More on our continuing discussion on “Why do the bands still tune to the tuba”?
My friend has returned to voice his/her opinion on this topic and I applaud him/her. Seldom have I seen so much passion for a cause as this person exhibits. It is refreshing to exchange ideas in a civil manner and I do hope others will join in on this topic as my new friend has.
And now to the continuance of our discussion on our topic- “Why do the bands still tune to the tuba”?
Our visitor’s comments are in normal type and my response is in bold type.
“Why tune to the tuba? Because it’s the most stable instrument. Say you’re playing outside in 40* F weather, like Minnesota during the early winter months. People start to blow into their instruments to warm them up. A trumpet is a grand total of 4.5 to 5 feet long or so and a clarinet is something like 2 feet long. These instruments take very little time to warm-up and consequently very little time to cool down”.
You’re correct.
“A BBb tuba on the other hand is 18 feet long (or thereabouts). It takes on average between 20-45 minutes to warm these suckers up. Yes the valve tubing is relatively short in comparison to the total body length, but the open tones rely soley on the open bugle (duh). Once the tuba is warmed-up is takes about the same amount of time for it to cool down”.
You’re almost correct.
When we say that we are warming up our instruments, what we are actually doing is warming the “air” in our instruments and if you think it takes 20-45 minutes to warm the air in a tuba….get serious! Please include any substantiating information to the contrary and I might believe your assumption. Using your time frame, it would be imposable to warm the air in a tuba without blowing into it constantly.
“So you’re band – like a marching band using sousaphones – is on the field for halftime or pregame. Everyone has warmed up and tuned, and are now standing at attention. Let’s say their waiting on a procession of people or for the sideline/aux percussion to set up. The sousaphone players have their mouthpieces still on their faces but their instruments are still quite warm, where as the trumpets and clarinets have their instrument held in front of them and are already cooling down”.
You’re way off.
I assume were are grouping tubas and sousaphones in the same group even though the reaction of fiberglass to air and air inside a brass instrument may react to the outside temperatures differently. Your reference to the tubas keeping their mouthpieces on their lip makes little difference in keeping the tuba warm. Take a look at the other end of the tuba, wouldn’t you think you would have to stuff something in that end also to keep it warm?
“You see the problem”?
As soon as the band starts playing the trumpets and clarinets are flat, but the sousaphones and large/longer instruments are relatively stable, maybe a smidgen more flat than they were 10 minutes ago, but not to the extend that they have their tuning slides all the way in. So what does the band sound like? Bottom end is in tune, but the top end is horribly flat because their instruments haven’t been able to hold the heat like the large brass”.
To be perfectly blunt, bands performing in cold temperatures are “ALWAYS OUT OF TUNE” no matter what they tune to.
“Sure, most instruments are made sharp so that you can pull out the main slide to bring it in tune. But if the instrument is short, it’s tuning fluctuates more often when compared to a longer instrument, simply because it’s a smaller instrument”.
You’re correct.
“That’s why the band tunes to the tuba”.
Your departure into the problems of marching bands playing in tune was fun but now let’s get back to the issue.
“Of course looking at the orchestra, the tuba rarely plays in most classical music (because it wasn’t invented until the mid 1800s). Here, the clarinet (or oboe) or trumpet makes the most sense to tune to because of how often it plays. If the orchestra tuned to the tuba, on some piece the tuba only plays one movement or comes in after a couple hundred measures – the rest of the orchestra has been playing, but the tuba has been sitting around (cooling down).
Great, now we’re into the history of the tuba.
“That’s why the orchestra doesn’t tune to the tuba”.
No, the reason that the orchestra tunes to the oboe has nothing to do with when the tuba was invented or how often it plays with the strings. The reason the orchestra tunes to the oboe is the same reason the bands should tune to the clarinet, it lays better in the hearing range of the majority of players as well as having a more similar sinusoidal curve to the majority of the orchestral instruments, the strings.
Well this is going to be interesting. Stay tune for more excitement folks and if you have a feeling either way on this topic, voice your opinion. No names will be posted so take your best shot.
