That "bump" in the slur

[imperialbari]

***

[Rick Denney]

One poster maintained that tuba to be difficult to play legato. Two others found it very smooth. Despite many differences in back ground the two posters finding the legato easy had one common denominator: they both played trombone at a level, that had earned them money. The third player had not played trombone by the time of the discussion, but I seem to remember, that he has acquired one since then, but probably for a very different reason.

I have several tubas, and I find that the York Master is still more difficult to slur than, say, the Holton (or the B&S). Chris Hall noted the same thing about the York Master, so I think it's a characteristic unrelated to the skill of the player.

I find it easier to slur on the trombone than on many intervals on the tuba, especially across partials and with upstream slide movements. Whatever weakness there is in my technique seems unrelated to a well-timed legato tongue on the trombone. I suspect it's more do to with the well-time pulse of air, and as we both know, trombones require a lot less of that. And the accuracy of my buzz on the destination pitch, which is less critical on trombones that slot more tightly.

Back to Art's thesis. There may be reasons why the fourth valve may be easier to play on the C than the first that are not related either to the intonation or to the rotation of the valve. Slurring from Bb to 4th-valve C moves from the fourth partial to the sixth, which might be easier just because of the alignment of the overtones as the tube lengthens compared with going from the fourth partial to the fifth. Also, the fourth valve has much more resistance than the first, and that might make the note speak more easily.

This is quite a separate issue from whether slurs are difficult or easy on a given instrument, or for a given player, it seems to me.

I just tried the test on my F tuba, slurring from F on the staff to the G, using the 4th valve, the first valve, and the fifth valve with the slide pushed in. The fifth was noticeably easier than the others, and the first and fourth seemed about identical. The fifth and the first valve rotate the same way (downstream), while the fourth rotates upstream. On that tuba, at least, rotation direction is not the relevant factor, but I'd be hard-pressed to suggest what is.

Rick "who has enough to worry about without worrying about valve rotation direction" Denney