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I was rummaging through my things with my divorce, moving books and knick-knacks around, and came across a book I bought in college called Total Range. It's a course that is supposed to have you playing every possible note on your horn in just a few weeks.

There is a problem with this book, which is why I don't think it caught on with tuba players. The original idea was based with trumpet players in mind. On a trumpet, false tones are played using the same fingerings as the notes in the higher octaves. (False tones = the register between "normal" and pedal register.) It is different on a tuba. The fingerings are totally different. And the way Total Range is supposed to work is that you play all the notes in every register using the same fingerings--at least that's what it looked like to me. (Every note has the fingering written underneath--for BB-flat tuba.)

I have known tubists who swore by the book. I used it myself with some reservation. It did help me get a good firm high register. But in exploring the high register (middle C and above--that is the C above bass clef) I discovered that I can play almost any note with almost any fingering and it is almost like singing.

Actually, the compulsory private voice lessons I took in graduate school helped me more than anything else with my "total range" on the tuba: When you sing, as you get lower, the vocal cavity gets smaller and as you get higher, the vocal cavity gets larger. That totally goes against the grain of how I thought as a tuba player.

At the time, I was studying with Ev Gilmore and I told him about my findings and he said that was how he did it. So, as you get lower, even though the lips get looser, your mouth gets smaller. As you get higher, your lips tighten up, but your jaws widen. It took a lot of getting used to, but it worked.

I think i wasted my money on that book.

I play false tones using the same fingerings as the upper octave. The higher you force the pitch the better the sound.

-Eric

Shockwave wrote:I play false tones using the same fingerings as the upper octave. The higher you force the pitch the better the sound.

-Eric

On tuba or euphonium?

Check out this ancient posting. This proves I am not crazy.

http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/jun1999 ... 12949.html

LoyalTubist wrote:Check out this ancient posting. This proves I am not crazy.

Crazy? Is there something about false tones that was a big secret? Is that another memo I didn't get?

Dr. Young has contended that the false tones are actually the true fundamental of tapered tubas. I don't really buy that, because the pedal F on my F tuba plays and sound just like all the other notes on that instrument.

But different instruments will have different false tones, depending on their taper design. Trumpets and trombones, if they have usable false tones at all, don't line up the same way with the low Eb (aka a fourth above the open pedal) played open.

Bloke made a comment in that thread you linked that the false tones are much easier to play well on big-belled tubas than on small-belled tubas. This is certainly my experience. They are fully playable as regular notes without any working of miracles on my Holton and York Master, but they are a real struggle on my Miraphone.

Rick "who uses false tones routinely to play low Eb and D" Denney

I don't know what the difference is, maybe the taper of the bugle, but my Conn/Cavalier souzy has a perfect false low Eb, D and Db (open, 2 and 1 respectively) that eliminates the need for a 4th valve since I made the top of the 1st valve tubing into a slide for my left hand. (Occasionally I can get the low C w/ 3rd valve) My Besson just doesn't want to do anything of that sort, and an old 3-valve Martin Eb converted to low pitch I borrowed for a recent St. Pat's parade out of town had both a marvelous false low Ab, G, etc. all the way down to true pedal Eb and a couple of notes below that! It was quite enjoyable to play the little 3-valve which lipped really easily all the way up and down: doubling both the BBb's and the euphs as the music called for!

False tones vary from horn to horn. On some, they're almost non-existent. On others, they're very easy to play. I've never established a solid correlation with any particularl variablle (e.g. on two horns with the same size bell in the same key, one has false tones very prominent and very easy, the other they're just not there).

iiipopes wrote:I don't know what the difference is, maybe the taper of the bugle, but my Conn/Cavalier souzy has a perfect false low Eb, D and Db (open, 2 and 1 respectively) that eliminates the need for a 4th valve since I made the top of the 1st valve tubing into a slide for my left hand.

That has been my experience. I never got to play a four-valved sousaphone. A few sousaphones are some of the freest blowing tubas I can think of. When I was on the instrumental teaching staff of a public high school in North Texas, we ordered a set of four-valved Yamaha sousaphones, but I never tried them. Now that I look back, I was silly not to try one of them.

I put this under a different thread last night about bellfront tubas, but oh, what the heck!

"For the kind of playing you will probably be doing on a bellfront (ie mostly not serious concert literature) 3 valves will probably more than adequate. Many of these old horns were built with the 3rd valve on the flat side anyway, so 23 is a hair flat but 13 is about spot on. Then 123 is just a little sharp and easily lipped. A lot of the big old horns had excellent false tones, so the fourth valve isn't really missed. Eb is a squirrely open (you just have to get used to it), D is 2, Db 1, C 12, and low B 23. Once you get used to the false tones they are suprisingly easy on many of these very conical, medium bore, large bell flare horns.

