Posted by Joe S. on June 11, 2000 at 19:33:57:
In Reply to: Fluency on different keyed tubas posted by Bill Burdick on June 11, 2000 at 18:41:23:
Of course, just like most everyone else originally BBb was the ONLY brass thing I could do (except for some Bb treble clef, from playing trumpet for one semester in beginner band). When I was 17, I bought a CC tuba with my newspaper route and yard cutting money and THAT became the instrument that I could get around on "best", due to all of the practicing (more than I have ever done before, of course - except on the instrument of my "previous life", classic guitar).
After buying and selling several CC's, I fell into an F in the early mid-'80's that just seemed to fit like a glove. I have almost always owned a CC since, but F has become(and remains) my "main" tuba.
Prior to the F tuba purchase - when I quit my tuba teaching job in Kansas at age 22 - I returned to my hometown due to a heavy schedule of performance opportunities: the recording sessions at the "jingle mill" (Tanner Recording Studios - made tons of nationwide commercials and created T.V. and radio station I.D. packages) were picking up, the (back then) per service symphony - at the time about 10 "Masterworks" weeks, the Nutcracker, and about eight or ten pops things + school concerts, a six-night-a-week 6 - 9 jazz combo gig that was a combination of modern jazz (electric bass - [The classic guitar stuff paid off, here.]) and dixieland (tuba). As soon as THAT gig ended each night, I had a SEVEN night a week polka band/rock and roll (weird gigs, huh?) job from 9 - 1 that was one city block from the other place. I was able to hustle the bass and change costumes, but the tuba slowed me down. In a flea market, I found a York ("Pioneer") Eb sousa for $25. THAT began my Eb experience, and made it possible to leave the Eb at the jazz gig place and to leave the BBb fiberglass at the polka band place. (I kept my CC at HOME, OUT OF HARM's WAY!) Anyway, after fooling around with the Eb sousa for awhile, I soon begin to try to read music with the thing (besides just playing changes and rides on the bandstand). I used the Bb treble clef transposition trick (Remember, I STARTED out on trumpet.) at first, and soon just reading the "real" notes on the Eb became second nature, as with the BBb, CC, and F.
Anyway, I picked up reading skills for the four different common tubas over the years, and now, I can use "pretend" clef shifts and "pretend" tuba shifts to effect quite a few (most) transpositions.
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I realize that perhaps I reminisced more than I answered your question, but I guess I was trying to tell you that if some d---a-- like ME can do it, you can too, if you need to. Give your brain a little more credit.