Posted by Chuck C on November 20, 2003 at 10:50:50:
In Reply to: Becoming a Doubler... posted by Cale Self on November 18, 2003 at 14:42:55:
I'm not in the same league with actual musicians who post on TubeNet--just a very active amateur. I played euph and BBb tuba for many years, then added Eb about three years ago. I found that switching keys made me think harder, and that was a good thing. Made me more conscious of musical structure, particularly in jazz. Now I've had an F tuba for about a week and am finding that the transition is fairly easy--kind of like learning another language when you already know several.
A french-horn playing friend clarified my procedure for transposing somewhat. He said he used to advise students to be really clear on where the open tones were. Then it's fairly easy because the fingerings between open notes are the same, depending on what harmonic interval you're in. For instance, if you start at the signature tone of the horn, 4th valve will give you CC on a BBb, D on a CC, F on and Eb, G on an F. On the next harmonic, 3rd valve (or 1-2) will give you G on a BBb, A on a CC, C on an Eb, or D on an F. And so on.
It's keeping these principles in mind as you play that's tricky, and the only remedy, as others on this thread have observed, is to practice a lot and to play in ensembles.