Posted by Ola Ness on April 19, 2001 at 08:09:49:
In Reply to: Quintet Survey: Contrabass or Bass tuba posted by Matt G on April 17, 2001 at 07:02:53:
What instrument to choose depends on alot of factors. What YOU sond like, what the quintet sounds like etc. I personally prefer Eb for quintet, both because that's the instrument I play best and because it suits my group. An additional advantage I find with the Eb in quintet is that it easily facilitates both high range and low range much better than any other tubas ('compromise instrument'?) and therefore is easier to play on all the repertoire, rather than swapping tubas between pieces (as in the orchestra, but this can be a great nuicance in quintet!) or struggling with some of the low-range-stuff on the F or struggling with the high-range-stuff on a CC or a BBb. But this is obviously only my opinion, and I presume that most american players would say that I'm wrong.