Which scales will impress the judges?

[Mike Finn]

Couldn't everybody play an F above the staff when they were a teenager?

I was the only tuba player at my small, rural PA school. No one told me I was supposed to play anything above the staff, I certainly nver saw anything above the staff. I was pretty pleased when I worked my way up to the top of the staff Bb for "Judas Macabeus" and "Air and Bouree." But high F? I'll borrow my favorite descriptor from Roger Lewis and admit that I would've sounded like "a blue jay farting in an empty silo".

[tubatooter1940]

above the staff, most of them sound(ed) like a constipated moose in heat.

Pgym.

pgym, I gotta use that one if you don't mind.

[WoodSheddin]

Couldn't everybody play an F above the staff when they were a teenager? I had a fairly reliable "g".

I am not sure I have a "reliable" "g" now. That's up there.

I remember the first time I had music put in front of me which had a note higher than Bb above the staff. I was a sophomore in high school, probably about 15 years old. There was an Eb above the staff in some band tune in the All-State Band music folder they shipped out to the members so you could practice your part.

I seriously did not think it was possible to play that high on a tuba at the time. I brought it in to the local music shop in the mall for a lesson with a "real" tuba player. He was a college student of Charles McAdams who taught lessons there. He sent me to McAdams and I had a couple of lessons. Those were the very first tuba lessons I ever had. I signed up for the lessons at the mall specifically to help me out with that Eb and the rest of the music.

A couple of years later I was playing the Vaughan Williams on a borrowed CC, but at the tender age of 15yrs I thought that Eb descending scale was a mistake in the part.

That reminds me of those honor band auditions. I auditioned for District Band on a whim not even sure if I could make it. I got in and then imagine my shock when I made the cut for All-State also. I was floating on cloud nine. I really didn't think I could make District. Ah, the days when auditions meant playing tuba against a few local, fellow bumpkins from the sticks of Missouri.

[Mark]

I thought you would be older.

[Mike Finn]

I thought you would be older.

I get that a lot... maybe I should grow a beard?

[Rick Denney]

Couldn't everybody play an F above the staff when they were a teenager? I had a fairly reliable "g".

I am not sure I have a "reliable" "g" now. That's up there.

Sean, I'm going to have to challenge the way you organized those quotes. I've never had a really reliable high G.

I did play a high E in the band arrangement of Carmina Burana when I was a senior in high school. I hit the note every time, but I wouldn't want to present it as my best sounding note by any means. I played up to that E frequently in the TubaMeisters, but that was on F tuba and it's a LOT more reliable for me on F.

But G? My high G sounds wonderful in my practice room. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

(No lessons for me--it never occurred to me at the time that people like me deserved lessons--plus, I had to work.)

Rick "who played Air and Bourree at contest in 10th grade, and something else as a senior that went up to D or so, and sweated over it" Denney

[imperialbari]

This guy appears to play all his tuba scales in the pedal range.

[k001k47]

Play F major, A major, then G major.