bloke wrote:I don't necessarily grab the F tuba, when a tuba part sports a few "high" notes.
I more tend to grab it when a tuba part is "gymnastic", and (ok...) when tuba parts are gymnastic, they tend to go back-and-forth between low and high...I suppose...
I'm thinking I also grab the F tuba when a part doesn't sport more than one or two ledger lines below the staff, and when the ensemble is small.
Agree, with the addition that the F tuba does not increase my range, but it certainly increases my security in the upper register, at the expense of security in the lower register. In my quintet, if my music extends two low, particularly if it requires a lot of moving around down low, it's more secure on a contrabass. But I'd rather deal with issues down low than up high. If the music pops above the staff briefly, I will be missing the F if I don't have it.
But to the question asked, I have this feeling that proficiency on both instruments requires deep experience with both instruments. Bloke may not need to practice on the F as much, simply because he's put in that time in the past and his chops and fingers remember it unconsciously. I just recently felt like I was fighting the B&S and set it aside in favor of the Yamaha 621, just to see if I can figure out what's going on. I didn't have to spend more than about ten minutes on it (after several years) and everything was right where I remembered it. And the problem with the B&S is that there are still some scales that the fingers (all six of them that are required) don't remember down below the staff, and that tells me what I need to do.
There have been times when I spent 80% on F and other times when I spent 90% on Bb contrabass in my practice, depending on which gap needed filling at the time.
Rick "2 steps forward, 3 steps back" Denney
