Posted by Joe Sellmansberger on April 10, 1999 at 16:46:58:
In Reply to: 4 or 5 valve CC tubas posted by Ray on April 10, 1999 at 15:19:31:
Five-valve tubas offer the opportunity for a "dead-on" C# (below the staff) and low F# (instead of 2 and 4, which might be sharp on one or the other of those two notes), better pitch from low F down to low-low D#, and the POSSIBILITY (no fingerings available with four valves) of a low-low D a low-low C#. If the tuba has some other bad pitch problems, some folks use the fifth valve to help them around their D# (2 and 3) struggles.