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I have no real experience with military auditions, but my guess would be that switching horns would be frowned upon, since the practice of using more than one horn in a performance, is not really part of the tradition of band plating.

There have been occasions that someone in our section will play a top part on F or EEb, and in many aspects switching horns adds a unique color to the section (and ease with some range/technical issues).

With the specific excerpt, can you sound better with the EEb than the CC? If yes, then I would not have problem with it. And I agree with you, some excerpts lie much better on BBb or EEb than on CC (Hebrides Overture is a good example). The thing to remember is keeping with the intended style of the piece and playing musically (along with excellent time, intonation, articulation, etc.). If you can accomplish all this with equipment that is easier for you, go for it!

But just to be safe, (and if you have the time) I would learn it on the CC, too. I know of one tubist who won his audition on BBb and then was required to learn CC on the job because the trombone players felt that BBb wouldn't sound good. With that being said, the audition committee might ask you to play it on CC. Who knows?

Also, I might be wrong, but I believe Pat Sheridan won his Marine Band audition playing only EEb . . .


Good luck,
Steve Lamb
US Coast Guard Band

During my years with Pershing's Own most of us in the tuba section wanted to hear auditioners play on the instrument they would be expected to play in the band. My advice would be to play the audition on CC.

I can pass along experiences of the Marine Band auditions. All our recent auditions have been won on CC tubas. A wide variety, mind you--the last two spots were won on a G50 and a Neptune. These two horns don't even look like the same species.

Pat Sheridan got into the band before I did; I was a finalist the day he and John Cradler won that audition. Back then, we all had a small horn for the solos (the VW ws required) and a big horn for the excerpts. Of course, both horns went into the room for the final round. Also, back then, the final round was mostly sight-reading. Pat played the first excerpt on CC, and switched to his Eb after that. It was the horn he was the most comfortable with, and he could play the bejeezus out of anything on that horn. Obviously, it was the right call.

Our auditions today rely far less on sight-reading and focus more on prepared excerpts. The tuba list is prepared specifically to not include anything that requires the small horn. This is done solely to make it easier on the candidates' travel arrangements. We didn't like schlepping two horns, we're not going to make everyone else schlep two horns. A few folks still brought two tubas to the last couple of auditions, I guess that's what they're comfortable doing. While we don't require any particular key of tuba at the audition, we would fully expect a large majority of the candidates to be playing CC tubas.

Ultimately, you have to do what you feel gives you the best shot of being competitive, of winning the audition.

The first time I auditioned for the Army, I was flown, with my CC tuba, from Ontario (CA) to Monterey (CA) to audition at Fort Ord and play along with the 7th Infantry Division Band. The audition had some band sightreading and quite a bit from Watkins-Farnum. The man who was auditioning me only looked at my fingers. He tried to tell me that my fingerings were all wrong. I told him that I was not playing a BBb tuba. "A CC tuba? Never heard of one!" I got a perfect audition score.

LoyalTubist wrote:The first time I auditioned for the Army, I was flown, with my CC tuba, from Ontario (CA) to Monterey (CA) to audition at Fort Ord and play along with the 7th Infantry Division Band. The audition had some band sightreading and quite a bit from Watkins-Farnum. The man who was auditioning me only looked at my fingers. He tried to tell me that my fingerings were all wrong. I told him that I was not playing a BBb tuba. "A CC tuba? Never heard of one!" I got a perfect audition score.

Doesn't surprise me. Very funny.

Tom Waid wrote:During my years with Pershing's Own most of us in the tuba section wanted to hear auditioners play on the instrument they would be expected to play in the band. My advice would be to play the audition on CC.

I echo those remarks