I am the proud parent of a tuba player (tubist). The school has a tuba for him to use there, but he does not have one to practice with at home. I found a B-flat tuba that I can have for free, but the school is using C tubas. Could the B-flat tuba be modified to make it a C tuba? If that is not possible, could he practice on the B-flat tuba at home even though the music is written for C tuba?
IINATubaExpert, but I’d say there’s a good chance it will work for solo practice.
I’m assuming that he doesn’t have perfect pitch (in which case it might drive him nuts); otherwise, as long as both tubas use the same valves/fingering method, he should be fine.
He won’t be playing in the proper key, but since the tuba is in tune with itself, that isn’t really a problem as long as he’s practicing alone.
But just to be sure, call his music teacher. They’ll be happy to help you with this question. Geez, they’ll be excited that you’re already planning to have him practice!
A lot more so than the neighbors will, I’m willing to bet. 
Seriously, though, good instrument selection. I’ve heard more than one tuba player say that playing tuba = never being long without a gig.
I’ve seen something like that done (former terrible tuba player here). Anyway, a skilled brass musician who attempted to improve my playing ability (poor guy) could change the tubes on some instruments to change their key. He was really good and could just change his fingering and switch keys too.
Unless he has perfect pitch or is using recordings of the rest of the band in his home practices, he shouldn’t have a problem practicing on it as-is.
And if he’s planning on continuing with tuba outside of high school, B flat tubas are significantly more common than Cs, anyway.
Reasonably serious amateur tuba player here.
In principle it’s possible to convert a B-flat tuba to a C, but it would be quite a project (major surgery on the horn) - far more work than I’d recommend undertaking unless somebody is really into this kind of thing. And even then, it would be mostly a long-term instrument-making project rather than a short-term way to get a horn to practice on.
So I think he’s going to be stuck with practicing on a B-flat tuba at home while rehearsing and performing with the band on a C tuba. I’ve never been in that situation, but I still think the B-flat at home will be a plus rather than a minus.
Most of his practicing at home (ideally) will be working on stuff besides just the band parts, and for that sort of thing almost any horn would be better than none at all. All of those tedious scales, lip slurs, and long tones will work just fine, and if he wants to become a better player that’s where the foundation gets built. The B-flat horn will be (aside from whatever unique quirks every horn has) identical to the C horn, only a whole step lower; the fingerings will be shifted wholesale, rather than scrambled around.
Tuba parts (except in British-style brass bands) are conventionally all notated in concert pitch - the note printed is the one you’re supposed to play. It’s left up to the performer to do what’s necessary to produce that pitch, regardless of the key of his instrument. In fact, in concert bands is it not at all uncommon to see a tuba section made up of both B-flat and C instruments, reading from the same parts.
I think being able to easily transition between both keys of instrument is a valuable skill. (It’s not hard, as such. In my case, it just took enough time on each one that each separate fingering chart became independently registered in my brain. Sure, you can figure out one from the other, but I am generally not able to perform those calculations in real time as sixteenth notes are flashing by; some folks can.)
You can work on your C fingerings using a B-flat horn by doing what others have suggested - simply playing the notes on the page down a whole step from what’s written. For getting complicated band parts “under his fingers” at home, that’s what I’d suggest.
After all of that rambling, here’s my upshot: Yes, having that B-flat tuba at home will be beneficial. There will be some initial headaches (possibly literally) as he learns the two fingering charts to the point that they each become automatic, but grinding through it will result in a good skill that many of his colleagues will lack.
(This reminds me of when I first began playing in a British brass band, where the tuba parts are transposed and written in treble clef, just like trumpet parts. Frustrating as hell, at first, but after a while switching back and forth becomes seamless.)
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if you could push in the tuning slides enough to get it to play in C, but it’s far from a sure thing.
It would require some awfully long tuning slides. Some cornets and mellophones used to be made with multiple sets of slides to change from Bb to C, or mellophones to Eb and F. But even on those smaller horns, the longer slides got cumbersome.
Here’s an Ask.com answer telling what’s involved in converting a BBb tuba to CC. A good used CC horn would typically cost less than the conversion.
Even if you can, you’d need to re-tune for every note. Well, that, or just accept that you’re a bit out of tune on most of them.
Why are you (and linked answer) saying “BBb” and “CC” instead of “Bb” and “C?”
Annnnd… Where’s TubaDiva?
Jennie?
It’s a convention based on the system for naming musical notes. The octave that most melody is written in is denoted as c d e f g a b. The octave below is C D E F G A B. The octave below THAT is CC DD EE FF GG AA BB, and that’s the base octave for contrabass tubas (what we generally think of as “tubas”). For completion, above the c octave, you start to add accents: c’ d’ e’ f’ g’ a’ b’, c’’ d’’ e’’ f’’ g’’ a’’ b’’, etc.
You can’t just shorten or lengthen a tube to change the fundamental pitch. Well, you can, but other crooks, tubes, or spaces between holes would have to be adjusted in proportion.
That’s said from an acoustic and theoretical point of view. Not being a tuba player myself, I don’t know how far off a tube length change would make the other notes. It might be insignificant or not.
I do know that if the placement of the hole stopper (there’s probably a better name for that) in a C flute will render most of the instrument out of tune if it’s a little off, even if you can tune the fundamental to the desired pitch. A good player can compensate, but it just adds more complexity to the playing task.