Talk:Contrabass saxophone

Double/triple B-flat/E-flat

Personally, I don't think anybody knows what "double B flat" or "triple E flat" means. I know I don't. Does this clarify things better than saying "one octave below the baritone" or "two octaves below the tenor," etc.? Badagnani 23:20, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

This is the stanard notation for denoting musical instrument keys or pitches. The sentence should probably read "pitched in EEb"; and it probably is a good idea to clarify that with "one octave below the baritone", etc. Honestly, anyone who doesn't know what "EEb" or a "baritone (saxophone)" are probably are not going to know or care what a contrabass saxophone or a tubax are. Those that don't know and are interested will have learnt something new by reading this article. Perhaps it could be linked to Note for those curious what it means? Elemtilas 17:36, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

"Honestly, anyone who doesn't know what "EEb" or a "baritone (saxophone)" are probably are not going to know or care what a contrabass saxophone or a tubax are."

• I am one, and I have contributed, if you look through the edit histories, quite extensively to all of the low saxophone articles. Badagnani 21:01, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't know what it means either. I've seen references to B♭ piccolo clarinets, the standard soprano clarinet is said to be pitched in B♭ an octave lower, the bass clarinet is in B♭ an octave below that -- and the contrabass clarinet, I am told, is in BB♭ an octave below the bass. How come the first three have the same key designation, with one B, but the contrabass has two Bs? (In sax terms, I guess the same applies to the soprillo saxophone, alto saxophone, and baritone saxophone "in E♭" and the contrabass saxophone in "EE♭".) I've seen this "standard notation" a lot, but what I've never seen is a cogent explanation of it. I've seen a system of pitch notation where c is middle C, C is one octave lower, CC is two octaves lower, cc is an octave above middle C, and so on -- but that clearly isn't what's going on here. -- Rsholmes 00:23, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Haven't wandered through here in quite a while -- My earlier comment was a little too flippant, but I would hazard the guess that the "single/double/triple" notation is simply an incomplete application of one of the common octave notation schemes. Incomplete because while tubas, euphoniums and low saxophones are regularly distinguished by BBb and Bb; higher instruments are not. A soprano sax is in "Bb", just like the tenor; and presumably the soprillo is also in "Bb". And as you say, clarinets are in "Bb" from piccolo on down, except for the contrabass, which is in "BBb" and the octocontrabass which is in "BBBb". Trombones, trumpets and piccolo trumpets are also all in "Bb". I don't think it's a very handy notation, as far as wind instruments are concerned, because it is not applied with anything approaching universality. That said, its use is "standard", i.e., common to the point of near universality, among low brass instrumentalists especially and also very common among low saxophone and clarinet players. All it really seems to mean in these contexts is "more letters = lower / larger instrument".

As for a cogent explanation -- the letters are simply part of one of the traditional octave naming schemes. Each octave, starting on a "C" and ending on a "B" is distinguished thus: CCC - BBB is the octave where CCC is 16.352Hz; CC - BB is the next octave up, where CC is 32.703Hz. The following octaves are C - B; c - b; cc - bb; ccc - bbb; cccc - bbbb; and so forth. Another similar notation is: C,, - B,,; C, - B,; C - B; c - b; c' - b'; c - b; and so on. Other octave naming schemes use descriptive terms: sub-contra octave; contra octave; great octave; small octave; one-line octave; two-line octave; etc.

As for why only low wind instruments are so distinguished and not the higher wind instruments -- that I don't know! Elemtilas (talk) 23:38, 2 July 2011 (UTC)

Weight

How much does it weigh? 68.143.166.174 11:23, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Godzilla

I've heard that running a rubber glove up and down this instrument is originally how Godzilla's roar was created. If anyone can cite it, that should be added. --—Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.122.63.142 (talk • contribs)

Well, the creator of Godzilla's roar, Akira Ifukube, allegedly said the following: "I loosened the strings of a contrabass and pulled them with resin coated leather gloves. We slowed the speed and tried other things." (From this link.) So, while it doesn't belong here, it might be included in the article on double bass. ---Sluzzelin talk 19:04, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Playing range

It would be a good idea, I think, to not use the alto sax playing range, but rather get a contrabass sax playing range image made. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Knutaldrin (talk • contribs) 19:35, 11 May 2007

this playing range is obviously wrong!