Can someone please give me a simple explanation of tuba sizes? In particular, which are the sizes used for orchestral playing, and for New Orleans jazz/funk (no, seriously!) as a sousaphone substitute?

Are these also suitable for brass band/concert band use? And which tubas are transposing instruments, and which clefs do they all use?

I thought I knew a fair amount about music, but I'm just confused!

thanks
Nick

The E-flat tuba is the standard orchestral instrument in the UK. In Europe however, the F tuba is considered the standard. And In the US, the CC Tuba is the norm.

However, for solo work the F horn is usually used as it has smaller tubes and therfore easier to play higher. Just as it is much easier to play higher on a french bassoon - ie, opening of the rite of spring is much easier on a french bassoon.

If the tuba reads from the Treble clef eg. in Brass bands where they all read from treble clef, the Tuba is a transposing instrument, but not when it is reading from the bass clef.

Thanks - so the Eb tuba seems like the best bet. This is played and written in Eb then? I assume that the only transposition for treble clef writing is to take the music up 1 or 2 octaves...

So what is an EEb tuba?

I believe they are called EE-flat because they are contrabass tubas, ie, one octave below the Eb Tuba. And this namining system is now obsolete - according to wikipedia.

And yes, about the transposition. THis means however that if you were to change tubas, you would have to learn a new set of fingerings, but when in the treble clef, the same fingering may be used - which I will never understand... Maybe I'm wrong about that.

Found this, it's a BBB-flat subcontrabass tuba. - One octave below a BB-flat, which is one octave below a Bb which is known as a tenor tuba - pretty much the same as a Euphonium.

Ah - quite marvellous, if perhaps unwieldy. I think you're right about treble clef fingerings - something to do wtih brass band traditions. Almost as bad as being a trombonist ...

But I think wikipedia is wrong re EEb (shock, horror, much surprise...;-) )

thanks
NJ

Must beg to differ slightly on that one - when I studied tuba in Germany everyone played a C tuba for "everyday" work (solos, general practice, ensembles, tuba class etc) and switched to the F only on occasion. My Eb tuba was regarded by most of my fellow students as a slightly amusing brass band relic - they figured their rotary valved instruments in C were must easier and more logical to play. (Having then played C tuba quite extensively I realised they had a point!)

Also, as far as the brass band / treble clef thing goes, I believe one of its benefits was that when a player changed instruments of out necessity (for example in an old colliery band where all the members were workers there, and they suddenly needed someone to play a Bb instead of an Eb tuba) it meant that the player did not have to learn a whole new set of fingerings to be able to play straight away.

I'm pretty sure that most sousaphones are pitched in Bb. Its not really what key your instrument is rather than can you get the sound and range you want on that particular instrument

My sousaphone is in Bb - however, I believe you can get them in other keys too. A friend of mine had a helicon Eb which was very nice to play.

I spent several years playing (cornet and tenor horn) in a brass band and some weeks conducting one, and I don't recall ever seeing a transposing, treble clef part for an Eb bass tuba. The players always had a bass clef, concert pitch part (labelled "Bombardon"), and used the trick of pretending that it was treble clef transposing, with three extra sharps (or fewer flats). This is very straightforward in typical brass band music, the bass parts of which are not liberally strewn with accidentals; orchestral parts might be harder work.

The Bb bass parts were always treble clef, transposing, and labelled "Bb Bass".

And then, just to confuse even more:

"Eb Bass" is shorthand for Tuba (in Eb) as a transposing instrument, i.e., the Eb below the bass clef is written as a middle C

"Tuba" is shorthand for concert pitch tuba ... which will normally be an Eb tuba (i.e., its two lowest open notes are Eb), but the player plays from a concert pitch part.

Incidentally, the AB scales syllabus is awful for Tuba (concert pitch) - I worked out the logic of the choice of scales ... it's the same choice of scales (fingering-wise) as for trumpet, in effect, so that at Grade 3 the poor bass-claf tuba has to play F#/Gb maj (6#'s or 6b's at grade 3 - great!) and at grade 4 includes B major, and young BC tuba players hate sharps (because they start with Eb major). Typical AB - no joined-up thinking at all.