What is the key of your primary instrument?

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Tuba players...what is the key of your primary instrument?

BBb
50
32%
CC
52
34%
Eb
38
25%
F
14
9%
 
Total votes: 154

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wisekwai
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Re: What is the key of your primary instrument?

Post by wisekwai »

I have an Eb heart but a BBb schedule.
Meinl Weston Eb
Gerhard Schneider (B&S stencil) BBb
PT-88 or PT-88+, because I like options.
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Re: What is the key of your primary instrument?

Post by TheTuba »

Bnich93 wrote:
bloke wrote:Tubas with 16' expanding bugles – "in C" – aren't particularly sharp-key friendly.
However, a 17' tuba - built-in B - certainly would be, and one particular orchestral excerpt which is asked at 100% of all auditions would certainly be easier to play.
No offense meant here, but I have noticed that in your posts you tend to "codify" certain things. Examples being when referring to foreign 6/4 york style tubas, criticisms of Wessex, the above, etc.

I'm not sure of the reasoning behind this but since you have been in the community for a long while and have experience with all sorts of tubas and tuba repertoire, your opinions on these things can be quite valuable, and new people who don't know what excerpt you are referring to may like to know what it is you are speaking about. I assume it could be either Ride of the Valkyries or Fountains of Rome based on the description, but i'm not even positive.
Reading bloke responses give me a harder reading than any book!
I would put a good signature here, but i dont have one, so this will make do.
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Re: What is the key of your primary instrument?

Post by Ace »

B&S trumpet in C; H.N.White mellophone F/Eb/C (configured in C); Jupiter valved trombone in C; Weril 3/4 tuba in C.

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David A. Goldfarb
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Re: What is the key of your primary instrument?

Post by David A. Goldfarb »

As a doubler recently taking up tuba from many years of trombone playing, and about 18 months of trumpet decades ago, it was easiest to pick up the BBb fingerings, which relate directly to the trombone slide positions.
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1958 BBb Martin "Mammoth"
& a handful of 'bones
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MaryAnn
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Re: What is the key of your primary instrument?

Post by MaryAnn »

Neither my CC nor my F was the "best" fit. If I could operate pistons well (hands too small) and had I had a piston F, that might have been a best fit. Now I find I understand why the Eb guys are Eb guys. Best of both worlds. BBb was always too much tube length for my lung capacity.
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Re: What is the key of your primary instrument?

Post by Kirley »

I was expecting a greater lead by BBb.
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Re: What is the key of your primary instrument?

Post by David A. Goldfarb »

bloke wrote:
David A. Goldfarb wrote:As a doubler recently taking up tuba from many years of trombone playing, and about 18 months of trumpet decades ago, it was easiest to pick up the BBb fingerings, which relate directly to the trombone slide positions.
I believe there are two schools of trombonists, when it comes to "the easiest length of tuba to tackle first".

You represent one school, and for the reasons your expressed.

There are others trombonists who find the compensating Eb tuba to be the most natural tuba to pick up:

- 7 valve combinations relate directly to the 7 slide positions
- ...and they continue to relate (as they are AUTOMATICALLY adjusted) when the Eb tuba's "F-attachment"...aka 4th valve "over there" is depressed.
- Eb tuba's "home pitch" is one ledger line below the clef...JUST AS IS the trombone's "home pitch", when reading tenor clef...and quite a few trombonists (who decide to go ahead and tackle the tuba) are trombonists who have already tackled an F-attachment, and who have tackled tenor clef.
- Eb tubas' typical size is/are not as overwhelming to trombonists as is/are (particularly: large) Bb tubas' size.
All fair enough. I can read tenor, alto, and C, Bb, and Eb treble clefs on trombone fairly readily, and I suspect that if I took up Eb tuba, the fingerings would fall into an existing slot. Another issue for me is that I'd been playing bass trombone as well with some regularity for about 12 years before taking on the tuba, and I felt that playing bass trombone significantly improved my breath support when playing tenor, so I really wanted to go big with tuba, and that I did. The Martin Mammoth is a lot to schlep around and can be overwhelming in volume in small rehearsal rooms, but I'm having a blast playing it.
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Re: What is the key of your primary instrument?

Post by jonesbrass »

I play F tuba 90% of the time, pull out the CC when the literature requires more weight to the sound. As long as I’m being paid or having sufficient fun, I’ll play anything they want me to . . . From a purple sparkly fiberglass EEb sousaphone to electric bass.
Willson 3050S CC, Willson 3200S F, B&S PT-10, BMB 6/4 CC, 1922 Conn 86I
Gone but not forgotten:
Cerveny 681, Musica-Steyr F, Miraphone 188, Melton 45, Conn 2J, B&M 5520S CC, Shires Bass Trombone, Cerveny CFB-653-5IMX, St. Petersburg 202N
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