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Well guys, I'm now on a C. I picked up the horn from a local repair guy today. It's a JinBao. I love it, except for a few intonation issues. Is there something I need to be doing with my embrochure to adjust from Bb to C, or is it the horn? Or a combination of both?
Thanks!

I'll probably drop it off with a college professor in the area and let him play around with it.

Tubadude999 wrote:Well guys, I'm now on a C. I picked up the horn from a local repair guy today. It's a JinBao. I love it, except for a few intonation issues. Is there something I need to be doing with my embrochure to adjust from Bb to C, or is it the horn? Or a combination of both?
Thanks!

Congratulations! I made that switch a bit over a year ago and it's just about solidified.

If your Jinbao is the 5v 186ish horn, the intonation problems are probably an adjustment you need to make; the horn is very even, pretty much point and shoot. If it's the 3/4 4-valve rotary, it's the horn, and there's not much you can do about it. If it's the 5-valve 5/4 450, it sounds from the Army Conference thread like it depends on how old it is, but Neptune found that even an older one is fixable.

It's the 5v 186 copy. The problems, those that I have found thus far are with G, A and Bb.

Congrats! Hope it serves you well. Your latest mouthpiece switch should work with it well enough.

Because I'm going to be a performance major, and I don't want that learning curve in college. I want to hit the ground running.

Ruh Roh

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Thanks

At the risk of opening a can of worms, what "learning curve" does one avoid by switching from a BBb to a CC?

Just curious, that's all.

Just having to learn a new set of fingerings. It's not too difficult for me until I get into doing technical passages. That's where it will get a bit trickier for me. And plus, the horn was free, and I don't think anybody would turn down a free tuba.

And learning the quirks of the horn. You can't play really well until you know how to manipulate your horn.

That wasn't what you said initially.

KiltieTuba wrote:Just out of curiosity - why did you switch to CC?

Tubadude999 wrote:Because I'm going to be a performance major

Exactly what kind of major is the BBb tuba reserved for? Inquiring minds need to know.

Switching from BBb to CC shouldn't really affect your embouchure. The buzz for an F should, in theory, be the same regardless of what key tuba you're blowing it in to.

There will always be a transition period when switching instruments, and especially when learning a new set of fingerings. I recommend doing a fair amount of buzzing with a piano or drone to ensure that your are first buzzing the correct pitches. Once you're confident in your ability to consistently buzz the desired pitch (or at least get inside the diamond), attempt to use that same buzz through the horn to track what differences in pitch come from the instrument.

Spend a great deal of time playing with a tuner and/or drone to find where the slides on your horn need to go to play most things in tune and for which notes you'll need to push/pull or lip up/down to bring in tune.

That manufacturer of instrument is not known for being a model of perfect intonation, but that doesn't mean great pitch can't be achieved through using that horn. Work specifically on intonation daily, and you'll be sure to find your pitch accuracy on your horn will improve over a few weeks.

roweenie wrote:Inquiring minds need to know.

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/