The Tuba
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Tuba refers to a family of lip-vibrated, upright, valved, metal wind instruments with a folded tube of wide, conical bore. It was designed to fill an urgent need in brass bands for a satisfactory bass to the valved bugle. Although built in various sizes, only the baritone in B-flat (along with the wider-bored euphonium) and the basses in F, E-flat, CC, and BB-flat survive. |
Out of the experimental development in the 19th century, the lasting changes included the addition of a tuning slide with a weighted balancer, a water valve, additional stays, a receiver pipe for the mouthpiece, and metal alloys and overlays, especially applied to prevent wear in the slide and to reduce friction in movement.
Brass concepts
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