Switching from a BBb to a CC tuba......Is it difficult?

[iiipopes]

Not for me, but then again I started on trumpet and had a few years of piano lessons along the way.

[hnoyes]

BBb to C??

I found the transition hard when I decided to switch, but I've been converted to believing its not that hard.

Ibanda Ruhumbika (the MTNA student division winner) made the switch just one month before he won the national division. He picked up the CC tuba from me on Thursday evening and by his lesson the next Tuesday, he played his whole program down on CC tuba. He had a few mistakes and on some things were slower than before, but look what motivation can do for you. After another full week of playing, he felt just as confident on the borrowed CC tuba as he did on his old BBb. He went from a St. Petersburg to a Meinl Weston 2155 - not such an easy switch.

I should add, Ibanda is the hardest working kid I've ever run in to - he loves music and lives for the challenges.

His strategy was to learn the horn first - he sat down and started playing scales and arpeggios, thinking the new fingerings. He said it was slow the first two days, but then it started to make sense. He then looked at some Rochut etudes and slowly started to make the music connect to the new fingers. By Monday he was ready to try his program - he started with the technical parts first and worked until they were smooth. Then he did a full run-through on day 5. It worked!

[tubeast]

It´s REAL hard.
It´s so hard I rather took the detour via F-tuba.
Joking aside, it´s not THAT bad. There will be a time of confusion when you´ll think a pitch, imagine another a certain interval away and finger what muscle memory tells you... ooops!! wrong note!!
This WILL occur in the first phase when you´ll be concentrating on the new horn. Lateron it´ll happen when occasionally switching back. Now (2 years after adding a CC to my F and BBb) I begin to feel quite comfortable on either horn.

[Bandmaster]

I tried switching in college and it frustrated me the whole time. But then it was during the fall semester while I was playing BBb sousaphone every day in the marching band and only having one lesson per week on CC. If I had blocked BBb from my life and just concetrated on CC just maybe it might have worked out better. But being a BBb tuba player has been fine with me and I have no regrets.

[Dean E]

For me, learning CC has been a satisfying stretch.

Buzzing the correct pitch (especially in exposed parts) has been the most difficult part since I got a 5-valve CC four months ago.

The two years before getting the CC, I played a 3-valve Eb York monster.

From 1965 to 2003 I didn't play. Despite the span of over 40 years, supposedly forgotten BBb fingerings from 1964-65 occasionally want to channel themselves to my fingers on the CC.

[bort]

The thing that will throw you off the most is hearing different pitches for the open notes (and other valve combos). Go cold turkey and play as much as you can. You'll get pretty far in a relatively short period of time.

And I sounded a lot better when I switched to CC - only because my BBb was a piece of crap. If I'd have picked up a nice BBb at the same time I switched, I probably would have gotten the same result.

[TUBAMUSICIAN87]

Personally it was the hardest thing for me to do, but ive heard of people making the switch instantly and doing the transposition in their head as their playing it depends on the player

[sc_curtis]

It is not hard if you have the right frame of mind. Just like anything else that is new to you, the harder you work, the easier it is.

[LukesBulldogface]

Here's my advice if you're going to switch to CC, stay FAR away from a BB flat. I bought my CC last spring and it took me three weeks to learn the fingerings cold. It wasn't easy or extremely difficult but definately a challenge. However remember to have fun while learning. Start with music you know and make "the switch" that way.

[LoyalTubist]

I began on trumpet in the fourth grade. In the sixth grade, the band director gave me an E-flat tuba to take home. Reading was easy... An E-flat in bass clef looks just like a C in treble clef. So, it was very easy to learn the fingerings. The following year, I was handed a BB-flat tuba. That took a little work to know the fingerings, but it wasn't that hard. So when I was 16, I got a C tuba and the fingerings were just like reading the E-flat tuba music, only in bass clef. No problem.

Do you need me to run that by you again?

[winston]

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