What is the highest note you can play on a BBb tuba?

[Toad Away]

What is the middlest note you can Play on a tuba in D?

Once, during a performance of Newark Siege for brass
5tet, I actually hit a D in the middle of the
bass clef .........

But I was using a CC...

[Tom Waid]

The countdown has started for someone to ask, "what is the loudest note you can play?"

[termite]

Here's a question - for those who play several different tubas (eg. BBb and EEb or CC and F) on a regular basis, do you get the same range on both instruments or can you go lower on your contrabass tuba and higher on your bass tuba?

Regards

Gerard

[Wyvern]

Here's a question - for those who play several different tubas (eg. BBb and EEb or CC and F) on a regular basis, do you get the same range on both instruments or can you go lower on your contrabass tuba and higher on your bass tuba?

It depends as much on the individual instrument as the key it is pitched. However generally the high register is more secure on the higher pitched tuba, while for low register the tone is fuller on the lower pitched tuba. Having said all that I find the upper and lower range on all my tubas varies little. The MAIN reason I see for having different pitched tubas is tone, rather than range.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

Here's a question - for those who play several different tubas (eg. BBb and EEb or CC and F) on a regular basis, do you get the same range on both instruments or can you go lower on your contrabass tuba and higher on your bass tuba?

My high range is quite similar on all keys of tuba, but...the mouthpiece size used on all of those horns is basically the same (in the same neighborhood, anyway).

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that it's the mouthpiece size (in general) that has more to do with range than the key of horn. I can play quite a bit higher with security on euphonium than I can on any tuba, but the mouthpiece is the next magnitude smaller from a tuba mouthpiece. Same goes for trumpet...another octave or so higher goes along with the next magnitude smaller mouthpiece.

So...if you want to play higher on a tuba...make an adaptor for a euphonium mouthpiece bore to tuba receiver and you'll be all set!

[sloan]

So...if you want to play higher on a tuba...make an adaptor for a euphonium mouthpiece bore to tuba receiver and you'll be all set!

That will help - but you'll be playing higher through a mega-phone, not a tuba.

The mouthpiece is one part of the equation - but the bell end matters, too.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

That will help - but you'll be playing higher through a mega-phone, not a tuba.

The mouthpiece is one part of the equation - but the bell end matters, too.

Sorry...couldn't find the "sarcasm" smiley for the last line of my post! Of course the end result of putting a smaller mouthpiece in a tuba with an adaptor would be unmusical at best.

[Rick Denney]

I am a senior, so I'm technically still in high school, yes. I do realize that there is more to Tuba playing than high notes, otherwise I would be playing Euphonium. But I was simply asking what the highest note you can play on a BBb Tuba is. I never said that only high notes matter..

The problem is that it is not a simple question.

1. Being able to play high and being able to play high dependably and with excellent tone are not the same thing.

2. Nobody has a good definition that works in words only for dependability and excellent tone.

3. Thus, the question is unanswerable.

4. People who ask this question are focusing on skills that are not important to making music, especially in high school.

5. Therefore, answering the question is unhelpful and perhaps detrimental, because it either leads to complacency or attempts at squeaking out higher notes without the corresponding fundamental improvements, which are usually found by working the whole range.

6. Nobody wants to provide an answer that is both vacuous and damaging. The reason is they have your best interests in mind.

7. So, don't be offended.

Rick "suggesting a few lessons with a teacher, where dependability and tone quality can be assessed" Denney

[ztuba]

I personally can legitimately hit lower and higher notes clearly and cleanly on my f tuba... I think it is just right n the sweet spot for the double pedal range sine the fourth valve fake note if an f and you can add valves ...I bet Eb tuba is better for that. But your high range shouldn't change even if you are on a tenor tuba. I can play just as low and high on any tuba it just speaks/feels different.

[CWessel188]

Jacobs played Bydlo on a BBb tuba. End of contest.

I don't play BBb, but my the largest range I can remember for my tuba is the high G in the Barnes concerto and double pedal F.
Once I hit a high Bb on a sousaphone. But I was using an Eb tuba mouthpeice.

More importantly, my USABLE range, the range I would got out in public and play in front of a symphony full of musicians extends from high F to pedal A-ish, depending on the day.

Unfortunately, the usable range does not include C# and D above the staff yet.

