Are you a slide puller?

[tubaman5150]

I feel one should do whatever is necessary to play in tune. If that means pulling a slide or two, so be it.
That being said, I use a combination of slide pulling and alternate fingering to adjust pitch on the fly. However this is not a replacment for simply using my ear and centering the note at pitch. This is not the same as "lipping" the note. I try to avoid excessive use of lipping notes up or down. It destroys my endurance and you can hear a noticable scoop.
I also try not to get carried away with the slides either. It can be distracting to me and many slides can be hard to reach while playing. I stick to using the the 1st and 4th slides while I play. The other slides I "set and forget". It works well for the problem notes on my tuba. It doesn't really matter to me if use a slide first or a different fingering. The music usually determines that.

[dopey]

I dont' usually have to pull slides when in our concert band, mainly because the notes I tend to play there aren't known "bad" notes, B natural, High G. etc etc.WHen I do tho, I keep my left hand on my 1st slide (easiest one to get to). For when I need to.

However, When I play in church I generally keep my hand on my 1st valve slide, and when needed I've actually been known to play with my left hand pushing valves and right hand on the main slide. This is when Im playing in a several sharp key, and the notes just happen to be a lot of 2, 12, 23 ..etc. Since my 2nd valve slide doesnt' move this leaves little way to fix a out of tune 2nd valve or 23.. So I have to pull my main slide.

Funny part is, I did this entire service only to find out I wasn't out of tune, but the bass player was. Which explains why I could never get "in tune" long enuf not to adjust the tuning slide.. I just was sitting infront the monitor and it was sooooo bad it almost sounded like wrong notes....

[hurricane_harry]

i've heard different thing about this, some have told me never to touch my tuning slide unless for huge adjustments. others have told me to play in middle of the horn and tune it as accuratly as possible. as for alternate fingerings, other than when im in the upper range to tune the high notes, the only time i have used "alternate fingerings" is when im using my bass bone and would rather go from 5th to 6th than 5th to 1st. in my opinion, i would try to tune your horn, but adjusting with your lips on the fly doesn't hurt either

[Chuck(G)]

So iadjusting slides is a necessary evil; so be it.

Then why aren't tuba tuning slides (the ones that need adjusting anyway) set up like a trombone with chrome-plated inner slides and stockings and the whole business?

Given the less-than-precision alignment of the slides on tubas that come straight from the factory, manufacturers don't seem to think that slide-pulling is necessary on their instruments.

Go figure.

[dopey]

Something I wondered, I've seen CC horns with a 2nd valve slide trigger to tune the 2nd slide.

Is 2nd valve inherently out of tune on CC horns? I've never owned one (yet) and was just always curious why they'd have a quick tuning ability on it?

[Rick Denney]

I have set my instruments up to work as well as possible, and just played them, adjusting pitch as needed with my airstream.

In the ensembles in which I play, there are so many pitches to choose from, I usually try to establish a real clean pitch at the interval that sounds right to me and let everyone come to me. It doesn't work, of course, but it's no worse than any other strategy.

One thing I don't do: I don't sit at home with a tuner and work out slide pulls or fingerings needed to make the instrument conform to a well-tempered scale. Few musicians conform to that scale (even pianos aren't precisely tuned to it).

But I have to confess that my own sense of my pitch is only so-so, so making adjustments of the slides is more likely to be something done to look impressive or out of habit than it is a necessary thing. It seems to me that tuba pitch is a little too flexible to make a pull of less than about 1-1/2 or 2 inches worth the trouble. I used to do that, but I don't any more, and generally my intonation is better now than before.

I've seen and heard outstanding players who did and didn't pull slides, so I put it in the same category as using small or large mouthpieces: If it works, it's right.

Rick "whose main tuning slide slipped two inches the other day during performance, with no audible change in intonation within the ensemble (though it did seem like harder work)" Denney

[TubaRay]

What's all this talk about pulling slides? I paid good money for my tuba, shouldn't it play in tune by itself? Hey, wait a minute. I never noticed that those slide things actually move. Talk to you later.

[daktx2]

i need to pull and use alternate fingerings on all 6th partial notes or they are unbearably out of tune.

[Leland]

Having a way to change the pitch on any note is fabulous and FAST - my main tuning slide moves so freely (but does not leak) will fall out if the bar is not attached.

Kanstul has been building "Tune Any Note" slides into their G bugles since 1990. They're similarly loose & fast, and have screw-down stops to keep them from falling out.

Below is a pic of their large size contrabass, with the tune any note slide zoomed in, and that slide's thumbring highlighted by a dashed line.

[Chuck(G)]

Kanstul has been building "Tune Any Note" slides into their G bugles since 1990. They're similarly loose & fast, and have screw-down stops to keep them from falling out.

I believe that Kanstul's big 5/4 BBb has the same feature and that slide actually does have stockings...

[daktx2]

in response to my pt-6 problems, it could be the mouthpiece or the player. i have never done any experimentation with different mouthpieces and i've used nothing but my trusty conn helleberg since 6th grade. i would try something different but the purchasing of the tuba killed my cash reserves.

