Contrabass Bugle - Construction and Naming

Construction and Naming

With most circuits now permitting B♭ and C instruments, the modern contrabass bugle is essentially a concert tuba converted for ease of marching. Generally, the primary differences between pure concert tubas and contrabass bugles are

1. On both pure marching and convertible tubas, the concert leadpipe, with the pipe curving around the bell to the valves, is replaced with one that curves forward and back, placing the mouthpiece in an appropriate location for the new playing position, on the left (or occasionally, right) shoulder (which has earned it the nickname of "shoulder rocket"), rather than in front of the player. On some "Marching-Convertible" models, this leadpipe can be unscrewed and replaced with a concert model.
2. All dedicated marching instruments have the valve section rotated into a more comfortable playing position. Some higher-end convertible tubas have the capacity to rotate the valve section between marching and concert configurations.

Although historically (see below) drum and bugle corps contras were pitched in G, the construction was nearly identical to modern B♭ and C instruments, the only differences being the length and diameter of the tubing and (at one time) the valve section. In fact, modern drum corps now use multi-key instruments originally developed several years ago for marching bands who wished to emulate the sound of contemporary (G-instrumented) drum corps hornlines.