Posted by Rick Denney on February 04, 2002 at 14:43:13:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: CC Fingering Survey posted by Lonny on February 02, 2002 at 23:22:42:
No, tubas are not impossible in that way. Most advanced players (and even a few pretenders like me) play instruments of several pitches routinely.
Back and forth switching between BBb and CC seems a little trickier than between a contrabass and a bass tuba, but I don't expect it's all that more difficult. For me, the pitches are close enough so that they confuse my ear. I'd bet that problem would go away in a few weeks.
The fellows in the military ceremonial bands, like Sean, play BBb sousaphones regularly, and yet they still play their CC tubas every day. And most CC tuba players are pretty comfortable on Bb euphonium, which is a similar conversion.
The trick, for me, was to just treat it like a brand new instrument, and learn it the same way you learned what you already play. I started on F with scales, and then a few selected pieces with fingerings marked onto a photocopy, and then etudes, and so on. The learning process goes pretty quickly, because the patterns are the same. I don't recommend learning to do it using active transposition, unless you are so good at it that you can do it unconsciously. Within about six months of non-daily practice, I was as comfortable on F as I am on BBb. I expect the BBb to C switch is only fractionally more difficult.
Rick "who thinks old people like me learn more slowly" Denney