New tubist here.

[rocksanddirt]

HA! it's never just one more thing....

anyway a few thoughts....and some half answers....

range of a tuba! the standard range of a three valve BBb tuba is from Enatural an octave and change below the bass cleff staff on up. The fourth valve gives you some additional low register that is not pedal/false tones (I don't recall exactly how much). Most of the music you'll play will go no lower than that e natural. and much not even below the Bb above it.

as far as oiling/cleaning the rotary valves it's not as easy as on a piston instrument and involves tools and a bit of knowledge. Fortunately it also doesn't have to be done that often, when they are in good shape. If you can, take it to a repair shop that has a specialist in tubas or lower brass and have them show you how to maintain the valves. It's not hard, but does take a bit of information to do properly.

Others here can give you huge information on partials, and whatnot. Practice a lot, listen to the horn, not just the feel of each note. Best of Luck!

[Art Hovey]

Hi Rocks,
There is a small collection of tuba photos here:
http://www.galvanizedjazz.com/tuba/Diversity.html
Unfortunately, I see that I neglected to include any images of Eb tubas. I will do so soon.

"Partials" on a brass instrument are like "harmonics" on a guitar string, but they are numbered differently. The lowest-frequency standing wave that you can get on a string is called the "fundamental"; on a brass instrument it is called the "pedal" note, probably because organists play low notes with their feet. (Purists will point out that the pedal note is not really the fundamental mode of a brass instrument, but we don't need to get into that here.) Pedal notes on brass instruments tend to have rather raunchy sound, and are rarely used, except by bass trombones. The next one is called the "second partial", and so on. Partials are also called "bugle tones". Most bugle calls use the third, fourth, fifth and sixth partials.

If you pick up a sousaphone you may notice that a pretty good low Eb (below the 4th ledger line) can be played with no fingers down. That's called a "false pedal note". You may also find it more difficult to play on the St Pete because the Pete is tapered differently. (Exponential, rather than conical) Use 124 to play it on the St. Pete.

You have trouble locking in the high Bb probably because that happens to be a weak note on that tuba. All tubas have a weak note somewhere; we just try to find one that we can live with. You may or may not find that an alternate fingering works better.

Blahzevich Vol. II may be a bit advanced for you right now. Bordogni is widely used, but my favorite is Kopprasch. We all should practice out of all three books every day.

That's enough for now. Enjoy the tuba and worry about details later!

[tubatooter1940]

Hi BenjaminB,
I'm delighted to welcome you to our forum.
Interesting to read you asking the right questions.
In time many direction - changing answers will come your way from this forum and others, teachers and musicians you are blessed to play and hang with.
You mentioned some problem notes you found on your horn. You have to "lay" for notes like that. Every tuba has them and you must find a way to attack them accurately and get the fattest possible sound as close to on pitch as is possible.
You need help out front of your horn to listen for you to tell if your best efforts are working. A good teacher plus the opinions of other musicians and some critics will help. I joined this forum after playing bars for 35 years and I learned and still am learning so much good stuff from those who post here. These guys and gals are the best.
Keep emininating those low vibrations and rattling the rafters,
Dennis Gray
http://www.johnreno.com/" target="_blank" target="_blank

[brianggilbert]

Ben-

Welcome to the community!

You might want to spend a little time figuring out the "Advanced Search" portion of the forum, where you can pump in a search query and then go back in time. This is really helpful to bring yourself up to speed as you tackle this new area.

OR of course, Just ask

[Rick Denney]

1. What are partials?...
2. Anyway, is this a 5/4 horn? What does this mean?
3. The Bb just refuses to lock in at all. Why is this?
4. Which notes are pedals on my horn?
5. What are false pedals?
6. How low will I be able to go with four valves?
7. What do the fifth/sixth valves do on some horns I see?
8. Are there any suggested readings for the tuba? I just picked up Vladislav Blazhevich's 70 studies Volume II, should I get the Hal Leonard books?
9. Would it be okay if I called up some local colleges asking if they know any teachers? Is this standard practice?
10. EDIT: Sorry, one more thing. Should I take my horn to a repair shop to get it oiled? My valves are very slow in comparison the euphonium's valves that I'm used to.
11. Also, some of the silver is coming off of the first valve, revealing brass underneath it. I can peel off little flakes of this plating. What's happening?
12. What is lacquer?
13. EDIT2: One more thing, I promise! Is there a site with pictures of different tunings of tuba? I've never seen any other tuba other than a BBb, and I'm terribly intrigued by the idea of an Eb tuba.

