Posted by Rick Denney on December 18, 2001 at 15:16:39:
In Reply to: Re: Re: CC or BB? that is the qq posted by Klaus on December 18, 2001 at 13:59:27:
Well, Klaus, your point is a good one, and I must have missed it the first time around. I know well what the valves do, but like you, I hear pitches in Bb and F. I can play tunes on a C tuba if they go by slowly, and without the music in front of me. But connecting dots on the page to buttons on the horn requires mental steps that absorb too much of my mental capacity and leave little for making music. And my brain cries foul when an open tone doesn't fall where my ears want it to. C and Bb are a little too close for my brain to understand the difference.
My point was that it isn't a question of laziness, but rather of choices. I wanted to learn F tuba, and I did. I knew then what the valves did, and I had as good an understanding of how intervals sound as I'm ever likely to have. When I'm holding the F tuba, I hear F pitches, and when I'm holding the BBb, I hear BBb pitches. When I first started on F, I heard really no pitches at all--it was almost a clean slate. When I hold a CC tuba, I hear BBb pitches, and the C pitches sound wrong to me. That sounds similar to your own description. It can be overcome, but is it worth it? Not for me, though I recognize that for others it will be.
I didn't tell you that the mechanics of playing an instrument aren't part of the obligation of playing it well, even for a hobbyist. What I did say is that it is no insult on the character of a good BBb tubist that he is unwilling to learn CC fingerings, if he has no intention of playing a CC tuba.
Rick "who would learn CC fingerings if there were a compelling reason to" Denney