Tubas, euphoniums, mouthpieces, and anything music-related.
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To genuinely boast a X-octave range, one must be able to confidently/consistently play (in various contexts) X+1 of a given pitch
(ex: 5 F's = 4 octaves)
Further (again, more than just squeaking or percolating out pitches), it's also understood that someone should actually be able to play music (you know: stuff that people might be willing to hear) within the entirety of that stated range of pitches.
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Last edited by bloke on Tue Jun 28, 2022 9:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
I recall a "double low C" in one or two pieces, "high B-flat" (in Symphonie Fantastique) doesn'tcount, because it's not in the published version, but I have played some written G-sharps "up there"... Any "double-low F's don't count either, because neither were those written, and - during "Yellow Dog Blues", or some such a song - I was just trying to get a chuckle out of some rich old folks sitting in a cruise ship's lounge - waiting to be told that their cabins were ready...
...so - to date - I really don't believe that I can claim having been asked (with everything contracted to play put together - over the past 48 years) to play in a full four-octave range. Obviously, playing/messing-around-in 4-1/2 octaves (or so) at home helps secure the (99.999% of the time) 3 octaves - in which we're asked to play.
__________________________________ footnote: "Triple low C" - in a solo piece entitled "Encounters II", may well have been actually played by Mr. Roger Bobo (and theoretically possible on the instrument which he used to perform it), but (most of) the rest of tuba players
- fake that pitch, and
- have never been paid (per the first line of this post) to play that piece.
Yes, but since this is for "li'l kiddies," the real question is: on the 8-note color-coded one octave toddler toy, like the one my son received for his second birthday, can you play a three-part canon to "Three Blind Mice"? I can.
The widest span I think I've been asked to play in a single piece in a concert is In the South by Elgar. I know it goes up to an Eb above the staff. And I know I played a pedal D or C#, but I also know I took some notes in the pedal section down an octave (for honest-to-goodness musical reasons), but I can't remember what the WRITTEN range is.
Those questions aside, that is at the top of my list of pieces I wish I could play again.
The Berlioz Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale also has a wide range. But again, I can't remember the specifics. As written, it goes above the Symphonie Fantastique. But I can't remember how low it goes.
Playing with a consistent sound in all ranges, or at least controlled, is more of a desire for me in my students. Then again, after attending conferences, I hear so many people changing their tone color below low C to be more direct and compact, I’m guessing for clarity (especially on the big horn). I guess if they have control, it’s an artistic choice when they consistently do it (?).
I have had conductors ask for the Bb in Symphonie Fantastique, as it was in the original ophicleide parts are written there.
The real trick of being a pro, kiddos, is something my first teacher, @LeMark taught me. “The only difference between a good player and a great player is that a great player makes it look easy”. I will add on, being able to control and do it consistently.
Dr. James M. Green
Lecturer in Music--Ohio Northern University
Adjunct Professor of Music--Ohio Christian University
Gronitz PF 125
Miraphone 1291CC
Miraphone Performing Artist www.russiantuba.com
russiantuba wrote: ↑Tue Jun 28, 2022 11:51 am
Playing with a consistent sound in all ranges, or at least controlled, is more of a desire for me in my students. Then again, after attending conferences, I hear so many people changing their tone color below low C to be more direct and compact, I’m guessing for clarity (especially on the big horn). I guess if they have control, it’s an artistic choice when they consistently do it (?).
I have had conductors ask for the Bb in Symphonie Fantastique, as it was in the original ophicleide parts are written there.
The real trick of being a pro, kiddos, is something my first teacher, @LeMark taught me. “The only difference between a good player and a great player is that a great player makes it look easy”. I will add on, being able to control and do it consistently.
If I may add to that:
An amateur practices until he can play a passage correctly.
A professional practices until he can't play it incorrectly.
That ties in to the making it look easy: being able to play the passage no matter what the venue, conditions, distractions, etc.
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Lately, I've encountered a couple of pieces with out-of-the-friggin'-blue CRAZY-high exposed solo passages (NOT major works...either "pops" or "run-of-the-mill-recently-written-blather-yawner" pieces).
I'm don't sweat it (and NOR am I willing to practice my butt off to play those passages on my 7/4 atomiphone).
