Posted by Steve Inman on July 06, 2001 at 18:58:46:
In Reply to: Re: MW F Tuba FS posted by Jim Andrada on July 05, 2001 at 23:51:18:
Perhaps adding the info regarding the function of valves 5 & 6 would be helpful here.
On a 4V tuba, you can theoretically play all notes down to the pedal (fundamental) pitch of the tuba. With an F tuba, this would be the F that is 4 ledger lines below the staff. However, an unfortunate phenomenon occurs when you use multiple valves -- the resulting note will sound sharp.
For example, a 4V F tuba: low C is played 4th valve only. This effectively changes your tuba magically into a small 3V CC tuba, so long as you hold down the 4th valve, which is exactly what you need to do to play from low C down to the pedal F. But alas, the tuning slides on valves 2,1,3 are set to the proper length to drop an open note by one,two or three half steps, respectively, IN THE KEY OF F. THEY ARE NOT LONG ENOUGH TO DROP AN OPEN NOTE BY ONE, TWO, OR THREE HALF STEPS IN THE KEY OF CC. Hence any notes below low C will be sharp -- the more valves you use, the sharper the result. It's so bad that the low G will have to be played 1,2,3,4 which leaves no fingering for the low F#.
The added 5th valve is typically a "flat 1st valve" on many instruments. So, when you start noticing the low notes going too sharp to lip, substitute the 5th valve for the 1st valve. This added 5th valve also means you've got several new alternate fingerings that are combinations of valves you didn't have before. Since the valves simply add together to drop an open note by a certain cumulative amount of half steps, you can usually find a solution that's pretty close to in tune. (Substituting 5 for 1 isn't enough, usually, to get the low F# in tune, I don't believe. This note may have to be fingered 1,2,3,4,5.)
The added 6th valve is typically a "flat 2nd valve" on most F tubas I've heard of. With the flat 1st valve and the flat 2nd valve available, you can depress 4th valve to drop you into the key of C, then substitute the 5th valve for whenever you would use the 1st valve, and substitute the 6th valve for whenever you would use the 2nd valve. OR you can play around with all the additional new combinations of valves you have for alternate fingerings and find what works best for you.
The OTHER two choices for a 6 valve F tuba are:
1-4 as usual, 5th valve is a "quint" valve, which drops the tuba a perfect 5th (into the key of BBb), and 6th valve may then be a flat 2nd valve.
1-4 as usual, 5th valve is a "flat 1st valve" and the 6th "valve" is really a trigger for the existing 2nd valve (so when you use 6+2 you get a flat 2nd valve note, which the first 6V F tuba example above could get using 6 alone).
Hope that's somewhat helpful.
Steve Inman
Kokomo, IN