The Lowest Note

[Steve Marcus]

In Gene Pokorny's recording of the "Pedal Point" exercise (with the synthesized accompaniment), he plays down to EEE.

[noriegatuba]

Ok, so there's the regular pedal D. I've hit the D below that, so I guess one can call it double pedal D. (oh, and you have to go chromatically down or else there's little hope)

[Todd S. Malicoate]

This has been covered a few times before, but my way of thinking is that only notes below the fundamental of a tuba are really "pedals." Noriegatuba, and others on the forum, obviously disagree, and that's fine.

But, just for the sake of curiosity, for those of you who call really low notes above the fundamental "pedals"...

How far up do you call those notes pedals? For example, noriegatuba, considering the note you call "regular pedal D," is the note a half-step above that pedal Eb? Then pedal E? How far up do you still call that note a pedal? It would seem a little silly to call the A three ledger lines below the bass clef staff a "pedal," so I'm just wondering where the cut-off is.

I'm going to assume that you are talking about your C tuba, since there's no way you have enough valves to play the D below what you call pedal D (and I would, too, on an F tuba) on your F.

For the record (and for the sake of the testosterone display this thread has become), I can play down to the E below the fundamental on a C tuba with a buzzing embouchure. It sounds like a "real note" to me, with a real sense of a pitch. I've performed the G just above that a few times in my transcription of the Canadian Brass' "Tuba Polka." It's a nice range to have access to, since flute players are known to be susceptible to the "charms of the tuba pedals."

[sloan]

That 'D' had to have been horrendously out of tune, and here's why. Concert A above Middle C, which is the C on the ledger line above the bass clef staff, is currently set to a frequency of 440. For every octave that you go down, the frequency of A is halved. Also, take into account the even-tempered scale. For the D that you mention, the frequency of the A below it would be (according to A=440) 13.75 Hz. That means that D is 18.354 (roughly) Hz. The lowest tone audible to the human ear is right around 20 Hz. Therefore, in order to hear the note, you would have had to have actually been playing an Eb around 47-48 cents sharp. Which is not a D. Also, and I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned this either, it's called a BBb tuba because the fundamental pitch of the horn, given its length, is a BBb on the Grand Staff...in other words, a pedal BBb. Anything lower would be an undertone. Sorry to rain on your parade, Kevin.

I understand that most tubas come with 3, 4, 5, or even 6 ways to change the length of the tuba...

[Nick Pierce]

It's a nice range to have access to, since flute players are known to be susceptible to the "charms of the tuba pedals."

Dang, what flute players are you talking to? And how do I find others like them?

[TubaCoopa]

It's a nice range to have access to, since flute players are known to be susceptible to the "charms of the tuba pedals.

Wouldn't that mean that you could just fart and get the same effect?

[Nick Pierce]

By the way, Graingers "Children's March: Over the Hills and Far Away" has pedal BBb's at the end.

You may now continue with your regularly scheduled programing.