Playing something by ear, I buzzed the note I wanted with the wrong fingering and got a passable low A on 4th valve. The A is better with 1-2, and 4 sounds better for G, but I was surprised to get some sort of bonus resonance one step above the 2nd harmonic. It worked with 1-3, too, so I don't think I can blame leakage in the 4th valve loop.
What's happening here? The tuba is a 186-sized German rotary 4V CC. I get the same kind of duality with 1-2-3 or 2-4 -- F# sounds good and G# is passable -- but not with any shorter combinations.
4th valve plays low A... !?
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Mary Ann
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Re: 4th valve plays low A... !?
I have found that slots are wider the lower you go, so hitting notes with non-standard fingerings is much easier. On my horn, it's easy to bend at least a 4th in the low range, because it doesn't jump partials like it would higher up in the range.