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I've played nothing but BBb tuba for the last 38 years and I finally got my hands on an old (1919) Eb 3 valve tuba. I've printed fingering charts for Eb tuba and run through Eb & Bb scales but not much else. What is the best way to teach oneself? Any method to it or just start playing? I hope to assimilate this old ax for some of the tuba quartet music I play if the intonation is good enough. Any help/tips would be appreciated.

I tried searching first but didn't really see anything specific to my question. Thanks Tubenet'ers!

You're on the right track. Play it. You might consider getting a hold of some elementary tuba method like Rubank or the beginning pages of the Arban book. Just start playing the easy stuff one line after the other and you'll get it pretty quick. After you 've started to get a grasp of the new fingerings try it out on the stuff you're already working on for band, quartet,whatever. Best of luck. Eb's are fun to play.
Pete

It just takes practice.

When I switched from euphonium to EEb tuba several years ago, I played through the entire Pares scales book a few times and Rubank lesson book exercises/etudes over a few weeks and I was in pretty good shape. Switching back/forth to/from euphonium wasn't a problem.

When I recently switched from euphonium to BBb tuba, I used the same method but it took a bit longer as I needed to get the Eb fingerings out of my head. Now I'm in good shape.

If you are a former trumpet player, concert pitched bass clef looks to the Eb tuba player as treble clef looks to a trumpet player (i. e. Eb one ledger line below the staff looks like a treble clef C on that same line). If you know trumpet fingerings, add three sharps to the key signature and, in your mind's eye, change the bass clef sign into a treble clef sign and play trumpet fingerings. When adding 3 sharps to a key signature such as the key of Bb in bass clef, two of the 3 sharps cancel out the 2 flats and the part becomes the key of G major for the trumpet with one sharp left over from the added 3 sharps.

This is one way of doing things. The more correct way is to learn bass clef fingerings for the Eb tuba.

hbcrandy wrote:The more correct way is to learn bass clef fingerings for the Eb tuba.

This last bit couldn't be more true. The critical part is to learn those fingerings as a stand alone unit, not as a transposed version of what you already know. Initially, you'll start equating the fingerings compared to what you know. This transposition process is slow and cumbersome. It will not work in the long term. The best players I know make an effort to develop a whole new set of stimuli for the new horn. New fingerings, different mouthpiece, completely different feel. This helps to keep these fingerings secure and not something you can easily slip out of by accident. Good luck, Eb tuba is a great horn to play!

Jay Bertolet wrote:New fingerings, different mouthpiece, completely different feel. This helps to keep these fingerings secure and not something you can easily slip out of by accident. Good luck, Eb tuba is a great horn to play!

Jay is absolutely correct. I play Eb tuba as my bass tuba. When I first got my Eb tuba, though I did know trumpet fingerings, I made the effort to learn the Eb tuba as a bass clef instrument. My, then teacher, Paul Krywicki insisted that I learn the bass clef fingerings and told me to practice CC tuba an Eb tuba in the same practice session so that both sets of fingerings would remain strong.

I like Eb tuba more than F tuba. For me the Eb sounds more like a tuba than does an F tuba, though there are some GREAT F tuba players out there. I am just not one of them.

Thanks for the all the useful info! I've never played trumpet and the treble clef may as well be a foreign language to me as well despite taking piano lessons in 5th grade.
I play on a Sidey SSH with my Mirafone 186 5U BBb and would never change. The mouthpiece I plan to use on the Eb is my Giddings Webster Churada. So far I like the match up but any other suggestions would be welcome as well. This is a large Eb tuba with a darker sound than you might expect from an Eb.

Forget the music notation for now. My favorite way to become accustomed to different locations of partial series (Keys of Tubas) is to play triad arpeggios through all scales by scale degree.

I start on 123 E Maj ,f#mi, g#mi, A Maj, etc... up to A Maj continue through all keys. Take your time. This interval exercise also gets me focused on the out of tune notes particular to the horn in a full harmonic context. This is also a quick way to evaluate a new horn and any change of equipment or repair. Just listen, when you feel comfortably matched to the partial series go for the notation.

Joe "who loves the location of the Eb partial series" Hunter
Tuba In Nashville where Guitar keys rule!

I used this exercise to learn bass clef playing an Eb, and again later when I shifted to Bb. I found it to be very helpful both times.



Hup

For some, it's easy to go from BB-flat to E-flat. For others, it's impossible.

In the world of recorders, I know players who can:
>only play C or F fingerings but not both.
>only read treble or bass clef but not both
>easily read treble or bass clef on C or F recorders
>?easily (or never) read "C" clefs
>easily (or never) play alto recorder in G

When I had to switch to E-flat Sousaphone in college, it only took a few days to get comfy.
I started by paying close attention to the harmonic series on the open horn, then the series for each valve combo.
Once I remembered that E-flat is open and B-flat below the staff is 1-3, the adjustment was quick and mostly painless.
Scales and arpeggios quickly fall into place. But a leap is always tougher.

As a B-flat player, I joke that if I were to play an E-flat or F tuba, I'd be playing wrong notes about half the time
and all the time on a CC tuba. But that's a joke. I think I could be comfy with E-flat or F horns with an hour or two of scales, arpeggios and the Bach cello suites.

Be glad that tuba is (kinda) fully chromatic so you don't have to carry them in different keys like pennywhistles or harmonicas.

LJLovegren wrote: In the world of recorders, I know players who can:
>only play C or F fingerings but not both.
>only read treble or bass clef but not both
>easily read treble or bass clef on C or F recorders
>?easily (or never) read "C" clefs
>easily (or never) play alto recorder in G

It would be kind of interesting to find out how they learned to read music. Specifically, if any of them learned early on to read for singing, do they end up having an easier time with alternate notation, than the ones who only play an instrument?

In my recorder playing days, I played mostly bass, some tenor, occasional alto or sopranino. The thing about my notation reading that seems to be the most unusual may be partly due to playing recorder. I deal with transposed parts (as in band music for sax etc.) on a visual level, but note names are in concert pitch.