Changing a person from Euph. to tuba...

[tubaguy9]

What would be the hardest part for a Treble Clef Euphonium to switch to a tuba? Would it be the clef, the mouthpiece, or something else?

Just curious...

[bearphonium]

As a euph player who recently switched to tuba...I confess the clef issue was moot (or as some are fond of saying, mute ) since I really started on the trombone about 40 years ago.

What I have found is that hearing the pitch is way different. There are times that the right partial or harmonic (unsure of the correct terminology) escapes me, and the only way I can find C, Ab Eb is to fish around for it. Obviously, that only works in lessons/scale practice, since by the time I'm finished with a section in the wrong partial, the conductor can only wince. I imagine that learning what the lower octave is can only help. The other issue is putting air through the horn. That was a big challenge for me at the beginning.

Ally"still fumbling in the low octaves"House

[Mark E. Chachich]

I made the switch from euphonium to tuba (BB flat) in 8th grade (that was a while ago!). I am serious when I say that the biggest problem was getting a tuba home to practice (which I did). All else was just a matter of practice time with the tuba, and was fairly simple.

Some advantages I had:

reading down the octive on tuba was easy

no one ever told me that the tuba was not as musical or as agile as the euphonium (this was in 1969)

best,
Mark