Posted by Steve Dedman on September 28, 2001 at 17:41:25:
In Reply to: F tuba Dilemma posted by Andy Smith on September 28, 2001 at 16:02:24:
Andy,
You've probably already thought of this, but if not...Are you using the same mouthpiece on your F as on your CC? The one that's right for your CC probably isn't right for your F. Are your pitch problems in the high register? A large mpc. will generally tend to flatten pitch in the higher range.
As to the "bigness" of the sound, I agree with John that Berlioz never wrote music for a contrabass howitzer. That said, the conductor is the one waving the stick, so what he says goes. Perhaps if you can get your hands on a BA F tuba to use in a rehearsal, like a big Willson or a big B&S, you might be more able to tell if the conductor's problem is with the size of the sound vs. the timbre of the sound. IOW, would he object to ANY F tuba, even if it sounded like a smallish CC? Or does he only object to a small F?
Steve