Fingerings above high F?

[jbaylies]

Easy question: What are the fingerings for the notes above the f above the staff for BBb tuba?

Thanks in advance!

[Allen]

It almost doesn't make any difference what fingerings you use. Up that high, all tubas differ, and you will have to experiment while using a tuner. You will find that the valves do not have the same effect on pitch as they do down low. Just try things out, and stick with the fingerings that seem to help you get the right pitches. Those fingerings are then the ones for you and that tuba (& mouthpiece).

Personally, I don't think that tubas sound that good way up high, even in the hands of great players. The horn has almost no resonance -- it's more like a megaphone.

Cheers,
Allen

[GC]

In college, I could play chromatically to an Eb above that with most notes open EXCEPT that no combination of fingerings would allow me to play the high Bb. I could not get the note to speak no matter what I did, and it was a BBb horn. Weird.

Playing that high has little musical use, though there is some orchestral music that goes there, notably the G# in Bydlo and a high Bb in The Rite of Spring. I doubt that there are more than a handful who would try those on BBb in any circumstances other than trying just to show that they could. But the higher you can play and make it sound good, the more secure and easier the less extreme part of the high register is.

[Alex C]

High F#: often plays well with 1st valve instead of 2-3
High G: often plays well with 2nd instead of 1-2
High Ab: can be either open or 1.
High A: is usually 2
Bb: all five valves, oops, I mean open.
B: 2nd
C: open or 1
C#: usually 2nd
D: open
above that... open, 2 or 1 will work equally poorly on almost every note.

[Donn]

Playing that high has little musical use, though there is some orchestral music that goes there, notably the G# in Bydlo and a high Bb in The Rite of Spring.

And what seems to be the standard band tuba party trick, the Stars & Stripes Forever piccolo solo. I have heard a band director claim that a tuba player of his acquaintance does this in the piccolos' register. I'm not saying it's true, but he seemed to believe that's what he was hearing. I guess once you enter the realm of the absurd, matters of degree don't matter.

[MaryAnn]

Play the open harmonic series up there with a tuner and find out which notes are most in tune and slot the best. Then use appropriate valves with those notes to achieve lower ones.

But as a horn player, I can tell you that you just end up doing what works, as the previous poster said.

MA

[Dan Schultz]

For me, 1st and open works for about anything that high!

[windshieldbug]

Personally, I find that a flugelhorn works quite well!