[Lars Trawen]

Frankly, I wish all tubas were made so you could easily pull or push the main tuning slide as needed.

I have seen some newly built tubas with a main tuning slide trigger built-in already by the factory. In many cases this is offered as an option, especially for smaller instruments, like barytons. This should be the ultimate solution, only one trigger or slide to worry about. I can't understand why this not is standard on all tubas.
I have a trigger on my tuba for the second valve slide. It could just as well be connected to the main slide. Why not?
Anyone of you tuba fellows having experience of it?

[Leland]

Kanstul has been building "Tune Any Note" slides into their G bugles since 1990. They're similarly loose & fast, and have screw-down stops to keep them from falling out.

I believe that Kanstul's big 5/4 BBb has the same feature and that slide actually does have stockings...

Yes, it does, but it wasn't in the picture on Kanstul's site. The same tuning slide was also on some, but not all, of their other marching brasses, but there wasn't really a good picture of those, either.

FWIW, on-topic, on my tuba (BBb) I sometimes move the 1st valve slide, but not that often. I pretty much have to pull it out for bottom-line G and Ab, push it in for C & B above that, and have it kinda in the middle for everything else. It's not bad, and the other fingerings are close enough.

[jlbreyer]

I've found I tend to play sharp on the F down on the fourth leger line and a 1st valve slide pull really helps.
jlb

[MaryAnn]

I'm becoming more and more appreciative of the right hand's usefulness in my french horn. Moving the hand to alter pitch becomes automatic after a year or two...and you aren't even really aware of doing it, any more than you are of using a valve combination for a pitch.

My Mfone's 1st slide has obviously had extensive prior use as a trombone slide, because it almost falls out when put upside down. However I don't use 1-2 except for the E in the staff that is flat open; I use 3rd valve, tuned for those pitches, for the usual 1-2 notes. Since my 5th valve is 2-3 (major 3rd) instead of a flat whole step, I can use it for all 2-3 pitches that might otherwise be sharp.

I can't reach the tuning slide to move it; so while I probably should move slides now and then I'm pretty close to the right pitch with how I tune my valve slides. I'm not advanced enough on tuba to tell a whale of a difference in sound quality from lipping a pitch to be on target....so I guess that's why I get away with non-slide-pulling. Maybe I'll invent some artifical hand I can put in the bell, so I can use technique I'm used to.

MA

[tclements]

I ALWAYS pull slides if a note is out of tune (usually only the first slide will do everything). I always want to play the note 'the horn wants to play.' In my experience, if you LIP a note, the tone color changes too drastically, PLUS you are fighting the tuba. Use a tuning box, tune your tuba to itself and adjust the instrument's length to play the appropriate pitch. As far as using 'optional' fingerings for some notes. Again, my experience shows that when you use a long valve in the upper register, the tone color changes too drastically. UNLESS one spends A LOT of time 'warming' those notes up. It is far better to push a slide in, than use a long valve slide.

[Chuck(G)]

Doing a little name dropping...

Allow me to drop another one...

I seem to remember Pat Sheridan saying something to the effect of "pull for tone, not pitch" at a master class.

[Chuck(G)]

What do you think meant by that? Share with the class a little context, if you please...

Mr. Sheridan must have known what he meant when he said it, but here's my take:

I think he was saying that it's good practice to know how to buzz in pitch without using the horn to "slot" the pitch for you. Pulling a slide to make the horn's pitch center conform with what you're buzzing will improve the quality of the sound, but slide-pulling to tune your buzz is probably not a good practice.

How about "lip first, then pull"?

[Dylan King]

The first tuba I owned was a Mirafone 187 with jiggers on the first valve and fith valve slides. With the fifth valve in the left hand, I had seven fingers on a rotor or jigger at all times and the horn could be played perfectly in tune on every note with ease. I am also played trombone and violin and was used to tuning in that manner.

On my Yorkbrunner the first valve slide is always in my hand and often in use. It is a difficult horn to keep in tune but entirely possible with slide pulling. I would go as far as to say that slide pulling is essential on the Yorkbrunner, for I have seen other pros doing the same thing. If first line open G wasn't so sharp, the horn would play perfectly in tune using only the first valve slide. As it is I have to use the force when playing that note. It works every time, but isn't cake.

The Rudy F that I just sold had 6 valves and played in tune using alternate fingerings with no slide pulling at all.

The Yamaha 621 that I have replaced it with plays more easily in tune than any horn I have tried. The Japanese seem to have invented some way to prevent one from having to use the left hand on the tuba. This is fantastic for me because now I can play tuba and finger cymbals at the same time.

[Art Hovey]

On a BBb tuba I like to tune my 4th valve to a perfect 4th, for C and low F. Fingering low B and E 2&4 then requires a pull of either the 2nd or the 4th valve slide. If the neighboring notes in the passage require the 4th but not the 2nd then I pull the 2nd. But if there are no neighboring notes requiring the 4th valve alone, (for example, in the keys of A, E, or D) then I pull the 4th. On rarer occasions I use the 1st slide. I have not found any need to pull my 3rd slide, though.
I used to have a Bohm & Meinl with an accessible main slide, but I found that I did not like to use it because it requires too much coordination.