Contrabass is the name given to the lowest-voiced instrument in a family. It’s used to name instruments in the woodwind, brass, percussion, and string families, though it’s not always used with instruments named after the same schema (soprano, alto, tenor, bass).
Contrabass recorders, clarinets, saxophones (also known as tubax), and bassoons are all members of the woodwind family. A contrabass bugle and a contrabass trombone are both brass instruments. A contra bass bar is a percussion instrument that is an extension of the Orff-Shulwerk mallet instruments that were developed for music education in elementary schools.
The large string instrument also known as the double bass is the instrument most commonly referred to as the contrabass with no other words attached. The contrabass belongs to the same family of orchestral instruments as the violin, viola, and violoncello or cello. It frequently contributes to orchestral harmony, but it also has solo parts written for it. The contrabass, on the other hand, has a second life as a jazz and dance band instrument, where it is mostly plucked rather than bowed.
The size, shape, and number of strings on the contrabass vary. It normally has four strings tuned E, A, D, and G as a member of an orchestra, but there are also 5-string contrabasses with a lower string added and tuned to B or C. Solos frequently employ a tuning technique known as scordatura, which raises the instrument’s pitch.
The contrabass, like other string instruments, can be played arco (with the bow) or pizzicato (by plucking). The French bow and the German bow are the two most popular bow styles at the moment. Pizzicato is used in jazz, as mentioned above, but a special pizzicato technique known as slap-bass is also used. The plucked sound of pizzicato is given a percussive click or slap using this technique.
The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten, Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony, and Georg Telemann’s Trillensymphonie in D by Georg Telemann, written in 1730, may be the first work for solo contrabass. Today, there are over 200 contrabass concertos in the repertory. Domenico Dargonetti, Giovanni Battesini, Sergey Koussevitzky, Bertram Turetzky, and Duncan McTier are all famous orchestral bassists. Charles Mingus, Red Mitchell, Dave Holland, and Eberhard Weber are all well-known jazz bassists who are known for both their playing and their innovative approaches.