Posted by Sam Gnagey on October 18, 2003 at 08:25:37:
In Reply to: Re: Viennese system F questions posted by Chuck Jackson on October 17, 2003 at 21:27:48:
1. I chose the Mirafone because it was available. When I was in high school a fellow tubist in the Greenville Ohio community band, Bob Woodbury, had a 3+3 Alex that he had brought back from Germany. He introduced me to the system which I thought was pretty cool. I played it a lot in my imagination. I don't remember the exact circumstances of first finding this horn, but I believe that in the 1970s when Jeff Rideout was teaching at Ball State U. he told me about having the instrument in the inventory there. No one wanted to try to play it then, and he let me borrow it for a while. A year ago I was able to negotiate a trade with them for it in exchange for a YEB-321S which was far more functional for their student's use.
2. I like the size-small and light weight.
3. The section liked it when I did the Brahms Requiem on it last season. They're used to me bringing strange instruments in to use. I cobbled together a cimbasso once to use. We have a guest conductor this week, so I figure I can't get into real trouble using something rather unothodox. It has a rather dark sound for an F tuba that seems to work well on Brahms.
4. It's pretty weird playing most of the technical stuff with your left hand, but I'm also a bass player, so I have good facility in my non-dominat hand. The low register is surprisingly good. There are some strange fingering combinations ie. G below the staff is 1356. With so many combinations possible there is bound to be an in-tune one if you can find it. You don't ever have to use your pinky.
5. A good focused sound is always the goal. I'm using a C4 mouthpiece on it which seems about right except I might prefer something with a slightly smaller diameter cup. After 33 years in the same job little self-challenges like this keep me excited about my work.
Thanks for the questions, Chuck.