The nice thing on trombones is that you don't have to lip to be in tune, you just use the big tuning slide in your right hand. Sharp notes are easily corrected by going out a bit and that flat 5th partial (which a lot of valved horns also have) can be avoided when playing the D on 4th position. The ...

Roland's instrument can be called saxhorn with all rights, it shows A.Sax Fils on the bell. Most french saxhorns are pretty close to the original layout of Sax, when I look at my 1914 Millereaux (which is a direct copy of Sax) and my 1978 Courtois 166 the tubing is just the same. The six valve c ...

[quote Ah, so not nominally a saxhorn basse, but I have the impression that between various makes the distinction between bariton and basse isn't super reliable. I'd like to hear it on one of the modern 5 valve basse models from Courtois or Willson, but I wouldn't be surprised if this loses a little ...

In that recording Roland plays his ca 1910 Sax (junior) Bb saxhorn bariton (3+1 valves). Nice playing instrument, I tried it once. The French C tuba derives from the saxhorns, but is more conical after the valves than the saxhorns, so it's a bit different to play with a stronger low register. Of ...

Being the only tuba in my village band I did this bass line pimping for more than 20 years. Sometimes it was hard to get back to the written part when for a concert some other tuba was hired to assist. In my brass quintet I took the next step: over some time I replaced most not-so-good pieces with ...

de facto "kaiser B-flat French tuba"

tuba empereur en si bemol

Very nice! Have you seen the new wessex Eb? Looks like it would be right up your alley. (it actually plays really nice, I'm just not a 3+1 guy)

Too bad they didn't had it when I was looking for in 2020!

On my Eastman Eb I have the 4th valve modified for using it with the left hand. After decades of playing 3+x valves I couldn't get used to fingering big valves with the pinky

This is a quite old design, often used on french horns and rotary cornets in the 1830s and 40s. Less often on low brass. It would be interesting to find out if there is a reason for coming out of fashion other than being more complicated to build. Having less curves airflow should be better compared ...

"With all our music made out of scales and broken chords it helps to know these in all keys" (Sam Pilafian) Playing arpeggios through all keys (and through all chord shapes) for warming up by ear is good training for being confronted with such disguised notes as shown. The fingers can play it faster ...

Kruspe made a 7-rotor tuba around the 1920s. I once could try one, but with a smaller bell. They are full double tubas in F/Bb. The right hand has a 3 valve Bb layout, left thumb changes between F and Bb and left is playing 3 valve F. The owner loves it and plays it a lot, but he admitted you have ...

To answer the original question: YES!
Don't think about what G.Verdi would say, the sound of a French C Tuba is blending better with the trombones as a Cimbasso than F or Eb Tuba. At least I played a lot of Verdi opera with it and nobody complained

For me 36 works fine on both horns. To get it slightly lower 256 works well (5 pulled out for a longer half-step). Db is 46 (slightly high, but OK) or 136 (perfect). Here you can look for my proved way of playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sljgjXNUo9Y Living with the Courtois 166 Bb Saxhorn is ...

Yes, I understand Jonathan and the most of the brass world to think of the French C tuba as "another horn with vour valves and now two more". But you have think it the other way. It is best to have as less valves as possible in use at a time. In this way the long (four half-steps) third valve makes ...

Are Willson (or Courtois) bass saxhorns substantially different because Bb, or because just not built like a French tuba? The french Saxhorn is slightly different to the French C Tuba, and most significant a bit slimmer in the tubing. Doesn*t matter if built in C or Bb, as there were both tunings ...

I'm making videos now with my Wessex French C tuba to show the sound it can create. I am, by no means, the BEST French C player in the world (but I am the best one in Macedonia, as I am the only one). Here is what I've done so far. If you have any comments, feel free to leave them. Wonderful! I ...

Not the most sophisticated scientific way you can figure it out using a home-made breathing bag: Take a plastic bag, tape it close with a piece of 1/2" garden hose as only opening with roughly 4 or 5 litres capacity. You can insert your mouthpiece into the tube and trying to fill up the bag with one ...

As long as you play from sheet music in your gigs you have to practice playing what you see in front of you in the way it is written (with all pencil marks from rehearsals). The difference is when it comes to exercises. There are a lot of books out there which release the buyer/player from thinking ...

At least this has 3.4 times more notes to play than Dvorak 9 and widespread dynamics! But still not my favourite piece on any tuba (but relaxing to play on the french c!)

Playing Eb, Bb saxhorn and french C tuba for decades my challenge would be the BBb tuba. I never got warm with them! Reading and fingering are not the problem, but it doesn't feel right to me. It seems not to be the sheer length, I felt quite good when I tried an EEb sub-contra-bass! My F is still ...