Re: Contrabass vs Sousaphone......


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Posted by marc on November 07, 1999 at 20:47:01:

In Reply to: Contrabass vs Sousaphone...... posted by . on November 07, 1999 at 13:31:29:

To my mind, a good contrabass is much preferable to a good sousaphone. (A good contrabass would be a full-size Yamaha or King, for example.) The sounds tends to be smoother, richer and darker. Intonation and articulation tends to be better, I think. They don't dinged up so easily, being all in one place so to speak. And, though you can do tricks with a sousaphone, you can do lots with a contrabass as well. As to learning fingering in the key of G, I remember that in the Freelancers all the music was written in treble clef, so I had no problem at all. In any case, learning new fingering for a two-valve horn is much easier than a four or five valve horn. Also, if you didn't know this already, two valves are all you need (assuming the horn has decent intonation) for a horn in G. This is one of the reasons bugle corps use instruments in the key of G. marc


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