Eb or F Tuba

[ashhealey]

Hi, I am about to start my senior year of high school. I have recently purchased a St. Pete 209N CC tuba (Love it to death!!!) I am now thinking of buying a more solo tuba to go along with it. I am planning on going to school for music education with a major on tuba and a minor focused on voice. But more to the point, I was wondering if I should go with an Eb or F tuba. I know that they are both higher pitched which makes them great for solo work. I also am aware that apparently an F and CC are more paired for each other. However, I see so many beautiful Eb for sale that are in my price range that literally kill me to see them go. So I was wondering if it would be an awful thing for me to get an Eb? Are they really that bad or is just a preference thing that doesn't really matter? And if it does matter does anyone know places besides here and eBay to find the instrument I need for an affordable price? Thank you all so much!

[Ken Crawford]

Pat Sheridan makes a good tuba sound on Eb. Buy one. The key of the instrument isn't going to hold you back any.

[hubert]

You will love the St. Pete Eb (5 valves) as well!!
Excellent for both chamber music and solo.
Hubert

[ashhealey]

Not an easy question. Is it a large Eb that won't sound that much different than your CC? Or a small one that sounds like an F?

Fingering wise, an F will share more fingerings with your CC. I play BBb, CC, and Eb all for different things. Never owned an F because I never felt like I needed one, but I'm in the minority

I am not overly worried about fingerings. I started out on a BBb and have made the transition to CC fairly easily. I was also a clarinet player before I switched to tuba and I also play saxophone in our jazz band. My fear is just that an Eb will not sing in the upper register like I would want it to. That or it would not correlate very well to keys in music. Just in my experience between BBb and CC, it seems like the fewer flats your instruments natural scale has the easier it is to transition in between keys. And if I am to get an F should I go with a tuba or would it look better to my soon to be college professors if I had a Cimbasso? Sorry for just adding about 16 new questions my fingers just kept typing

[ashhealey]

A cimbasso in college is about as useful as my daughter having an alto trombone in Jr high

Just out of curiosity why do you say that? They sound like they could be used for both solo work and larger band work. They sound like a very versatile instrument that would be prime for a college student. I am most definitely not trying to argue with you because you obviously know much more than me and that is part of the reason I am picking your brain so much.

[Michael Bush]

In my experience, students and recreational players are over-represented in the set of tuba players who are focused on equipment. Your soon-to-be college professors are going to be a lot more impressed by how you make music on whatever you have. You probably don't need either an Eb or an F until you are pretty well along in your college program. And you certainly don't need a cimbasso in order to impress them. Playing well from a lot of the Bordogni book on your St. Pete will be much more impressive than what other instruments you do or don't have.

[tubasaz]

I love to play "high f" with my CC tuba. Also I love my Bass Trombone sound.

[hbcrandy]

Audition on your CC tuba and play pieces that show off your sound, phrasing and melodic line interpretation skills. Your teacher will tell when it is time for you to consider a bass tuba. Take his or her advice as to what pitch and make of bass tuba to buy.

I played CC and Eb tuba for all of my professional life (40 years) and fared well with that combination.

Best wishes.

[marccromme]

My fear is just that an Eb will not sing in the upper register like I would want it to.

... any good smaller bell/bore (say 15' or max 17' bell) Eb will sing in the high register as an F of similar dimension would. A full-size 19' brass band Eb would probably not ... it's more about bore and bell dimension than one foot additional length ...

That or it would not correlate very well to keys in music. Just in my experience between BBb and CC, it seems like the fewer flats your instruments natural scale has the easier it is to transition in between keys.

No, not really. in both cases you will have the same challenges with some scales, it would just be other scales. If you want to play all 12 minor and major scales equally well, you have to practice the same amount of time, no matter if you choose an F or an Eb.

If you play a lot of Brass Band, an Eb might be easier, but that is mostly due to the transposed treble clef in Eb. But I know people who do Brass Band Eb scores very fine on an F tuba, so anything goes if you practice.