Bassoon, Tuba, Double Bass

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The Lowest Instruments Bass instruments provide a rich harmony to a music piece to accompany the melody played by numerous higher-pitched instruments. Each family has at least one instrument that usually plays the harmony in music pieces, whether it is an opera, a symphony, or a march. Though there are differences between the tuba, the bassoon, and the double bass, the three instruments share some things in common with each other. The bassoon, the tuba and the double bass all produce low sound, but each of them are made with different materials thus the sound is also different. The bassoon is made up of wood, particularly sugar maple wood, while the tuba is made up of brass with some nickel. The double bass, a chordophone (unlike bassoon and tuba, which are aerophones) is also made of wood. The vibrating objects in each instrument are also made differently. The tuba mouthpiece is made of brass, just like the instruments, but doesn’t vibrate; instead it helps the mouth vibrate. While the tuba is played by buzzing lips, the bassoon requires the reed to vibrate, which is made of cane. The double bass, however, doesn’t need the mouth, but hand or a bow, which is made of horse hair, to vibrate the strings, which are made of gut. This concludes that all instruments sound differently due to different material. The bassoon, the tuba, and the double bass are similar, in terms of the range of each instrument. The bassoon and the double bass are both concert pitch instruments, meaning that they are pitched in C. Nonetheless, the tuba is also pitched in C along with F, E flat, and BB flat. However, the bassoon is not pitched an octave lower, but a contrabassoon is, just like some tubas and double basses. The bassoon can go into the tenor range while the bass and the tuba are always in the bass clef. Due to their range, these instruments are usually playing longer notes

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