- THIS pitch.png (2.25 KiB) Viewed 292 times
I've thought about that (and WORKED on that) a great deal since, and offer these comments:
Yes, it's a pitch which seems to require particular player accuracy, because:
- There's no pitch that high nor higher which requires as much tubing.
- That pitch with a B-flat tuba requires even more tubing than with a C tuba.
- Since that pitch is a step lower with a B-flat tuba, it appears in written music more often than the 2-3 pitch (a step higher) which occurs with a C tuba.
With my still-new-to-me/still-learning very large German "kaiser" B-flat tuba, I've uncovered a few things:
- First, the #3 rotor strike bumper was failing, which was causing me to rotate that particular rotor - from time-to-time - too far, as to expose the rotor's vent. (dumb, unobservant bloke) That certainly wasn't contributing to a good focused sound on that pitch, and - (well...) prior to that mechanical issue diagnosis - I found that I was "muscling" that pitch out via (mostly) sheer will (even when I recorded that little Mahler excerpt, which features a WHOLE BUNCH O' THEM THERE 2-3-up-in-the-staff NOTES).
- Second, that 2-3 8th partial pitch (pictured above), the 3rd partial pitch (D-sharp/E-flat), and the 2nd partial pitch ("low" F-sharp) - all played with valves 2-and-3 - are often fairly in-tune with each other, whereby the 4th partial 2-3 pitch (F-sharp/G-flat at the bottom of the staff) is often flatter than the other three. Thus, we (...OK: I/me) tend to move the 3rd slide in to "favor" the flat 4th partial 2-3 pitch. That's just not going to help the 8th partial focus of that pitch at all, UNLESS a player is perfectly willing to play that 8th partial pitch (re: the "tricky" one) stinky sharp...so it's probably best (at least ME with THIS instrument) to keep the #3 slide OUT farther, for the three roughly-in-tune-with-the-slide-out-farther pitches, and just deal with the 4th partial (F-sharp/G-flat at the bottom of the staff) pitch with "lipping" - as it's really quite flexible, and doesn't seem to suffer very much at all from being "lipped" upward in pitch.
I heard an extremely fine trumpet player friend of mine (who wasn't particularly interested in teaching until a brush with death...and now seems more eager to pass on knowledge) helping out another player by telling them, "The reason that you continue to crack that note is because you're trying to play it in tune, and it's not in tune on your instrument. Either figure out a way to mechanically manipulate your instrument so as that pitch is in tune, shop for another instrument, or attach the pitch out-of-tune, and THEN move the pitch in-tune absolutely as quickly as possible. Otherwise, you'll miss it every time.
(His primary trumpet is outfitted with a tune-any-note device...Actually, he had me to design/install it decades ago.)
