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Recently I bought a Meinl Weston 2145 2 weeks ago and I'm having a hard time learning some of the notes and playing fast passages. Does anyone have an method for improving. Or any tips on learning the fingerings thanks.

My way is different. I learn by playing lots of stuff I know to get the new fingering engrained. Stuff I know because then I realize if I have used wrong fingering. I start slow, then build up to speed. After a while my mind will start saying "I know the fingering for that" and get more and more confident.

Usually it will take a couple months before I will feel confident enough to start sight reading in the new key with ensemble.

In the last 10 years I have now learnt to play all four keys of tuba that way.

All good advice, there. It'll be 6-8 weeks of awkwardness and occasional apologies to comrades. But it will happen.
YMMV.
JC

I picked up Eb from the known BBb by taking a familiar piece and writing in just the fingerings that were different. When I got that page down, I tried more "without a net" i.e. not writing in the fingerings. I then practiced through a few things, throwing in a clam or two along the way but eventually got it. I picked it up pretty fast.

Hi!
Just DO IT!!! I did use my flat 5th as a crutch, but mostly that created a bit of work to play in tune...Then I tried a chromatic scale from the 1st. partial up and down, and then all the Major scales from that open C 1st. partial up and down, then the next chromatic tonic up! I have a really good ear, and tuned intervals, not thinking about playing C major rather than Bb and so on. This helped me become familiar with my instrument. Then I started playing the "transposed" scale, and then the scale I originally had learned on BBb Tuba. after a month, I was pretty comfortable. I'm not sure how a player with so-called "perfect pitch" would fare my way...The only problems I have now are with parts I MEMORIZED on BBb! or Band parts with the "wrong" fingerings written in. Otherwise, I can sit in with my Daughter on an Eb orBBb instrument playing Middle School band music with no problems!

Al

All of this advice is great, just practice it all for 8 hours a day, and you will have it down in a matter of days. This is the quickest way I can think of.

JCradler wrote:All good advice, there. It'll be 6-8 weeks of awkwardness and occasional apologies to comrades. But it will happen.
YMMV.
JC

Thank you fr the tip Mr. Cradler you're the best tuba player I ever heard. I believe I met you at the MidWest clinic. Thanks for all your advice. Hopefully one day I'll have the honor of making the presidents own.

Another technique to try is do your praticing based on the key of the piece. Start with all the exercises in the key of "C" and gradually work your way through the others.
Also warm up using all the major scales but instead of just playing the fingering patterns, consciously think of the note you are playing. It will help ingrain the note and fingering together so that before long when you see a bflat and you will press your first valve without a second thought.
I have made the switch myself and the estimate of 6-8 weeks is about right, though I actually felt pretty comfortable by week 3-4.
ScottM

Whip out your Bordogni book (and/or Tyrell, Kopprasch, Blazhevich, etc.) and play the etudes you know like the back of your hand -- slowly, with CC fingerings. If you try to sight read stuff you don't know, you are fighting more than one battle. Play what you know, and you only have to worry about one thing -- the fingerings.

Also, I'd recommend going "cold turkey." Don't use the other horn "just for this one thing" or "just to check a couple of notes." Completely immerse yourself in the new horn, and you'll have it licked in no time!

Rubank

Yeah, stick with BBb and sell it to me cheap!

Honestly, it just takes practice and patience (and any weird shortcuts your brain can conjure)
.

While I was learning CC (5-rotary valves with a long whole step 5th), I took a good sight-reading book with me on a very long flight. Many orchestral and band keys were included, and ghosting the fingerings helped me.

Repetition. I would also recommend writing in the fingerings in the music.

I agree that cold turkey is good when going from BBb to C. Ditch the old BBb horn completely. One exercise I did was writing in the fingerings in old method books and then playing through them. Anything you can think of as an aid will probably work.