TromboneChat

So, ive started playing with a brass quintet pretty frequently, a gig every thursday, and i just looked at the music were playing this week and one piece has some different parts, Eb trumpet and Eb tuba, and im playing the tuba part. Do i need to transpose anything or is it still concert pitch and the tuba player would be required to transpose?

The designation isn’t clear.

Is the part in bass clef or treble clef? How many flats in the signature? How many flats in the key signature on the trombone part?

Elow wrote: ↑Sun May 09, 2021 3:36 pm So, ive started playing with a brass quintet pretty frequently, a gig every thursday, and i just looked at the music were playing this week and one piece has some different parts, Eb trumpet and Eb tuba, and im playing the tuba part. Do i need to transpose anything or is it still concert pitch and the tuba player would be required to transpose?

Eb tuba (in bass clef) is just concert pitch. In fact, any tuba part in bass clef is concert pitch. Should be a straight read on bass bone. Eb trumpet is another story.

The part is in bass clef and ive texting the trombone player what key the piece is in but he hasnt responded yet.

If it's an E flat Tuba part in Treble clef, then it's designed for a Brass Band player, and it will be a transposed part (same as Baritone Sax transposition). That transposition ends up having the notes written on the same lines and spaces as concert pitch Bass Clef, so you can read it by adding 3 flats (you also need to watch the accidentals) and reading it as Bass Clef. The written "C" for a transposed treble clef E flat instrument will be written one ledger line below the clef and will sound as an "E flat", so you can read it as Bass Clef (concert) but the key needs to be adjusted to the concert key.

Some brass ensemble pieces have alternate parts to make them more "friendly" for either brass band players or players who learned with more traditional notation. I've never seen a bass clef concert pitch part that said E flat Tuba, because as it was said in a previous post, most bass clef music for low brass instruments is in concert pitch and the player chooses the instrument they want to use for it.

Jim Scott

Elow wrote: ↑Sun May 09, 2021 5:00 pm The part is in bass clef and ive texting the trombone player what key the piece is in but he hasnt responded yet.

If that's the case, it's almost certainly just concert pitch.

There is one possible problem. There are "World Parts" (mostly from the Netherlands) that have transposed parts in bass clef. "World Parts" are often for Trombone (Bb transposed, like a Strauss Tenor Tuba part) and Eb Tuba in bass clef.

Very old band parts are often written "Eb Tuba" in bass clef but in true pitch. In this case some of the lines go a bit higher than the part written for Bb tuba. There are also Bb Bass Horn parts which are actually identical to 3rd trombone parts -- late 19th Century Brass Bands had 2 tenor horns in Bb and one Bass Horn in Bb, often as over-the-shoulder Saxhorns.

You are right to ask somebody else what key the part is in. If you are 1 flat less than the trumpets, 2 flats less than the horn, or 3 flats less than the trombone you have one of those "World Parts".