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Trumpet=Soprano?


Is it OK to call the Bb horns sopranos, contras, ect?  

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  1. 1. Is it OK to call the Bb horns sopranos, contras, ect?

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    • No
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you wouldn't call a trumpet a soprano in a concert setting, and you wouldn't call a tuba a contra in the same setting.

Which is exactly why I say "contra" in drum corps and "tuba" everywhere else.

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To brutally beat a dead horse...it's okay to call tubas contrabasses and trumpets sopranos. As has been stated, the G horns got those names because of what voice they were in the brass choir. (And because nobody wanted to keep calling them "small bugles," "big bugles," and "fair-to-middlin' bugles.") Shift all of your horns up or down a bit in pitch, and there you go-- same voices.

Since it hasn't become an inaccurate description of what the horns do and because it's traditional, it's okay to still use these terms.

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We just called them trumpets and tubas. Occasionally someone would say contras, but we never made a big deal about it.

What's the point? We have other things to worry about...

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We just called them trumpets and tubas. Occasionally someone would say contras, but we never made a big deal about it.

What's the point? We have other things to worry about...

I think we just called them both, with no rhyme or reason...I can't even remember. (We did call the tuba/contra section "sousies" as in Sousaphones if we wanted to rile them up, though.)

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I call them like I see them.So do the manufacuters of these instruments.

Call a Sorpano bugle a Trumpet in Sr corps and prepare to get reemed.

Same could be said for Contra

Edited by camel lips
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Most corps don't use soprano bugles anymore, so don't still call them that. They're trumpets, tubas, baritones, mellophones... And clarinets, saxaphones, flutes, etc...

heh. heh. heh.

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honestly, i like to call an instrument it's actual name. you wouldn't call a trumpet a soprano in a concert setting, and you wouldn't call a tuba a contra in the same setting. if i were to have taught drum corps in the days of the G-pitched instruments, i still would have called them trumpets, tubas, mellos, etc. because that's what they are. they aren't sopranos, they aren't altos. that's describing the voicing that they play. i prefer to call an instrument by it's name. c-trumpet, Bb-trumpet, g-trumpet, c-tuba, f-tuba, etc.

Wouldn't the "proper" term be soprano bugle as in alto saxophone or bass clarinet? Also, a contra bass bugle has different physical properties than a tuba. If tubas were suitable for the field, John Phillip would've never cursed us with the Sousaphone.

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i'd call trumpets sopranos... they are the highest voice in the brass choir... and since i came from G bugle land, "tuba" doesn't exist in DCI

never call sopranos trumpets... ouch

Edited by trooper11
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