I bring along the EUPHONIUM, and just pick it up to play those passages.
bloke "It's not as if trumpet players don't routinely do this sort of thing."
Are you counting the F4 as the one just above the piano middle C?
Miraphone 186 - King 2341 - JP179B - York & sons 1910 Eb - Meinl Weston 2145 - Wessex Festivo - King 2280 Play it with emotion and play it strong! Don't make a face and they won't know it's wrong!
The range quoted by BBb players in the USA is depressingly large, the better Brass Band Tuba players that I know have a range of a bit over three octaves on a four valve instrument. On an Eb Tuba my top note is an Eb above the stave and very occasionally an F, I’ve rarely been asked for the Eb but practice it to secure the range below. Similarly peddle Eb, D and C is as far as it goes below the stave and I’m never been asked for them but practice to secure other notes in the low range.
Obviously I’m an amateur player and you guys are professionals but, heck, why are you asked for such extremes? Those higher notes are surely better left to smaller instruments so why not score them on a Euphonium (Tenor Tuba) rather than a BBb (Contrabass Tuba). Having said that I understand that it’s handy for the player to have a wide and secure range available to them, but I really can’t see how I could get my chops to give me any more than they already do - suggestions are welcome. My range improvement plateaued some years back but thankfully the vast bulk of what I’m asked for is well within the two and a half octaves easily enough available on a three valve instrument.
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I learned to play those notes because I thought that I was supposed to be able to. My buddies did so I thought it was something I should learn.
I played a few of them in my recitals in college but in my present WORLD I never see them. We may play down to the 2nd F Below bass clef and maybe up to the middle line D or even F occasionally.
I am not into solo literature... I hack around on and can play through several war horses and see those notes but I don't intend to put those solos out to discomfort the public
I'm glad that I only play for fun and don't HAVE to play them if I don't want to.
Miraphone 186 - King 2341 - JP179B - York & sons 1910 Eb - Meinl Weston 2145 - Wessex Festivo - King 2280 Play it with emotion and play it strong! Don't make a face and they won't know it's wrong!
The greatest range I´ve been asked to cover in ONE piece occured 2005 in Kerkrade, Netherlands with the "Sinfonisches Blasorchester Vorarlberg".
Back then, I was operating a B&S 4097 CC-tuba.
Top note was a c1 (I think that´s what you call the c one line above bass clef stave) in one piece.
Bottom note was a "Sub-Contra Ab" in the same piece.
That would be the Ab two octaves below the Ab at bottom space of bass clef stave.
To be fair: That top c was actually written in the music, the bottom note was written an octave higher (Three lines below the stave), but was vehemently called for by our conductor to be taken down the octave. I have no idea if that counts...
So that´s little more than three octaves of range and felt like a whole lot already.
The fact that I remember a specific occasion 17 years ago when that happened might illustrate my inclination to support Bloke´s opinion:
Nobody will hire You for Your ability to squeak and fart over a range of 4+ octaves.
Being able to perform a range of two octaves with an even (or, at the very least: MATCHING) sound color (peferrably a pleasing one) would be a much more beneficial ability to pursue...
I’m certain that if I could play nothing more than four E-flats - and everything in between them, that I would never have had any colleagues or music directors look askance at me.
The complication is that - to secure that range (three octaves) - I sort of need to work on over four octaves at home… but not be a jackass and display the extremes at rehearsals or certainly not on stage prior to performances.
OK…sort of funny:
There’s a fine amateur player in that same community band, and before a rehearsal he showed me that he can now fart out a double low F (“Bosendorfer”). He asked me if I had managed to play lower than that. I admitted that I hadn’t, but that I would be willing to try. I put the mouthpiece up to my face, and squeaked out the top-line F in the treble clef, and then uttered, “I guess not“… he laughed heartily…and no, I certainly don’t consider that to be part of my “range“.
I had two or three written “low” E flats, and one written E-flat above the staff…
Curiously, that finding sort of backs up a previous post I made in this same thread.
—————-
I do no composing and – though I’m pretty good at it – very little arranging. I would never write anything higher or lower than the range between those four E-flats in a tuba part, and would think long and hard before encompassing that much range.
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