Darn, I am really missing my Martin right about now."

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Well in my orchestra at church there's a euph player(also band director) who can play any note above his high b flat with no valves...he said its the same for a tuba...just my input

P.S... His range is RIDICULOUS!!!

That and $4.85, plus tax, will get you a cup of coffee.

The point of this thread was a book published by Neil A. Kjos a few years ago about expanding the range. If you are interested in playing high notes only, the tuba is the wrong instrument for you.

This book was about extending the range both high and low, not just high...

Chances are, as a tuba player, you will need to play a pedal B-flat before you play a C in sounding treble clef.

Don't worry about the extreme high range. It's not worth it.

Total Range = ~25 ft

My sentiments exactly!

windshieldbug wrote:Total Range = ~25 ft

... + 5 ft for a 3/4, - 5 ft for a 5/4 ...

I thank Bloke and Rick for the info about big belled horns having good false tones. My 1940 King E-fer has a 24 inch recording bell and I learned about the good false tones and the fingerings from you guys on tubenet.
Thank you!
Using 'em like crazy,
tubatooter1940
www.johnreno.com/

Afternoon All;

I've been off list for a bit, too busy at the day gig, not play my axe. I started using the Charles Peters Total Range on my old Conn 2J back in high school and found the book very useful in developing not only chops of steel but a set of elephant ears. I think that the book is meant for you to not only develop a range of five octives but just by the shear fact that you're spending so much time on your axe, it becomes an extension of you. The key to the book is the strict following of the instructions between each unit. The common thread between the units is use the same horn and mouthpiece, don't switch out either or both components.

LoyalTubist wrote:That and $4.85, plus tax, will get you a cup of coffee.

The point of this thread was a book published by Neil A. Kjos a few years ago about expanding the range. If you are interested in playing high notes only, the tuba is the wrong instrument for you.

This book was about extending the range both high and low, not just high...

Chances are, as a tuba player, you will need to play a pedal B-flat before you play a C in sounding treble clef.

Don't worry about the extreme high range. It's not worth it.

I like mine with extra creme please

Yes, well i am in no way only interested in playing high notes,i do know the nature of the horn i'm playing, but I know most pro level players can at least play to the F above the staff on a CC or BB flat, as well as at least a pedal B flat. Also, i neglected to mention that the euph player at my church can play as low as he can high, so his TOTAL range is amazing.

Several rambling points:

Hey, Loyal tubist: you weren't silly for not trying the 4-valve Yamahas. Stuffy as hell. I'll take the false tones as superior any day. Besides, being outside, the breeze will take anything really low and smear it anyway, so there's no practical application of anything really any lower.

Hey Tuba Dude: Was it Bobo who said every time he thinks about a new mouthpiece, he goes and practices three hours on the one he owns? I agree that once you get over your experimentation, as we all have to do initially, and get your main tuba/mouthpiece combination together, use it. Don't abuse it by tinkering. Yes, I have two, one for the Besson and one for the Cavalier souzy, but one for each horn, and I made sure the rims are identical and the cup depths similar in order to minimize transition issues.

Hey passion4tuba: your euph friend is right. Above a certain point, the overtones are so close together you can play scales without valves. The problem is that even higher, and for a BBb tuba that would be about F first space treble clef, the horn stops being a resonator and starts functioning as no more than a megaphone, so there is no tone, and what comes out starts degenerating into kazoo-ness. (new word - I'll have to submit it to the online dictionaries next week)

Hey, Rick: my Besson is just the opposite: larger throat and smaller flare, being a 1971 with a 17 inch bell. The false tones are basically nonexistant. I think that part of the reason is that the final node for these false tones actually extends past the bell, and so without a wide bell for them to "bounce" off of, there is nothing to resonate them. A similar phenomenon occurs with radio transmission antennas called standing wave ratio. Oversimplified, there is no perfect antenna, and some of the energy transmitted actually reflects back down the antenna when it reaches the end, kind of an undesirable negative feedback that at best can lower your efficiency and at worst overload the output of a transmitter and burn it out. There are three ways to tame it so you can fine tune your frequency and antenna with the greatest efficiency of transmission: 1) overall length - corresponds to the length of the bugle; 2) base load with a coil - corresponds to the valve block for changing pitch on a fixed length bugle; and 3) putting a small ball or flare at the tip of the antenna in order to focus the transmission and increase its effective length - corresponds to having a larger bell.

I used the trombone version for quite sometime. It was excellent for helping me develop a consistent routine. It also was an excellent book for codifying exactly what is meant by "gradually expanding your range."

I have yet to meet a human being capable of playing the final week's lesson. But a good book, nevertheless. Very methodical.