Re: Music Theory 1 1/2


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Posted by Frank on October 29, 2002 at 10:39:05:

In Reply to: Music Theory 1 1/2 posted by jlb on October 29, 2002 at 09:18:47:

You are trying to use TOO MUCH brain power on this. You have to be a BIG DUMMY like me, or it gets complicated. All we are doing is taking a Jr High kid trumpet player and converting him/her to Eb tuba. The kid is sitting holding an old Eb sousaphone, looking at the music, confused. Your instructions are "play the note occupying the first space on the staff with the 1st valve, just like you do on the trumpet. Don't worry about the 3 flats in the key signature, or the name of the note - just play the position. If it only has two flats, then play the first space (now natural) with the second valve instead. That is the same fingering the kid would be using on the trumpet to play an F or F#, only on the tuba he/she is playing an Ab or A natural. Bb on the bass is open as is the A on the trumpet, and so forth.

I understand that Eb tubas are kinda rare in schools now, so younger players were probably not taught this way. The real disadvantage is that a kid taught to read treble clef for a trumpet as I was, learns to play bass clef by position rather than the notes' letter names. After getting back into it after almost 40 years, I still have to figure out bass clef. One someone says F I automatically think of the F on the first space on the treble clef rather than the F just below the staff on bass clef. It is really a problem when reading chords from string bass music.

That is actually how I was converted from trumpet to Eb tuba. It got really interesting in college when I had to convert to BBb. All done by position. My college director asked me a question one time and I explained how I figured out fingerings. (I was the only tuba in the wind ensemble - most of the other parts were music majors, but they didn't have a tuba player majoring in music) When I explained that I was reading the positions as if playing a trumpet, and then converting from Eb to BBb, he could only shake his head - I think it blew his mind.


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