Posted by Brent on November 17, 2003 at 01:59:13:
In Reply to: Fingering Confusion... posted by Jacob Morgan on November 16, 2003 at 21:15:05:
Dear Jacob,
Your instructor must have cut class the day they talked about transposing instrumnents. That fact is that no instrument that reads in the bass clef transposes, with the exception of the string bass that transposes the octave, that is, it reads an octave higher than it sounds.
Note: Tuba parts in traditional English band music ARE transposed, but, further note that those parts are written in the treble clef.
The fact is that IF tuba parts were, transposed our lives would be as easy as a sax players when it came to picking up various-keyed instruments. Thumb, one, two, three (on the left hand) is always "G" on any sax, though your not sounding a g on any of them (except the c melody sax---I believe.) Of course, there would be nothing stopping a tuba player from transposing a part so he/she could play an F horn, but use BBb, CC, or Eb flngerings depending on his/her's preference. (This, obviously, would only make sense if you had an isolated need to play an F tuba and didn't want to be bothered, or have the time to learn new fingerings.)
Finally, remember (and I'm sure someone has already mentioned this) that the fingering patterns are the same for all tubas; the pattern just starts on a different note.
Brent