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Vote on how do you use your left hand when holding a sousaphone.

Hank74

Where's the gooseneck? (Or "what's") I've never had the chance to play a sousaphone.

On the bottom bow? That seems mighty hard to do with the left hand!

I hold my sousaphone with my left hand between my shoulder and the upper bow. My trapezius muscle is a little too convex and the tuba won't sit on it. It slides over to rest right on the protruding bone of my shoulder. That is intolerably painful even for a minute. So, I hold the sousaphone up with my left hand.

My upper slides aren't adjustible anyway.

Rick "who believes the upper bow should cross the shoulder at right angles to the body" Denney

Tubaboy85 wrote:Where's the gooseneck? (Or "what's") I've never had the chance to play a sousaphone.

The gooseneck is the 90-degree sweep of removeable tubing that projects up from the valve body and then points towards the player's face. The mouthpiece and tuning bits are inserted into the gooseneck.

Rick "in dictionary mode today" Denney

I had the upper loop of the 1st valve slide of my souzy made adjustable for pulling, so I hold at that point on the main bugle ready to pull as necessary. Why Conn does not do this from the factory, as the basic design of the .734 nest dates from pre-souzy helicon days, I'll never know, as it is one of the most useful things you can do to make a souzy more playable. There are some others that do, and all who even pretend to make sousaphones should.

Quite often I'm holding music in my left hand!

TubaTinker wrote:Quite often I'm holding music in my left hand!

yup

When I was in high school, since I played in a Southern California competitional street marching band (SoCal has stricter rules than NorCal), we were always mindful of where we put our left hand. In a parade, during competition, everyone's left hand was on the gooseneck, in exactly the same place. We also wore the same headgear that the rest of the band wore--another Southern California street band rule. I mentioned this in another thread. When I was in high school (1971-75), we wore fuzzy three foot shakos. Because of this, we had to hook our right elbow underneath the tuning slides to pull the bell away from our heads, so the shako had plenty of room.

bloke wrote:When playing a properly-adjusted sousaphone, my left hand is down by my side

I's with bloke...

Then there were those guys in the 1920s who put their sousaphones in a stand sideways. You see that in the pictures of the bands like Isham Jones, Jean Goldkette, and Paul Whiteman.

Best thing I ever did was to get a Kelly mouthpiece. Our old Sousaphone necks just can not be tightened enough to keep the goosenecks from loosening over time forcing you to keep your left hand on the neck. With music in this hand as well it was a little too close to the eyes.

The Kelly is light enough that the neck doesn't loosen and the left hand can just hold the music. We keep about 20 pieces in the marching folio and rotate through them.

I really prefer my monster Conn Helicon on the street as it has twice the volume and half the weight of our King Sousaphones. After a parade you don't feel the pain that the Sousaphones give you. Unfortunately, the director (a tuba player no less) likes those shiny sousaphone bells. My arguments about sound over looks have been in vain so far.

bloke wrote:weird...

...Every sousaphone playin' picture I found on the web has the playuhz holding the goosenecks...(??)

bloke "wondering why - like Al Bundy - they don't have their hands in their pants"

<img src="http://i2.tinypic.com/t513zn.jpg">

I'm crushed...you've NEVER been to my web pages? Right on my home page there are 3 pictures of me holding/playing a sousaphone - NONE with my left hand on the gooseneck.

You will note that I have a flip book in my left hand....perhaps laziness about memorizing music leads to virtue?

NAAAH

bloke wrote:weird...

...Every sousaphone playin' picture I found on the web has the playuhz holding the goosenecks...(??)

My experience with high shool band camps has been that the goosenecks are all worn, so that even with the screw tight the mouthpiece will still swing away and drop into the mud. Holding it became a necessity. My low buck solution was always to wrap some paper around the end of the gooseneck where it plugs in, thereby tightening it up. The leverage factor of the mouthpiece was also increased by kids sometimes using 3 or 4 bits. I would make them get rid of the extra ones so they could actually hold the horn right and get it up to pitch, but they would usually put them back.

I voted "other".

"At the gooseneck" and "at the mouthpiece" suggests to me that either the neck and bits are poorly (or won't stay) adjusted or too much pressure is being used on the mouthpiece.

If "won't stay" is the problem, a "real" repair or some tape (temporary repair) is indicated.......

Is it possible to create a sousaphone that distributes the weight evenly on both the shoulders?
Maybe it could have a branch that goes over one shoulder, half way down the back, and then up over the other shoulder?
Or maybe a conventional sousaphone could be attached to a meinl-weston tuba harness?

jacobg wrote:Is it possible to create a sousaphone that distributes the weight evenly on both the shoulders?

Was done by Henry Lenhert before the sousaphone (either style) was invented...