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Side effect from years of accordion lessons.

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I only pull slides on sustained chords. It is almost always the first slide, but sometimes the fourth. Sometimes I just use my fifth valve instead of the first valve and that helps, I do this on anything below low G and they slot pretty well. I pull first my valve slide for D in the staff and Bb above the staff. I pull my fourth slide for 2-4 combination's such as Db. Sometimes I wish that I could pull my second valve slide but it is a little too hard to reach while playing.

@ tubashaman2- Tone and pitch are intrinsically related, there is always an element of tone when adjusting pitch. I can lip any note into tune, at the expense of tone. I pull my slides so that I can have both good tone and good intonation.

Well, with so few notes to play, and with GameBoys not allowed on stage...

No no no no, that is absolutely false. To put it shortly, players manipulate slides to compensate for the inherent pitch problems that are present when playing an instrument like the tuba. Tubas are not oscillators and produce perfect, unwavering tones, and more advanced players pull slides to further strive for perfection.

(A funny gag favored by your's truly is to completely remove my first valve slide, activate the first valve and buzz, creating an effect not dissimilar to that of a large sea vessel's horn. I usually preface this klaxon with a phrase like, "All aboard the Love Boat...".)

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I probably in the past misattributed the above quote. I believe it was Sheridan now who said we pull for tone, not for pitch.

The long answer: brass instruments work by selectively resonating frequencies. The resonance is a function of length. Every particular length has an ideal pitch that it will resonate. If the pitch goes above or below that, it will still play, but not with the fullest, best resonance.

Since pitch is relative, for those who really want to center the resonance, the slides must be manipulated to get the best match of resonance for tone for the pitch.

Then again, some horns, or some horn/mouthpiece combinations (such as with a LOUD LM-7) have such tight "slots" that it is more difficult to center good tone on a pitch without some slide manipulation.

And even still again, some horns have such "loose" slots, like a particular Martin eefer I played with a Wick 3, that the "false pedal" pitches were almost valve-optional.

The short answer: to sound better with better tone, pitch and intonation.

I think it could have been Pokorny. I was at his masterclass last summer, and he was talking about how you can lip notes in (or out) of tune, and the slide is used to match where your lip vibration is so that the horn gets the most resonance.

There are those, like myself, that believe and practice lipping and using alternative fingers to obtain the proper pitch, tone, and intonation without resorting to pushing/pulling slides while you're playing. That means you have to know your horn--sitting down with it and a tuner--start from the bottom up learning its strengths and weaknesses and how to adjust.

This is one of the biggest debates among tubists and Im sure there will be those who disagree--it really comes down to what will work best for the individual.

JJ

Why do players push/pull slides?

Simply put, because we care.

Alternatively you could play a compensated instrument like us in old blighty and all your problems would disappear (apart from the perceived stuffinness of some notes - however in tune they may be!)

You could just be like "bloke" and not purchase or play a tuba whose scale is not relatively(+-15 cents) in tune to start with, and I quote.

bloke - "After forty years of playing (over the years, some fairly out-of-tune...and some fairly in-tune) tubas, I'm tired of lipping and air-coaxing pitches into the scale. Easy, minimally-distracting mechanical alteration always offers the best sound combined with the best intonation. Tubas that have minimal problems to begin with are easier to mechanically enhance in order to achieve these goals."

These tubas exist at reasonable prices if you are patient and dilligent. I may start a new thread listing "in tune" tubas.