Contra-Alto clarinet

[MaryAnn]

The Air Force Band concert that closed up ITEC had a short solo in one of the pieces on a contra-alto clarinet.

I WANT ONE!!!

MA

[Donn]

Bleah. That was where I decided to pick up the tuba, sitting in the Eb contrabass clarinet chair. I showed up proposing to play bass clarinet, and I still think the bass clarinet has some redeeming virtues, but the contrabass clarinets just don't have enough going on, for the trouble. They seem to end up in the hands of way-out jazz artists who use them to make random groaning noises.

I always wanted to try contrabassoon, and maybe the new Eppelsheim tubax (a saxophone family contrabass, but narrower than a real saxophone.) I wouldn't expect a lot of a contrabassoon as a solo instrument, either, but for a contrabass I love the timbre.

[Dan Schultz]

The Air Force Band concert that closed up ITEC had a short solo in one of the pieces on a contra-alto clarinet.

I WANT ONE!!!

MA

How 'bout one of these?

Here's the mouthpiece for it... that's a bari sax reed in the picture!

[iiipopes]

I sat next to low woodwinds all through high school. They were indispensable in making the tubas sound better. Seriously, an Eb contra-alto clarinet is a vital part of a fully orchestrated concert band. A good friend of mine has a Selmer with both a woodgrain and tone to die for. But we play in different bands. On the rare occasion he sits in with my band, or I sit in with his, I always try to sit next to him or as close as possible so we can work on blending together to broaden the foundation of the entire band.

When I was in high school, my band director had the knack to pick the absolutely perfect person(s) out of the entire large clarinet section to play low reeds. One girl in particular was only average as a regular Bb clarinet clarinet, sitting in the middle of second section. But when he transferred her to contra-alto, she made all-state band!

Yes, the contra-alto clarinet, in concert band, is indispensable.

[Tuba Guy]

I was always a contrabass player (just because that's what my school had). It can be a lot of fun if you're comfortable reading bass clef. When I played it at state, there were a few songs that didn't have a part, so I just read off the tuba part. The horn has a lot more potential than most people think...

[bearphonium]

A fellow who just joined my marching band primarily plays bari sax, but he brought his contra-alto clarinet a few weeks ago. I loved the sound, and I think that for sit-down gigs, it would be awesome. I had never heard one, and I really enjoyed it.

[tubaforce]

Hi, everyone! My oldest plays a Paperclip Contrabass in a very good Wind Ensemble with me. He is a natural on the big Clarinets, and adds a lot to the sound of the group! I don't know how he does it, but he can make that thing RUMBLE! The group performs a lot of modern, challenging works in addition to the "standards"! I double on Upright bass a lot with the group, and if I'm not doubling the Tubas, I'm with him. It's my understanding that the Contra bass was designed to take the place of scoring String Bass with the Clarinet choir. Most modern works seem to be scored for the BBb instrument, rather than the Eb, and he reads the Bass sax part on older stuff! (I can't imagine how good a Bass Sax man would have to be to play pp passages!) Also, If you come across an older BBb, you'll need the modern mouthpiece, designed to share reeds with Bass Sax and Eb Contra Clarinets! AND also one COMPETENT repair tech., especially when it comes to the paper clip style axes! I paid Dan Oberloh good money to un-do work performed by a pretender on Don's(son) current axe! It's amazing how little it takes to knock a 15-20 thousand dollar axe out of adjustment! Al.

[Donn]

Most modern works seem to be scored for the BBb instrument, rather than the Eb, and he reads the Bass sax part on older stuff! (I can't imagine how good a Bass Sax man would have to be to play pp passages!)

A bass sax can play pretty quiet, it just has to be in good working condition.

If it's OK for the Bb contrabass to read bass sax parts, then note that the Eb contrabass may read tuba parts. The notation is similar, the range is about the same, and there's always a tuba part in band music. The Bb contrabass may have its own part, in part, because it needs its own part.

A contra-alto mouthpiece (with some big-fat-@$$ cork to compensate) will NOT play a contra-bass very well. Further, I've found that the original Leblanc contra-bass mouthpieces (if still there, and intact) play the "paperclip" contra-bass clarinets quite well.

The one I played took an unusually large reed. In the '80s, the only reed large enough was the Vandoren contrabass clarinet reed. This being before the Internet, I had to call the factory for that information, after disappointments with the Rico contrabass/contra-alto reed. Currently all I see from Vandoren is labelled `contra-alto/contrabass.' I think the mouthpiece make was actually Vito, but the instrument was LeBlanc.

[bearphonium]

My friend Meg Graff and "Big George". She plays in a group called "Calamaty Jazz". She takes the left wheel of her chair so Big George has a place to go. She also plays flute in our marching band.

big george 1.JPG

[tubaforce]

Hi! We ended up buying a new BBb mouthpiece from ww/bw 6 years ago when the supply of N.O.S. Contra-Bass reeds started to dry up! I'm not sure when the official change took place, but the second paper clip my son uses came stock with the new design mouthpiece. It is almost identical to the ww/bw unit he was using! Al.

[colinbugby]

Managed to pick up an old Leblanc paperclip Eb on eBay in September. It came with a Zinner contrabass mouthpiece. It really is huge compared to a Bari sax mouthpiece. Fun to play though.

[GC]

They're fun to play, but of limited utility.