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I'm working on writing out a stand tune. It's Dirty Diana by Michael Jackson. The chart has a tuba groove that calls for a pedal eflat. Now pedal tones aren't a problem, especially Pedal Eflat. I can hit quite a few of them fairly fine with decent support. The problem is.. I've only done this on 4 valved concert tubas.. never a sousaphone. I currently don't have one with me so I can't really check it out for myself right now.

How do you finger an eflat on a sousaphone, and is it a bad idea? I'm going for the style VSU wrote theirs in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHr2Z5IrVFA" target="_blank


Any help and or advice would be greatly appreciated.

EEEb of course (sorry I thought that was a pedal). Haha. We want this to be plenty audible.

How do you finger that on a sousaphone?

Open.

The "false" Eb pedal is something I would only ever use with a mic shoved down my bell. They do not project well for outdoor playing, and they can be finicky, some horns "have" them, others are tougher. I would never write that note for a sousaphone section - it's too risky, plus I don't think it would have the kind of volume you want.

Even if they were playing 4 valve instruments, for that matter, I wouldn't write a tutti pedal Eb without a healthy representation in the octave above it. Consider how much the volume and intensity drops in the video you posted around the 1:05 mark - those are only Gs. Low Eb an octave above is in the sweet spot of "blastissimo" range. My advice - stay in that octave or (obvious choice) transpose your arrangement.

Tuba players tend to seriously overestimate the effectiveness of their pedal range in my opinion.

Oh my, I've made a mistake. You're right, that is only a low G. I got the notes mixed up in my head... I don't need a pedal Eb. Wooooops. Now I feel stupid. I have the right notes in my arrangement, I just got them backwards in my head for some stupid reason.

Kind of a waste of a thread. I appreciate the advice though. I will have to think about this now.

Regarding the low EEEEb: almost any note below low Bb can be played open with a little practice, including the 4Eb (assuming a Bb horn, and the same principal works in other keys). I suggest hitting the pedal Bb first and working your way down the scale rather than trying to hit a subsonic note cold (you're really hearing the harmonics and there will be very little fundamental in the tone). You can tell if you're actually doing this if you work down systematically.

Of course, you've really got to be able to relax your lips to do this, and some horns just don't produce those notes well. A big sousaphone will be better than most, though.