BenjaminB wrote:1. What are partials?...
2. Anyway, is this a 5/4 horn? What does this mean?
3. The Bb just refuses to lock in at all. Why is this?
4. Which notes are pedals on my horn?
5. What are false pedals?
6. How low will I be able to go with four valves?
7. What do the fifth/sixth valves do on some horns I see?
8. Are there any suggested readings for the tuba? I just picked up Vladislav Blazhevich's 70 studies Volume II, should I get the Hal Leonard books?
9. Would it be okay if I called up some local colleges asking if they know any teachers? Is this standard practice?
10. EDIT: Sorry, one more thing. Should I take my horn to a repair shop to get it oiled? My valves are very slow in comparison the euphonium's valves that I'm used to.
11. Also, some of the silver is coming off of the first valve, revealing brass underneath it. I can peel off little flakes of this plating. What's happening?
12. What is lacquer?
13. EDIT2: One more thing, I promise! Is there a site with pictures of different tunings of tuba? I've never seen any other tuba other than a BBb, and I'm terribly intrigued by the idea of an Eb tuba.
Whew! I had to add numbers to what you wrote to keep it all straight. What follows are quick answers. Give yourself time to allow these answers to grow in your mind. I don't answer them in order.
1. If you play a low Bb (bottom of the tuning scale), and then start to lip up, the tone will eventually jump up to F at the bottom of the staff. If you lip up more, it will jump to Bb on the staff. Then to D, F, Ab (though it's flat), Bb, middle C, and so on. These are partials, and they are related to the harmonics of air vibration. The string analogy is good, but remember that the string vibrates side to side, while in a tuba the air vibrates in all directions.
4. These partials are the harmonics of the bugle's fundamental pitch. The fundamental pitch of a BBb tuba is the second Bb below the bottom of the bass clef. That's the open pedal tone, and the notes lower than that are the pedal tones for the various valve combinations.
5. False tones are better termed alternate resonances. Play a low Bb (bottom of the tuning scale). Lip down. Keep lipping down. Eventually, the pitch will jump down to something like a really low Eb. It will feel funny and sound a little different, and you'll have to hear the pitch clearly to play it in tune. These are the so-called false tones. From that low Eb, you can add valves until you get to the Bb pedal. It's the way people with three-valve tubas and sousaphones play between the pedal and the low E without the fourth valve. Some of us find that these tones are easier and with practice sound better and are more reliable, even if we have four (or more) valves.
6. Lower than any music you will ever be asked to play. Or, as low as your chops will go. I've been playing for 38 years, and I still can't play down to the all-valves-down pedal (or really even get close). Better players can, but it's an exercise--you won't find it in music.
7. C tubas often have a fifth valve to make the low F easily in tune. The choices for low F on a C tuba are 124, which is flat, open (using a false tone), or 4-5 (assuming the fifth is a long whole step), which is set to be in tune. The fifth does the same thing on F tubas, making the low Bb easy to play in tune. Few Bb tubas have a fifth valve, but if they did, it would be to play the low Eb easily in tune. Extra valves are there to provide more options for playing notes in tune. Sometimes, those options support special effects, such as a trill, even in the upper register. There is time enough in the future for you to learn about these things.
3. Every tuba has funky notes--even tubas costing tens of thousands of dollars. Part of learning to play that instrument is learning how to manage its funky notes so that the people listening out front don't notice.
2. The St. Pete is a 4/4 tuba with a large bore. Go here to realize that the quarter system has no absolute meaning, and it's really just a way for manufacturers to distinguish their various products:
http://www.rickdenney.com/tubas_compared.htm
10. A visit to a shop for cleaning and adjusting is probably a good thing. St. Pete tubas are not known for good valves, though, and tuba valves are always going to be bigger and heavier than euphonium valves. Keep your teeth clean and don't eat while playing, and that will help keep the tuba working properly after you have it cleaned.
11. It's not silver. It's nickel plating, and the peeling is one reason I don't like it. Remove all the flakes from where you put your fingers, and then be careful with the instrument. It's quite common for plated tubas to wear through to the brass at the rubbing points, so don't worry about it.
12. Lacquer is clear "paint" applied to polished brass to keep it from tarnishing. I don't recall for sure, but I'm not sure the nickel-plated St. Petes are lacquered. Shiny brass-colored instruments are lacquered. Silver instruments are not.
13. Keep an eye on the For Sale forum, and within a fairly short time, you'll see lots of pictures of different kinds of tubas.
8. I'll let others comment on method books, but I would suggest that newer ones are not necessarily better than older ones. You can work on Blazhevich for 40 years and you'll still keep it close to the top of the pile.
9. Yes, it's okay to take lessons from a professional tuba player in your area. In fact, the more you can do that, the better off you will be.
Rick "who knows what it is to want to swallow a new pursuit in one big bite" Denney
