more on: See Tuba For Kolij (chapter 7: "The Old Days")

[arpthark]

(even though this is on-topic re: weird fingerings on stinkishly out-of-tune CC tubas, it is a sidetrack to the above sidetrack)

I'm trying to think of the more stanky fingerings I've had to use before.

Neptune: Depending on how you tuned it, either 5-4 for C below the staff or 2-3 for C in the staff

Anything on a wretched old Meinl-Weston 2155-R (I seem to recall 4 for G, 4-2 for F# below that, 1 and pull mightily for F, 3 for E [fine], and 5-1 for Eb right below the staff). When the third partial is flat-natured, you can sort of correct it with sharper-side fingerings, but if it is sharp-natured, you're mostly SOL with a few exceptions.

Alex 163: bottom line G 1-3; all sixth-partial fingerings for E in the staff down to Db (1-2, 2-3, 1-3, 1-2-3, as seen in Joe's original post); top space G 1-3

I didn't keep any of the above for very long. My trusty old B&S PT-20P that was my see-tuba-fer-kolij had a couple sharp-side quirks, but I just pulled my third valve slide a lot.

There's also that laughable 1st generation Chinese (M&M, etc.) six-valve F tuba which also called for a 2-3 F in the staff as well as a slew of other issues. If you want a bit of a chuckle, look that tuba up on the old forum and see the contemporary discussion of it where sellers were saying "it's not so bad!" or calling it THE BEST tuba they have played aside from this one weird quirk (that one weird quirk being the general intonation).

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alts I don't mind/feel second nature: 1-2/2-3 for E and Eb in the staff; 3rd valve for any E and A; 9th partial fingerings for C# above the staff

alts I really dislike: having to play the 2nd, 3rd or 4th partial open note of the horn as an alt fingering in any non-specific context (i.e., blasting against the resistance on a 5-4 low C is fun). 1-3 D in the staff (and heaven forbid 1-2-3 Db) are almost a guaranteed clam from me; not used to that resistance in that register. Any fifth valve foolery is also right out.

I guess I am always more of a slide-puller than alternate-fingering-er.

[bloke]

I would use 5-4 or 5-1-3 to play C below the staff on C tubas - not for intonation being improved, but - for more punch and growl, particularly when some symphonic piece was written obviously with the B-flat tuba in mind, and there's a huge C that just sounds hollow and empty when played open on a C tuba.

An example of that would be the C that is supposed to shock - after a very quiet descending bassoon arpeggio in one of the Tchaikovsky symphonies.

When properly chosen, I've never had a music director tell me that I overdid one of those... and I don't recall ever improperly choosing.

[matt g]

Sidetrack to the double sidetrack:

I’ve come around to 3 being the default valve for E and A on most German-made tubas.

[Rick Denney]

Returning to the original track, from which I was instantly derailed, I’m so accustomed to ignoring written-in fingerings that I didn’t even look at them in the picture Joe posted.

I had a suspicion I was missing the point. I should have listened to myself.

The question is: are those the fingerings needed to play it in tune, or just the wrong fingerings?

Rick “can’t get off track if one was never on track” Denney

[bloke]

Sidetrack to the double sidetrack:

I’ve come around to 3 being the default valve for E and A on most German-made tubas.

My German (B&S)-made compensating euphonium (with an undeserved reputation for bad intonation - spread long ago by those who apparently don't understand the model, and likely attempted to tune it by looks, rather than by ear) requires 3 for the two lower G's and 1-2 for the other pitches on that overtone series. It does not require a main slide trigger.

I don't practice euphonium very much at all, but play it at engagements (playing through PDF's of pieces a day or two before a job).
(You'll just have to take my word for it, but) it behaved VERY well (tuning-wise for me yesterday - in regards to some very exposed playing)...LOL...as long as I remembered to play the two lower G's with the third valve.

[Bob Kolada]

I've played that piece in brass quintet* and brass band, both on Eb tuba; iirc they were almost if not exactly the same as the op. I wonder what the Bb part in brass band was like.

I've always wanted to play euph on the 5th part in a brass quintet, the closest I got was a smedium King Eb (with a small mp) with #4 playing a standard euph. That did not work, I think I was brighter than him... I also tried bass trombone there under the same euph and I think it was with my jazz mp so even worse.

*That was on a piston Hirsbrunner Eb, ghastly intonation but at least I could play the open notes open.

[Yorkboy]

Back in “the old days”, a young prospective kid could audition for (and succeed in admittance to) a top-echelon Northeast city music conservatory using a 3 valve Couesnon E flat tuba - and then, play his first two years on a BBb King 1241 - and then, as his “upgrade-to-professional-standards-instrument”, the next two years AND his MM degree on a BBb York 712.