Whew! I had to add numbers to what you wrote to keep it all straight. What follows are quick answers. Give yourself time to allow these answers to grow in your mind. I don't answer them in order.

1. If you play a low Bb (bottom of the tuning scale), and then start to lip up, the tone will eventually jump up to F at the bottom of the staff. If you lip up more, it will jump to Bb on the staff. Then to D, F, Ab (though it's flat), Bb, middle C, and so on. These are partials, and they are related to the harmonics of air vibration. The string analogy is good, but remember that the string vibrates side to side, while in a tuba the air vibrates in all directions.
4. These partials are the harmonics of the bugle's fundamental pitch. The fundamental pitch of a BBb tuba is the second Bb below the bottom of the bass clef. That's the open pedal tone, and the notes lower than that are the pedal tones for the various valve combinations.
5. False tones are better termed alternate resonances. Play a low Bb (bottom of the tuning scale). Lip down. Keep lipping down. Eventually, the pitch will jump down to something like a really low Eb. It will feel funny and sound a little different, and you'll have to hear the pitch clearly to play it in tune. These are the so-called false tones. From that low Eb, you can add valves until you get to the Bb pedal. It's the way people with three-valve tubas and sousaphones play between the pedal and the low E without the fourth valve. Some of us find that these tones are easier and with practice sound better and are more reliable, even if we have four (or more) valves.
6. Lower than any music you will ever be asked to play. Or, as low as your chops will go. I've been playing for 38 years, and I still can't play down to the all-valves-down pedal (or really even get close). Better players can, but it's an exercise--you won't find it in music.
7. C tubas often have a fifth valve to make the low F easily in tune. The choices for low F on a C tuba are 124, which is flat, open (using a false tone), or 4-5 (assuming the fifth is a long whole step), which is set to be in tune. The fifth does the same thing on F tubas, making the low Bb easy to play in tune. Few Bb tubas have a fifth valve, but if they did, it would be to play the low Eb easily in tune. Extra valves are there to provide more options for playing notes in tune. Sometimes, those options support special effects, such as a trill, even in the upper register. There is time enough in the future for you to learn about these things.
3. Every tuba has funky notes--even tubas costing tens of thousands of dollars. Part of learning to play that instrument is learning how to manage its funky notes so that the people listening out front don't notice.

2. The St. Pete is a 4/4 tuba with a large bore. Go here to realize that the quarter system has no absolute meaning, and it's really just a way for manufacturers to distinguish their various products:
http://www.rickdenney.com/tubas_compared.htm

10. A visit to a shop for cleaning and adjusting is probably a good thing. St. Pete tubas are not known for good valves, though, and tuba valves are always going to be bigger and heavier than euphonium valves. Keep your teeth clean and don't eat while playing, and that will help keep the tuba working properly after you have it cleaned.
11. It's not silver. It's nickel plating, and the peeling is one reason I don't like it. Remove all the flakes from where you put your fingers, and then be careful with the instrument. It's quite common for plated tubas to wear through to the brass at the rubbing points, so don't worry about it.
12. Lacquer is clear "paint" applied to polished brass to keep it from tarnishing. I don't recall for sure, but I'm not sure the nickel-plated St. Petes are lacquered. Shiny brass-colored instruments are lacquered. Silver instruments are not.

13. Keep an eye on the For Sale forum, and within a fairly short time, you'll see lots of pictures of different kinds of tubas.

8. I'll let others comment on method books, but I would suggest that newer ones are not necessarily better than older ones. You can work on Blazhevich for 40 years and you'll still keep it close to the top of the pile.
9. Yes, it's okay to take lessons from a professional tuba player in your area. In fact, the more you can do that, the better off you will be.

Rick "who knows what it is to want to swallow a new pursuit in one big bite" Denney

[eupher61]

you want pictures of tubas? This is the best site I've found for that very thing, most of them are identified by model and pitch. Most of them.

http://www.tuba.is.nl/