davet wrote:Why are b flat tubas called BBb, c tubas called CC, e flats are sometimes Eb and sometimes EEb, and f tubas are always F? How many letters does it take to tell the key of a tuba?
What are pedal notes (or tones) and why are they called pedal notes? Is it a harp or organ reference of some kind?
What the heck are false notes (or tones) and why are they called false? Can false notes be played on True Tone instruments? Are they the tunes published in the "fake" books?
Someone please enlighten me! (Yes I tried the archives, but couldn't find anything. Maybe I am a bad searcher though!)
In the old days, there was a system of designating the different octaves using capital and ganged letters. The octaves ranged, for example, thusly: CCC, CC, C, c, cc, ccc, and so on. This system has largely been replaced by competing systems, but the designations for tubas come from the days when it was more popular.
It was really an error in application of that system, as it turns out. The system placed the octave boundaries between B and C, so under no circumstances should a Bb and C contrabass tuba be in the same octave designation. But when C tubas became more popular, those who sell them called them CC tubas to make sure people understood that they were in the same octave as BBb tubas.
"EEb" is a marketing trick to lead one to believe that the Eb tuba in question, because of its compensating valves and larger dimensions (perhaps), serves in the role of a contrabass tuba.
Thus, the doubled letters have come to mean that the instrument serves (or reasonably could serve) as a contrabass tuba.
But this tradition is full of inconsistencies. Even the biggest F tubas with six valves, for example, are never called FF tubas even though they can for the most part fulfill the role of a contrabass in many applications.
A better system would be to list tubas as contrabass tubas in Bb or C, bass tubas in Eb or F, and tenor tubas in Bb or C (the latter being the small French tuba, and the former being the class that includes euphoniums and American-style baritone horns). But nomenclature is usually not designed--it just grows out of common usage.
The fundamental tone of the instrument is the lowest note that can be played on the open tube. This is the pitch that is used to designate the pitch system of the instrument. (I resist the description that tubas are in "keys", because that implies that they don't play chromatically, which they do.) Lower notes are possible as you add valve tubing. They are called pedal tones as a nickname based on the pedal rank of an organ. A more precise term would be "fundamental tones."
False tones have nothing to do with fake books. They are tones that fall outside the normal series of notes. A tuba is a series of bugles. The open bugle results when no valves are depressed, and each valve combination creates a different bugle. A bugle with a tuned system of partials plays the fundamental and a specific series of mostly musical notes above that. Thus, the series of partials for a Bb tuba with no valves pressed would be the fundamental Bb, the low Bb, F at the bottom of the staff, and Bb, D, F, Ab (though flat), Bb, middle C, and more closely spaced notes above that. Some instruments (which includes most contrabass tubas to one extent or another) will resonate notes using different vibrational modes than the notes in this series (with the exception of the fundamental, which may not resonate easily on some tubas). You can find these notes by playing the low note on a tuning scale (the low Bb on a Bb tuba), and sliding the pitch down. The instrument will lose resonance, but if you hold it together, it will find that resonance again at about low Eb, which is the so-called false tone. You can finger down from there using the normal valve series. Thus, on a Bb tuba, a low Eb might be played 124 (though tuning will be difficult), or open (the false tone).
Most fingering charts from the old days show the false tones, sometimes calling them "priveleged" tones, and usually putting the fingerings for them in brackets different from the usual alternate fingerings.
I assume you mean by "True Tone" that the instrument sounds as written. None of the above has anything to do with how tuba music is notated. All tuba music outside the British Brass Band tradition is notated as it would be for a piano, and it is the tuba player's responsibility to know which buttons to push on an instrument of a given pitch series.
Rick "thinking it's been a while since this was explained" Denney