TubeNet

Some people here seem to be fed up with all the gear-head talk about equipment. So here's your antidote. Sharpen your virtual quills, folks, and wax poetic! Open your hearts! Put the goods on the table! Don't be shy!

I want to hear, in as close an approximation as feeble words may allow (though pictures are acceptable, too), to what preternatural landscape, to what erotic encounter, to what fractal descent into the genetic heritage of humankind, to what heavenly sphere you travel when you're blowin' that horn.

There was no choice to choose both Atlas and Bacchus.

And when said with verve whilst holding a substantial stein full of superior brew, doesn't, "Herren mit tuben," with a good roll of the "r" sound so much better than, "Guys with tubas"?

Whether it be a ppp ending chord when you just perfectly put the last touch on the fundamental so the woodwinds don't look bad, or really smokin' with something like Lohengrin, and all points in between, we tubists also have our own ego, albeit in an arguably passive-aggressive way when we know that even though the lead trumpet may soar through the stratosphere (and in high school I used to be able to do that also), he/she has absolutely nowhere to go without the navigational rock-solid lighthouse of the tuba. So the rest of them fly, like Icarus, at their peril without the foundation and guidance of Daedulus below them to give direction and meaning to their flights of fancy.

How can it not be stealing divine music from the gods, and sharing this gift with mankind? Though the Music Director may feel that he is pushing the orchestra uphill for eternity, and the principal trumpet enthralled by his own sound, to be enjoined by the composer with sound and the teamwork required leaves one elated, ecstatic, and enraptured with a job well done.

Like a humble servant worshipping the Lord - no matter what kind of music I am playing.

Like Atlas,

Back in the days that I would teach tuba, one of the lectures that I would give my new students ran something like:

If you want to be the star you are playing the wrong instrument.
If you desire to be the foundation of the group and have the harmony built on your tone, you are playing the correct instrument.

To me it is still a big thrill to be playing the root of a massive chord at the end of a piece.

best,
Mark

P.S.
If any of my old students are on Tubenet, please PM me.

Mark

Doc wrote:I love laying down the big root at the end of a piece!

Doc

<img src="http://people.csail.mit.edu/jmigdal/ima ... .sized.jpg">

Well, a very interesting poll. Something I had not given all that much thought to.

The feel of playing various instruments is quite different, though. I used to become "emotionally one" with the instrument when I was playing violin; playing brasses it's more like "physically one" with the instrument.

I voted for Atlas. But if the question had been posed to the violinist incarnation, the classical guitar incarnation, or the horn incarnation, the answer would have been different, and not likely present in the choice list.

MA

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