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Hi,

i play a CC 3/4 chinese tuba with 4 rotory valves.
but i always have problem playing the F in the first valve. its always too sharp that i have to pull the slide to compensate. do you guys who play a 5 valves tuba use the fifth valve to play that note? i mean the F just under the the first line G, not the low F.
sorry you may found this a dump question, but pls forgive me i am mainly a tenor trombone player and new to the tuba world!
thx for your help!!

Kin

fkin wrote:Hi,

i play a CC 3/4 chinese tuba with 4 rotory valves.
but i always have problem playing the F in the first valve. its always too sharp that i have to pull the slide to compensate. do you guys who play a 5 valves tuba use the fifth valve to play that note? i mean the F just under the the first line G, not the low F.
sorry you may found this a dump question, but pls forgive me i am mainly a tenor trombone player and new to the tuba world!
thx for your help!!

Kin

I do not use my 5th valve. Try pulling your first valve tuning slide, when play the F. I should be within reach of your left hand.

That would be pretty awkward, playing that F with a 5th valve all the time. You may need to start with the slide out a little more, or add a mechanism to kick it faster and easier. But 5th valve only isn't the answer, no matter what.

For both the F below the staff and 4th line F in the staff, I have to pull the first valve slide on my Miraphone 188 (CC, 5 valve). So does my friend who has the same horn. It is no problem once you get used to it but you should consider having a good technician loosen it up so that it is fast and smooth. I also have a vented 1st valve.

When I play fast scalar passages, I'll use the 3rd valve for E and/or A so I don't have to re-adjust to use 1+2.

If that is the only intonation problem you have to worry about, I'd say you're in pretty good shape.

Kin, you might also experiment a little bit with mouthpieces. On my little Conn tuba that F is sharp with some mouthpieces, not nearly so sharp with others.

That F is naturally sharp, so definitely manipulate the slide (assuming they are in a reachable place). While playing that F with 5th valve only may sound a little wonky, it's important to understand all of the alternate fingerings on the tuba so that you have NO excuse to play something out of tune. Like in Ab maj, C below the staff (the 3rd) has to be lowered, so depending on the technical aspects of the music, I might play that C 1,3,5 so that it is then in tune to the KEY YOU'RE PLAYING IN. It's like a trombonist being able to adjust their slide for every note until it's in tune.

First valve, pull the slide....

thx for all the help!! highly appreciated!!!!

i found a fingering chart for 5 valves CC tuba on the web. so it seemed the 5 valve is seldomly use.

The only Chinese 3/4 CC I know of is the Jinbao 400, a clone, more or less, of the Cerveny "piglet". I had one for a while to learn CC fingerings, because I could get it more cheaply than anything else and I knew I wasn't going to keep it. The intonation problems on that instrument, or at least on the example I had, are over the top.

If this is the horn you've got, there are going to be a lot of intonation challenges, some worse than this F. At least that was my experience. By working with a local tech I was able to get it into playable shape, but it was still highly problematic.

http://jinbaomusic.en.alibaba.com/produ ... erproduct1
http://www.tubamm.com/prods-t.htm#mm-tu400

The 5 valve 410 might solve a lot of problems for you, and not mainly because it has a fifth valve!

If an "unusual" fingering works, then use it! It doesn't matter if the people watching you play think you don't look as cool as when you slide pull or whatever. I've even played intune D's below the staff on a 56J 5-1-2 with no slide pulling (easier to slur to 1-2 combos).