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RE: Bb Contrabass clarinet

Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2000-02-07 19:23

Melanie wrote:
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Hi everyone!

For our next concert, I'll be putting the contrabass in contrabassoon. Our conductor is having me play contra to fill in the gaps on some chamber pieces. I've never played contra before, and I was wondering if there were any little hints as to making it sound decent. I'll be playing on a straight metal Leblanc (number 333!). What kind of reed should I get? I don't remember what the mouthpiece is, and I know that does play a factor in reed selection. If any of you have an insight into taming this beast, please let me know!

Melanie

Melanie -

Contra is pretty easy to play -- much easier for me than bass clarinet. You need plenty of air, at a rather low pressure. Lawrie Bloom (bass cl. in Chicago) has an excellent exercise: practice breathing with your lips wrapped around a clarinet barrel held in your mouth like a cigar, to get used to moving lots of air at low pressure.

Contrabassoon parts are in bass clef, so to play the BBb contra you will have to read bass clef and transpose a step up -- a mental hazard if you're not used to it. If your band has one, and the part doesn't go too low, you could use an Eb contra-alto, on which you can read the bass clef part as if it were in treble clef (adjusting the key signature).

The straight metal Leblanc models go down to written low Eb. The curved ("paper clip") models go an extra minor third lower, to written low C.

Both Leblanc contra models have only one key (Eb/Bb) for the right index finger. It's a bit of a mental hazard not to have the one for the first space F#, but you learn to get along without it.

The old Leblanc BBb contras (and # 333 is definitely an old one) used a different and larger mouthpiece than the Eb contra-altos or the current BBb model. I have an old BBb paper clip model, and it uses Vandoren contrabass clarinet reeds. They're dreadfully expensive -- several bucks a reed -- but they last forever. I got two boxes 35 years ago, and even though I played the instrument every day (in the West Point Band), I didn't get through even one box. If you can't find the Vandoren contrabass reeds, bass saxophone reeds work fine.

You should probably start with a medium strength reed and sand it down if necessary. If the reed is too soft, it just makes a slapping sound on the low notes, with no tone or pitch. You don't have to worry about it too much -- it mostly afflicts the very bottom notes on the paperclip models to low C, and particularly the BBb instrument with the small mouthpiece. Still, with a stiffer reed you can get a musical sound out of it.

The Leblanc Eb and current Leblanc BBb use baritone sax reeds. Unfortunately, the new Leblanc BBb mouthpiece has a smaller tenon than the old one and thus won't fit.

Everyone else's advice is excellent. On the theory that seating large pads on metal rims was rather like seating flute pads, I took my BBb to a flute specialist, who did an excellent job. I suppose a sax specialist would also do well. The most important thing is to be sure the incredibly complicated register key mechanism works properly, with each key closing completely when the other is open.

Finally, even if you play single lip on everything else, it's nearly essential to play double lip on the BBb contra. Otherwise your brains get scrambled from the vibration.

I have posted several long items on the contra over the last couple of years. For more than you every wanted to know, see:

<A HREF=http://www.www.sneezy.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?id=10380>http://www.www.sneezy.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?id=10380<A>

<A HREF=http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?id=8896>http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?id=8896<A>

<A HREF=http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?id=111>http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?id=111<A>

<A HREF=http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?id=502>http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?id=502<A>

Best regards.

Ken Shaw

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