contrabass clarinet a.k.a. the contra alto

you ppl need to talk more about the contrabass clarinet

i play bs. clar. in my high school band.....along with the contra and .....i got a story.....the first time i played my contra with the full woodwind section it was kinda funny.......a good portion of the people just stopped and looked at me...(its lower than the bary sax so u kinda stick out) and no one had heard it before

anyway talk about the contra alto please i need to know there is more of us out there

I primarly play sax, but yes, I have played contrabass, and it is a pleasure to play. Love it.

Apparently not many people have played contrabass C.

The contrabass and contra-alto clarinets are NOT the same instrument. There are five clarinets: Sopranino in E-flat, Soprano in B-flat, Alto in E-flat, Bass in B-flat, Contra-alto in E-flat, and Contra-bass in B-flat.

ahhh.... yes, i missed the AKA part. My mistake. But, I still hold my place. Did you know that there are more saxaphone keys than clarinet keyes? Like ten or something. I`m getting them all!!! Ya, right.

You`re mistaken kate- there are tons of different keys of clarinets! I can certainly name more than five

I can think of only seven (Eb soprano, C soprano, Bb soprano, A soprano, Eb alto, Bb bass, Eb contra alto, Bb contra bass). And there`s the Basset horn in F, but it`s not really a clarinet (sorta). There may be more, but I haven`t seen them around lately.

I haven`t had a chance to play contra bass, but I`ve played contra alto on a couple occasions. That`s a fun instrument, though sadly I had to sit on a book, as I`m a little too short. Matter of fact, a student of mine played contra alto primarily with her highschool band, which is (needless to say) a little uncommon.

There are five clarinets that are commonly played. Of course, we also play A soprano frequently, but it`s basically the same instrument as the B-flat soprano. No other clarinets are ever scored for anymore, nor were they ever frequently scored for.

Actually, I forgot the number of sax keyes out there. Anyone care to list them?

The four most common saxophones: Bb soprano, Eb alto, Bb Tenor, Eb Baritone

There is a Bb bass sax, but I don`t see them played often.

A vintage horn player might have these: C soprano, C-melody sax(C tenor), F mezzo-soprano

Eb contrabass saxophone-one octave below the baritone, very large and expensive.

There is a German made saxophone an octave above the Bb soprano and a Bb sub-contrabass sax one octave below the bass sax.

I`ve heard there are only five bass saxes that exist in the world, and very few pieces written for them. That`s why you don`t see it very often.

Five seems kinda low. I`ve personally encountered (seen) two of them, so that would put half of them in California. I think the number is more around 25 or so.

only five? I`ve seen them for sale at stores online, so they aren`t out of producton entirely. Kielworth bass sax, $20,000 was the one I saw. Are there any sites that sell the vintage horns? I think from the link in my topic (does anyone here play bass sax) in the sax forum, you can eventually buy one of those really high or low ones.

I do have the four common saxes and a Tenor C-melody

oops, I think we`re talking about contrabass sax. One could live inside the bell.