Pitch Change

[cle_tuba]

Hello everybody!
Someone touched tuba CC for a long time and then switched to tuba BBb ...
How did it feel? As things turned out? Was it hard? The fingerings were all confused?
thank you

[scottw]

I made the addition of another tuba last fall. I have played BBb for many years and added Eb in a Civil War period band on a vintage instrument. At first, there are frustrations as your brain is programmed for a set of fingerings, especially something fast. Lately, I have had fewer lapses and actually "reacted" to fast passages instead of "thinking" on them. I play mostly on BBb and there are always a few moments at the beginning of a rehearsal or performance where I have to focus on which horn I am playing. It will come with patience and practice, particularly if you are switching from one to the other full time.

[Gilligan]

I learned CC tuba while at the Military School of Music a long long time ago. It took me about three months of diligent practice to get the fingerings solid. The major 2nd change in pitch to fingerings for tuning wasn't much of a problem. You just need to listen. I found adding Eb into my skill set to more difficult as it took learning how to completely change how I worked my air cavities to play in tune.

[mjrctuba]

I've switched back and forth from BBb as my only tuba to CC as my only tuba a few times over the years and now play horns in three different keys with CC being my main horn. Like Gilligan, I find myself (quite unintentionally) picking up the horn, taking a deep breath and saying to myself "I'm playing a BBb" or "I'm playing a CC," etc. just to get my brain in the right gear, I guess.

Speaking only for myself, making the switch was not too difficult for the most part. It doesn't take very long at all for your chops to find the center. Especially if you play the same horn for each key, you get to know your instrument. That part is only weird at the very beginning.

As for the fingerings, I found that - for a while - I would do fine as long as everything stayed in key but I would often make mistakes when I ran into accidentals. I cure this with practice, practice and more practice. I played music that I already knew. I did a lot of sight reading. Rehearsals help, too. The more you practice, the easier it gets.

So, I say don't sweat it. If I can do it, anybody can. Besides, challenges like this are good for brain health!

Good luck!

[jeopardymaster]

Freshman year in college (U of Kentucky) I bought my 184 CC, that arrived after marching season. I was worried about regressing the next Fall when I had to go back to sousaphone for marching band (my scholarship required me to be in the MB) while playing the new horn for everything else - quintet, solo lit, orchestra. It settled in pretty comfortably - things just got compartmentalized, sort of like what mjrctuba and northernlb described.