going from professional CC to sousaphone

[Bandmaster]

Alrighty, I found out to now keep my scholarship, i have to play sousaphone now, and i started band camp and had way too many wrong fingerings and im using my helleberg 7B, and on my CC im using a PT 50+

any recomendations on what to do regarding this switch, in my lessons and practice i do the CC of course

Getting the fingerings will take a little time, but why use that little bitty 7B? My Conn sousa plays wonderful with my PT 50 stuck in the leadpipe! Your fingers are having a hard time, why give your chops a hard time too?

[eupher61]

JUST DO IT!!

[sloan]

There's a saying in poker: "if you find yourself stuck with a difficult decision - you should look backwards to find the mistake you made".

The mistake you made was to SWITCH from BBb to CC, rather than ADDING CC to the BBb. Now you've lost the BBb and face difficult choices.

In my opinion, any BBb player who switches to CC and abandons the BBb was not ready to move on to CC in the first place. It was a bad decision, perhaps forced on him by well-meaning teachers or advisors.

If you are not capable of ADDING CC to the existing BBb, then (in my opinion) there's absolutely no point in switching. There is nothing you will be able to do on the CC that you couldn't have done on the BBb (except perhaps purchasing a "professional" CC).

One key is in the title of this thread: PROFESSIONAL CC vs. BBb. A true *professional* wouldn't be worrying about this at all - he'd just pick up the horn and play. Either horn, any time, any music.

Given that your scholarship depends on playing BBb, I suggest that you behave professionally and learn to play BBb well enough to do the job. That means actually practicing on the BBb - not just showing up on the football field and trying desperately to fake it well enough to get by. Maybe, with luck, this time you can ADD BBb to your existing CC and get to the point you should have been at long ago - being able to play both equally well.

either that or scour the marketplace for a CC Sousaphone...if Daddy can afford a "Professional CC", perhaps he can pay for a CC Sousaphone, too.

Or, you could decline the BBb gig and return the scholarship money.

By the way...what professional obligations do you have that REQUIRE you to play CC?

[djwesp]

James, you won't like my response, but I think I'll give it anyway.


As a tuba performance major, you should be beyond issues like this. Tuba/Trombone/Trumpet players in almost any classical application (which is what you want) are EXPECTED to be able to change keyed instruments freely with little or no problems.


The quickest way to do this is work on transposition ALL YEAR on ALL of the horns you play. Transposition should become so free that you will not have to worry about this issue because you are using it so much in your practice routine. I LIKE to play my Eb horn, however, I know that in any situation (audition, gig, whatever) I could be asked or expected to play one of the "standard" keyed horns.


I have found that in gig situations, ESPECIALLY churches, you will not have time to fiddle around with this stuff and can be expected to transpose a lot of music! Hymns, alto/tenor clef, treble clef. The more fluently you can read OTHER instruments/vocal music, the better. The more you are actively reading music (and not rote learning fingerings) the better!

[jonesbrass]

I respect the point of views respected here, but I have to make a personal observation. Just MHO. Too many young players don't take the time to "master" the instrument they're on before they try to pick up other keyed instruments.
I was teased a little bit when I was in college for buying a pro BBb tuba. The opinion of the other tuba players was "why would you buy a BBb? I don't know anybody who owns their own BBb, everybody buys a CC." The advice I recieved from my instructors was to master the BBb before I tried to play any other keyed tuba.
Long story short, I didn't switch until about 2 years into my Army Band career. Thank goodness. Spending the time to be able to play anything put in front of me on BBb just made playing CC, F and Eb that much easier when the time came. Switching between CC for concert band/brass quintet to BB for marching band, to F for tuba-euphonium ensemble was so much easier. YMMV. Gook luck in any event. Just practice.