Re: Re: CC or BB? that is the qq


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Posted by Klaus on December 18, 2001 at 13:59:27:

In Reply to: Re: CC or BB? that is the qq posted by Rick Denney on December 18, 2001 at 11:45:38:

Rick, you are terribly wrong in saying:

"As to Klaus's comments about dedication, I will only say that being a dedicated person and being dedicated to learning new fingerings for a different tuba are not the same thing."

If I were dedicated to drive a car in the UK, I would have to dedicate myself to left side driving. Anything else would be life endangering. And not just for me.

If a person has a dedication to add a differently keyed instrument to his/hers tuba palette or to shift to a differently keyed instrument, then that person should not ask whether the new fingerings will pose a problem learningwise. If that person has to ask, then that will be potentially music endangering. And specifically not just for the person in question.

My basic idea is, that if one does not have a basic understanding of the diatonic/chromatic scale systems (by ear exclusively or by the combination of ear and reading), then one has not "earned" the foundation to feel an urge towards an instrument of a certain key. This understanding mentioned must include an understanding of the brass instruments partial system and the understanding of the effects induced by activating the valves 1 trough 3. If this latter understanding is there, the 4th, 5th, and even 6th valve will pose no problem at all.

As for my "by ear exclusively" notion: In one of my former capacities as a cultural organiser/booker, I had the good fortune repeadtedly to meet an elderly Danish jazz pianist. He could not read even the simplest music beyond chord symbols. Yet he had a solo repertory of maybe 1000 tunes. All standing in front of him on the piano. Listed by their titles and composers only. No music, no chord symbols.

We have a conglomerate band called The Kansas City Stompers. Its book is laid out for 7 or 8 players with an optional singer. This band has wondered a lot of people by being able to play 5 or more simultaneous jobs. The explanation is, that it has 40 or 50 musicians on its list, so that the organiser can establish a number of parallel bands. They also do jobs, where amplification is impossible.

That is where the elderly pianist reenters the scene. He told me, that he was a tubist in that band. I was mystified, because I knew he never had been taught anything in music.

Then he told, that he had found a cheap tuba in an antiques shop. As it appeared to be tight and mechanically working he took it home. He found out that the open notes matched a Bb chord. Then he looked at the valve slide lengths, figured their musical implications, and started to play. Professionally with a band of the no-mercy-to-stumblers type (pro bands generally are of that type).

This man did his tubaing by ears and by simple logic.

I would toughly make a statement about teachers of students of an even less musically gifted type:

If a BBb tuba student will have to worry about CC fingerings at the point of his development, where he starts to speculate about the tuba key, that will carry his future career, as a pro or as an informed amateur, then he has not been taught the BBb well enough. The tuba teacher might not be the only one at fault. The supporting system of ear training and theory classes have failed as well.

The fingerings of all brass instruments basically are the same (with the automatic compensation system blurring the picture a bit). The differences are in the reading and the hearing.

Whereas I have no problems in the reading part, I have problems in the hearing part.

The 2 times I have, briefly, tried CC tubas, a B&S rotary and a MW 2155, were disastrous. I do not have perfect pitch in the total sense of that term, but when I grab brasses, they have to be in Bb, Eb, or F. I simply blew the open notes a major second off on the CC’s. (Accepting my 3 G brasses has been very, very hard, but they were so good that I had to).

That is a problem to be considered, because some ears are hard to reprogram.

Fingerings are a non-musical intellectual brain function. Which make them very, very much easier to manage for any normally equipped person

As I have read especially Sean’s postings on the military auditioning system, the applicants have to play CC and F tubas. The latter is hardly ever used in active duty. And an important, if not major, part of the workload is carried out on a BBb instrument. Which is of a considerably lower quality than the instruments expected to be played at the auditions. And the playing ababilities on which were not tested at the audition.

Please don’t get me started by telling that a dedication towards an instrument does not include the obligation to learn the simplest mechanics of playing it. But you did.

Amateur means lover. And there are obligations to love.

Klaus


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