Hi
After some 40 years away from music, I bit the bullet and decided to join an Alumni Drum Corps. The last time I was in a band I played percussion but had also played Sousaphone. So for this band, I tried percussion but had no muscle tone left to play a drum roll so I opted for a Dynasty BBb 5/4 contrabass. This is therapy for me.
Now -- my original music training was on a piano so when I picked up this monster (my wife named it "Toby") I naturally went to piano music to try to get my lip back. Now, I'm about to start learning the band's music and I'm thoroughly confused.
They are writing contrabass music in treble clef. I can't even figure out what note I'm supposed to be playing. Another piece of music has me trying to play a 27Hz note written in bass clef. That ain't gonna happen anytime soon. I'm thoroughly confused. I have a virtual piano keyboard on my computer. I play a Bb (233Hz) on the piano and I play a Bb (Open) on Toby. Works a charm I can play an octave and a bit more.
I have two problems.
1. For a Tuba, is tenor C 523Hz when written in treble clef or is it something else? (That's the C above middle C) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_key_frequencies) If so, this is supposed to be a bass instrument not a tenor??? How do I play stuff that high?
2. my lip is still not very strong. I'm following Lucinda Lewis' method for lip building and it seems to be working. I'm practising about 30 minutes every evening with weekends off and icing after practice. I play the Bb scale from bottom to top. On the F my lip "cracks" and it seems that I'm playing two notes. I keep practising the scale and sometimes I can hit it and other times it seems that no matter what I do there's not hope. I listen to videos of the drum corps and there are others with the same problem, so obviously, this is not a unique problem. How can I overcome this? I'm using the mouthpiece that came with the instrument and it is a Helleberg. It feels like I'm playing a french horn -- difficult to control -- but, when I go looking at mouthpieces, all tuba mouthpieces seem to have the same funnel shape.
A bit later I'll get into do, re, me, fa, so, la, ti, do.
Thanks for the help. I want to be a contributing member so any comments will be tested and commented.