What's your Favorite Alternate Fingering?

[anadmai]

I keep reading this and have to stop and remind myself that the majority of you are speaking in Bass Clef.

[ghmerrill]

I keep reading this and have to stop and remind myself that the majority of you are speaking in Bass Clef.

Yes, that being the natural dialect of the instrument -- rather than the peculiar lingo spoken on some minor island in the Atlantic.

[anadmai]

Natural? I wouldn't go that far.

[ghmerrill]

Natural? I wouldn't go that far.

Of course not. The strength of early cult training can be lasting. 😂 But it is "low brass".

I do understand the expediency of scoring all the "finger instrument" parts in British Brass Band in treble clef, but therein lies the aberration and deviation from the rest of humanity (except those who have been infected from the original source to some degree by exactly that deviation). I take the "naturalness" argument to be supported (if somewhat tangentially ) by the bass trombone part being scored in the bass clef. It, alone, remains "pure."

Really though ... I'm not a clef bigot. People should enjoy using whatever clef pleases them. The euphonium is somewhat oddly positioned in that it's probably as "natural" to swing either way in terms of the traditional goal of keeping as many notes in the staff as possible. I do have fundamental moral objections to some of the European tendencies to score instruments such as euphonium, trombone, and tuba as transposing instruments in the bass clef (is nothing sacred?) -- although I concede that this has led to some high comedy in a couple of community bands I've played in when parts were handed out without the realization that there were in fact two distinct bass clef tuba (trombone, euph) parts, each in bass clef. A very avant garde result.

[anadmai]

I love when I tell people, the Euphonium is probably one of the only Concert Band parts written for both clefs. They always wonder why and can never figure it out. Makes me chuckle.

[ghmerrill]

Several of my trombone books include exercises in treble, bass, tenor, and alto clefs. I have so far avoided any but the bass clef, but then I'm only a moderately good amateur bass trombonist. Good trombone players are expected to handle each of those.

The only reason I haven't ever played euphonium from treble clef parts is "Why bother?" Had I the opportunity to join a British Brass Band, I would bother. Treble clef itself is hardly anathema to me, since I played in it exclusively for over ten years as a woodwind player. If I had come to euphonium from (say) trumpet, I'd likely be a euphonium treble clef player. Since instead I came to it from tuba (but outside a British Brass Band tradition), I naturally just started playing the bass clef parts. There was some additional minor utility in that the notated pitch/fingering associations are quite similar for the non-transposing bass clef euphonium and tuba parts (especially for BBb tuba). And once this stuff gets ingrained, it tends to stick. I'm still surprised on the odd occasion when I'll pick up a (C) flute or (soprano) recorder and in a few minutes be able to toot my way through a (not terribly difficult, to be sure) piece.

[TheJH]

The best would be if euph would be written standard in tenor clef - written in concert pitch like BC but the range neatly centred like TC: Best of both worlds!

[ghmerrill]

One thing, I think not mentioned so far, is that the desirability of using the fourth valve (especially, I think, on compensating instruments) can be heavily dependent on both the instrument and your mouthpiece selection. In terms of the instrument, it can be quite dependent on the diameter of the 4th valve circuit or on the "quality" (i.e., its design and how "free blowing") it is. While it's true that if you lock down the fourth valve you end up with what is essentially a 3-valve F tuba, in fact it's a pretty lame F tuba because of the bore diameter, and there is a tendency for 4th valve notes to be "stuffy" because of the physics/acoustics involved. Of course, again, this depends on, among other things, the quality of your instrument.

What I've noticed in my recent program at coming up to speed on the euph is that even a 1/100th of an inch in rim diameter can apparently affect this to some degree. I used to use my DE 106 (1.06") rim for pretending I had a tenor tuba. Now, I've been vacillating (even back and forth in practice sessions) between the 1.04 and 1.05 rims -- and remember, this is with the same shank and same bowl. Theoretically (for lack of a better term) one might suppose that the 1.04 rim would be better to achieve and feel comfortable in the high range that I've been chasing. But this hasn't been the case (although it can help initially to some degree). In addition, I find the low range (bottom of staff and lower), and use of the 4th valve as an "alternate" to 1+3, to be intolerable in terms of ease of playing and the sound of those pitches -- so much so that with the 104 rim, I found myself retreating to 1+3 in favor of 4. So at least for me and this (admittedly not high end) instrument, just a slight rim change makes a significant difference in which fingering is best. As it turns out, and with enough practice, the 105 rim is better for me in the high range as well.