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holtek wrote: I don't suppose It would be possible to find a 2' tuning slide?

Garden hose! He He...

Just kidding! .... I went through the same thing a year or so ago switching from Eb to BBb. Stick with it. The best way to learn the new fingerings is through complete immersion. Get some recordings and play along. Before long, you'll have yourself programmed so you can switch back and forth fluently.

if his CC has a 5th, can't he tune it down so he can hold that and play "BBb fingerings" while this wouldn't be permanent, I would think it would help one in the learnin process.. tho i may be completely wrong as I dont' own a CC, yet.

Why knock yourself out? Sell the CC tuba and buy a really good BBb instrument, and take your family out to dinner with the left over $$.

holtek wrote:I'm really having a hell of a time coming to grips with playing this CC tuba I just got.

Define "just got."?? I started this process myself about a month ago and it is STILL ongoing (although things are MUCH better now). You can't expect that you're going to be able to pick up a instrument pitched in a totally different key and be able to play it in 2 days. Hell, even if you picked up a totally different Bb it would potentially take some time to truly learn the characteristics of that horn. When I initially asked people about the conversion process they gave me answers varying from "give it a month" to "give it a year." I'm figuring in another month or two things will be happy again.

For what its worth, it took me about a week or two to get the fingerings down, and around the same time my pitch started getting better. Most of my pitch problems have finally started to ease up, with the exception of a few notes here and there.

The process I followed was a really simple one. I dumped the tuner for the first week and just figure out how to play the horn. I played C a LOT (like every time I walked by the thing!!) on my piano to get the note into my head. Right away I started working on Bordogni's (Rochut) since I at least knew what the tunes were *supposed* to sound like. If you don't know the fingerings I would also recommend you do some sightreading to force yourself to get acclimated (sp?) to the new ones.

Per the wise recommendation of a fellow tuba player I totally went cold turkey. I had a both a rehearsal 3 days after, and a gig two weeks after I got my new horn, and I totally just sucked it up and did the best I could on it. If you're really into the CC horn I would recommend you do the same. Before you know it things will come along... hell, I tried to pick up my Bb the other day just for kicks and I'm going to have to re-learn how to play that thing again.

Tim

Art Hovey wrote:Why knock yourself out? Sell the CC tuba and buy a really good BBb instrument, and take your family out to dinner with the left over $$.

I think Art hit the nail on the head. If the Miraphone CC is in good shape, you may even be able to work a trade for a good BBb somewhere. It may involve a road trip, like to the Brasswind. but a CC tuba of the same make and model is generally more expensive than the equivalent BBb tuba. Since this only has 4, not 5 valves, it reduces the value somewhat, but it's still worth more than a BBb Miraphone 186. (Whether it should be or not, or whether it acutally has more intrinsic value than the BBb has been beaten to death in other threads).

The hard part may be finding a store or individual looking to trade, but call a couple of the stores lsited on this site and see what they have to say.