Posted by Bill on March 19, 2001 at 22:07:30:
In Reply to: BBb to Eb posted by Jess Ryan on March 19, 2001 at 20:45:25:
I play both types (BBb and Eb) everyday and find I have little difficulty doing it if I keep practicing on both. If I had to I could switch in the middle of a concert without a catastrophe. I don't know what the previous poster meant about learning the fingerings "the right way." Any good tuba method will have both horns' fingerings (and maybe F and CC, too) so get a book and play the exercises. I would learn to play in bass clef, though, not in faux trumpet treble. I have been doing this trading back and forth for 4 years, now but I also did it for three years 50-48 years ago when I learned both.
One of the uses for an Eb tuba is in a British style brass band. Regardless of which tuba you play in this, you play in Trebble Clef, transposed. Thus, the fingerings are the same but the sounds are different. This is where trumpet fingering knowledge is helpful but you have a different #-b paradigm from bass clef.
I wish you the best of luck and tons of fun with the playing. Wish you were near so we could play a few duets and trade ideas.