastic, stacking, toy-drawers that happen to be by the bed. Probably not the right thing for good posture!

PS she's 13 and 5'4

I don't play DB, but when i am at orchestra i notice the DB players are sort of perched on the stool rather than sat as such. Can you not buy one of those round stools that you can alter the height on, a bit like piano stools?--
--- only i thought you could. Is it easy for you to pop into a music shop and see some one?

It needs to be of a height where she can sit on the edge of the stool and still get at least one or possibly both feet flat on the floor (this depends on the playing posture she's been taught). She shouldn't be fully sat, but she might be somewhere between that and truly perching on it! If you think of writing-desk height that is generally a good rule of thumb.

I really sympathise- it's a nightmare! I spent ?200 on my stool, but then again I spend most of my working life sitting on it... My music service bought some laboratory stools from a school supplier and these work really well with our kids but unfortunately you can't get them as an individual.

I've known people use these:

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/60155602


http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/90156285