I was recently asked "Why is it that so many tuba sections Shoot up more than they play lows" Aside from the point that it's all on paper these days,.. here was my response.
I think the Idea of "Taking it up" came with the nature of the culture. It's almost equaled to the idea of "playing with intensity" what's the raises the bar? if all your music is written on or below the staff, take the lower parts up an octave. otherwise, these days its just the thing to do.
on tuba, that just meant that we were just moving everything below the staff, on to the staff. For the tunes written in an upper register. we had points where we took the parts it down. it all made sense if you knew your "High Spots"
Funny because the song "named Down Bottom" isn't about playing Pedal Tones (Great's and Contra's) it was all about taking it up!
On fiberglass it wasn't easy to play those bottom notes as loud That required extra wind and diaphragm work. The rattle of the Brass horns made it much easier to put off loud pedals. The Wide mouthpiece helped in that area too,
as for the nature of the beast, you had to sense it.
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