Re: Help an amateur with some new tuba vocab


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Posted by Steve Inman on November 18, 2001 at 23:13:33:

In Reply to: Help an amateur with some new tuba vocab posted by SkyviewTuba on November 18, 2001 at 17:15:08:

My F tuba has 6 valves, but not the "typical" setup. More on that in a minute.

First: Good info from Sean and Joe. At a quick glance, they didn't also suggest that a half-tone trigger might (I'm not sure about this) also be a spring loaded "kicker" attached to a "valve lever", but with out a valve. This "doo-dad" would kick out the 2nd valve tuning slide to slightly flatten notes (using the 2nd valve) when needed. I think the new Miraphone 186 CC horns have such a gizmo to kick out the 1st valve slide so you don't have to pull it with your left hand. Instead, the left hand depresses the trigger lever, which moves the slide out a little bit.

Next: WHY do you have the extra valves? Joe's explanation is 100% correct -- the 4th valve drops your F tuba into the key of C, and the 5th and 6th valves have the same length as the 1st and 2nd valves of a CC tuba. The reason you need a 5th valve that is the proper length to be the 1st valve on a CC tuba, and maybe also a 6th valve that is the proper length of a 2nd valve on a CC tuba is as follows. Your 1st and 2nd valve tubing on the F tuba are long enough to lower an open note on an F tuba by two or one half steps, respectively. They are NOT long enough to lower an open note on a CC tuba by this amount -- and a small CC tuba is what you've got when you hit 4th valve on your F tuba. Hence the need for extra valves with longer tubing attached -- or else you'll be way sharp.

Finally: My 3/4 Amati F tuba (about the same as the Cerveny CFB-654-6 that you can get at Dillon Music) has a different set-up. The 5th valve drops the tuba into the key of BBb, and the 6th valve is a half-step valve -- maybe for the key of CC, maybe for the key of BBb -- I'm not sure. This kind of 5th valve is sometimes called a "quint" valve, as it drops the pitch of the horn by a perfect 5th. It's just a different approach for accomplishing the same thing -- improved playability in the lower register.

HTH,

Steve Inman
Kokomo, IN



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