Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Fingering Confusion...


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Posted by Rick Denney on November 17, 2003 at 17:08:39:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Fingering Confusion... posted by thanx on November 16, 2003 at 22:52:36:

If your band director is playing in a band that has two BBb and two Eb tuba players, then he may well be playing in a British-style brass band. The music for British brass bands is all written in treble clef and transposed. Thus, there would be an Eb tuba part and a BBb tuba part.

For all other applications, including concert bands and orchestral tuba playing, tuba parts are written in concert pitch. A written C sound just like a C on a piano, but it is fingered differently on different tubas. Outside the British brass band world, tuba parts are written as they are supposed to sound, and it is left to the player to decide what instrument to use (and to finger it appropriately). Surprisingly few brass players of other instruments understand this, because they are not faced with the same choices.

The reason is, I think, because the tuba was invented after valves, which means that the player was never restricted just to the notes of the open bugle. Before valves, trumpet and horn players had to have a different bugle for each piece of music in a different key, so that the notes of the bugle would be useful. They wrote all the music the same way to keep from blowing the brains, and just made sure to pick up the right instrument (or insert the right length of extra pipe). Trombone players have instruments that can play any note, and all trombone music is written in concert pitch even though trombones used to be made in several pitches just like tubas. It's the same with tubas, because tubas were made possible by the invention of valves, and were therefore never restricted just to the open bugle notes.

Rick "thinking several different explanations often help with abstract concepts" Denney


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