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Extra notes needed

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For the end of term rehearsal for Charnwood Training Band, we had a go at some familiar pieces and then a selection of less used items in the pad. Some of them were okay but other posed a problem for me (on tuba) because they were pitched such that I either had to go above or below my comfortable range. I had to work out, on the fly, whether to try going up, down or vacillate between the two.

Later, I had a chat with the tuba player for the Concert Band who confirmed that mine is a non-compensating four valve tuba. It turns out that this is the fingering system I’d already been working on but, revisiting the chart I’d created a few months ago, I realise I stopped at the Bb below the bass clef. I definitely need to revise that to let me go a bit lower. If I could comfortably get to the F below that, then I’d have been able to cover everything by going down and, a bit more work at the top, would have meant going up would have been an option in most cases.

Presently I’d count the F towards the top of the bass clef as the top of my safe range and the Bb above that as my maximum possible note. Theoretically at least there is more than octave and a half I could go up. More practise is needed but perhaps my next target should be to see if I can make the new tracks feel safe by the start of next term?

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