Re: Re: Recreation and relaxation, which Tuba ?


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Posted by Klaus on December 10, 2001 at 16:59:51:

In Reply to: Re: Recreation and relaxation, which Tuba ? posted by Rick Denney on December 10, 2001 at 15:03:25:

I happen to disagree with you, Rick, about the relevancy of an Eb tuba for Newbe’s purposes.

I have any possible understanding for the wish to play tunes, be they evergreens, hyms, folk songs, or nolstalgia. But playing tunes even just for the closest family must be thought of in a socio-musical context.

Playing tunes in the tenor/baritone vocal range takes some cunning on an Eb tuba. It is neither for beginners nor for newbe returners to play melody lines up in the range of the 8th partial. But that is where you easily will be taken on an Eb.

If one, on an Eb, playes tunes from a trumpet book with trumpet fingerings, ones wife would have to suffer from a quite serious hormone deffect to sing along just in the octave.

If one, on an Eb, playes tunes in the right "vocal" keys in the contrabass ranges, one has to maneuver around the 2nd partial. Which is no easy task for beginners either.

Aside from that a player specialising in playing the tune in the contrabass range is very much un-inviting himself from just about any sort of ensemble. And brass players most often end up with an urge to play in some sort of ensemble.

The tuba world has quite a number of good and very good soloists, but they very rarely are newcomers to the tuba.

As I have hinted in another posting on this thread, the tuba family actually has a member, that is perfect for playing melodies in the right vocal range: the euphonium.

With the right choice of equipment and some personal effort a euph will end up to be experienced as a melodyplaying tuba.

Had I still been a teacher, I would not have accepted a student with the specific expectation profile of Newbe. Because it has frustrations intervowen in its very structure. I would rather be honest and say:

If you love the tuba, then go for a future as a band tubist on some amateur level.

If you love to play the melody, the go for an instrument recognised as a melody instrument.

Where the tuba and the melody graphs meet in a Western system of musical reference, you will find exactly the euphonium.

Klaus


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