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I sit on the front of the stage, back row in one of the concert bands for which I play. It is 90 degrees to the right of the conductor. I have not seen this in other bands and find that the position makes it VERY difficult to see the conductor's beat patterns (everything looks like 1 -2 or just one, with a lot of hand waving). Having a hearing impairment, it is absolutely necessary for me to have a clear view of the beat pattern, so that I don't get lost (which is happening quite a bit).

How could I approach the director (ex-Navy bandsman) to get the tuba(s) seated in what I perceive is a more standard seating position - rear of the band, stage center or slightly stage left? Do you friends think that is a good seating position? By way of explanation; its's a 45 -50 piece community band. We play exclusively in a nice community center with a formal stage (wings, drapes, lights) and a not-too acoustically dead room. Out audiences are mostly older people (50's and up).

Opinions, please?

You need to let it be known that you can't see. Don't whine about it or nothing will happen. So long as you can see and you can play the music, it really doesn't matter where you sit (so long as the people behind you can see, too!)

Usually tubas centered is the best position.

How many tubas are there in your group? Front or Top action (front = bell into audience, band doesn't hear you... top = bell into back of hall, band hears you, but your sound bounces into audience late). That's not the greatest place for you to be.

Perfect placement for the tuba player? An equal distance between the beer bucket and the bathroom.

The back. You don't have to wear shoes back there.

All joking aside, I like to sit between the tympani and the bass drum, in order to help keep from any phasing in the beat. I get to sit to my far right (conductor's and audiences' left) in the tuba section, because I am the only tuba with top valves. Everyone else either has rotors or front valves, so I get to sit where I want to under the rationale of not banging bells pointed opposite directions.

I thank you all for your opinions. To answer a couple questions; I play a Miraphone 186 (bell up), another player has a Cerveny piggy and the third has an Eb 3 valve bell up. The opinions about the horm sounds (late in back, best in front to audience) are appreciated. I am certain that the director only allows the seating as is. While I have never asked him directly, the first chair told me as such. Maybe if I can change places with the Eb (third person in from the front), I would have better luck.

Again, thank you all.

1) In the band I play in, the euph players are on the end of the row (at the end of the stage), then the tubas, then the trombones. Anyone else have this arrangement with sitting between the euphs and trombones? It still doesn't make sense to me, but if that's what the conductor wants...

2) In college, for one concert the director actually moved the tubas behind the clarinet section, so that our bells would face away from the audience (because we were "too loud"). That was pretty strange.

My high school band played with the tubas on the side like you describe and I played in a municipal band (the Wheaton Municipal Band) that did it as well. I prefer to be in center of the back row with the trombones in front with the euphs close by and the string bass behind me.

Once played in a group where the director placed us with the bass clarinets and the contrabass clarinets. We sat next to the 3rd clarinets and that punishment should only be reserved for convicted felons!

I used to be on the far left end, which I didn't mind. Now I'm on the immediate right of the euphs, and the god-forsaken second euph plays with his bell pointed directly at my head. He's got a ridiculously bright sound, and when he's playing I can't hear myself at all.


So don't sit next to him.

tofu wrote:My high school band played with the tubas on the side like you describe and I played in a municipal band (the Wheaton Municipal Band) that did it as well. I prefer to be in center of the back row with the trombones in front with the euphs close by and the string bass behind me.

Once played in a group where the director placed us with the bass clarinets and the contrabass clarinets. We sat next to the 3rd clarinets and that punishment should only be reserved for convicted felons!

Sorry. It will never happen. Remember your high school civics class: the 8th Amendment to the Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment!

In youth band I played in all kinds of seating situations. Most of the time I made sure we sat right next to the drumset (our drummer at that time actually played MUSICALLY , so it was cool to communicate with him musically or play passages memorized to get tempo changes right.
So on cramped stages it was (as viewed from the front):

Trombones - perc/drum set - tuba(s)
Tenorhorns/baritones - - french horns
t r u m p e t s / flugelhorns
S a x e s - 2nd/3rd woodwind
Flutes - double reeds - clarinets (1st parts)

Sometimes (especially when playing concert music as opposed to marches/polkas) the french horns would sit closer to the saxes as they often have common parts.

Every conductor I have played for, whether a band, an orchestra, or whatever group, has a place he wants his tubas. In my own groups, I put them in the middle of the back row and build around them. But since I have been a player more often than a conductor, I stand by what I said, to keep the peace, I sit where I am told!