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Thread: 3-valve Eb sousaphone

  1. 3-valve Eb sousaphone

    I am the proud owner of an antique Eb silver and brass sousaphone. She resonates beautifully and I am dying to play her better.

    The problem: I learned on four valve BBb and Bb tubas.

    I have found fingering charts for 4-valve Eb tubas but am hard pressed to find anything that even acknowledges the existence of a 3-valve Eb tuba.

    Am I to transpose trumpet fingering and use treble cleff?

    What would I have to do in order to have the proper fingering for bass clef play?

    Ah! I am lost and currently trying to tweak my scales by ear.

  2. 3-valve Eb sousaphone

    The fingering for a 3 valve Eb is the same as for a 4 valve, with one easy modification: replace 4 with 1 + 3. Everything else will be the same as on the 4valve
    Eb chart.
    So low F just below bass clef is now 1 + 3, low E 1 + 2+ 3, low Bb 1+ 3, low A 1+2+3; notes below that aren't part of the register of the instrument, although, depending on various factors of bore, mouthpiece and player can be faked (but better to use a different horn really!).
    good luck
    Sue

  3. 3-valve Eb sousaphone

    One of the best things you can do is write out your own fingering chart. From playing Bb tuba, you know the valve sequence used to descend chromatically within a partial (i.e. 0, 2, 1, 12, 23, 13, 123). So determine the open pitches, and write out the notes that the valves generate from them. The open pitches can be found by ear, or by raising the Bb series by a fourth.

  4. 3-valve Eb sousaphone

    If you can transpose from Eb Bass Clef to C Treble Clef, then the fingurings are the same as it would be for the trumpet for the sousaphone. Only it will come out 2 octaves lower.

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