And I don't suppose there's a way to get over the huge shift between pedal C# 12345 and pedal C open?

[Alex C]

Arnold Jacobs recorded the Bydlo solo on his CC York tuba in the early 50's CSO recording. To my knowledge he did not play it on a BBb tuba though I believe he played it on a couple of different F tubas. All of which is immaterial to the discussion and misinformation about range in this thread.

Read Rick "suggesting a few lessons with a teacher, ..." Denney's suggestions, about two posts up from here, for a reasonable and thoughtful response to the all of the previous posts on this topic.

[Tuba Guy]

Chris, I'm pretty sure when Jacobs did the Bydlo performance you're talking about, it was on a double tuba, and he was playing it on the BBb side rather than the F side.
But of course, he was Arnold Jacobs, and could do things that make all of us now look like amatures.

Also, since when are you on tubenet?

[Lee Stofer]

When practicing consistently, every day, in the past I have had a few rare days where I could cleanly play the 2nd Eb above the bass clef staff. Not that that really is a measure of anything, as that is not anywhere near the normal daily range of a tuba, or anything I'd ever try to play in public.

Range is dependent upon the training of the individual and condition of equipment. What is most important, is what is done musically with that range. I'd rather play 1 1/2 octaves and sound great than 4 octaves and not sound great.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

http://www.windsongpress.com/jacobs/taylor.htm for more information about Arnold Jacobs' performance of Bydlo on the Bb/F double tuba from someone who knows. The rest of the article is a nice read, as well.

But your high range shouldn't change even if you are on a tenor tuba.

Really? I can play much higher on a tenor tuba with much greater security. As I mentioned before, I suspect it's the smaller mouthpiece that changes the available range quite a bit. Maybe I'm the oddball, though. Do you agree that one should be able to play higher on a trumpet, or are you saying that one's effective range is just a function of their chops and not the instrument/mouthpiece?

[sloan]

I agree with those who say they can play higher on bass (or tenor) tubas than they can on contrabass.

I also agree with those who say that your range is essentially the same on all of them.

Let me explain...

I'm an average over-the-hill amateur who will never challenge for "highest note played". My high range (on both contrabass and bass tubas - and, I guess, on euph) is a glaring weakness. My low range is no problem - it's not anything special by any means - but I can play all the (low) notes that show up on *my* stand. I can't say the same thing about all the HIGH notes that I see.

I recently started playing EEb after decades of BBb-only playing - motivated in no small way by the desire to play "up there". These days, I mostly *practice* on the EEb, and play the BBb in rehearsals and performances. I occasionally bring the EEb to rehearsals - but only if I'm sure that I can "hide" in the section. The point is that I spend some days (practice days) on the EEb and other days (days when someone else might actually hear me) on the BBb.

It is perfectly obvious to me that my high range on the BBb has been made much more *secure* by practicing on the EEb.

Why? Well, that seems obvious, too. Security comes from repetition. Repetition of SUCCESS, not repetition of failure. If I'm struggling with a passage on the BBb, I end up failing a lot, and practicing failure simply re-inforces the failure. Take that passage to the EEb, where it is more secure, and practice it there for awhile - and I find that when I move back to the BBb it's much more secure.

This is similar to my experience playing very old instruments (with...idiosyncratic...intonation) and very new instruments (mine was tuned at the factory). An hour of struggling with wide, mis-placed slots on my Eb megaphone and suddenly everything is easy as pie on my King 2341.

"That which does not kill you, makes you stronger"

[ztuba]

the ear training program practica musica has that exact thing set up on their interval ear training thing... it works great.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

Doesn't the Bydlo solo only go up to G# above the staff?

Yes...the article is referring to the c# a fifth below that. There are many instances of that note, and Mr. Taylor asserts that Mr. Jacobs played those c#s on the Bb side of the double tuba (perhaps it wasn't a particularly good note on the F side).

So to say Mr. Jacobs played the whole solo on the Bb side (or on a Bb tuba) is misleading at best.

Honestly, I don't see why that's even part of the discussion. I can play higher than that with security on a Bb tuba. I have an arrangement of Carnival of Venice that I've played with the local community band a couple of times on a sousaphone...it goes to the Bb a whole step above Bydlo. What do I win?

[yoink]

I once heard a story about a guy who played a tuba on an airplane. I think they said he was about 35,000 feet. Sounds pretty high to me.