polling for tubas

[Rick Denney]

...There are a few models that are widely considered to be "safe bets". These models are almost universally recommended. If you're buying a tuba but are unwilling to travel where the tubas are, perhaps it would be best to purchase one of those almost universally recommended models. Otherwise, it sure seems to me that it would be far wiser (and cheaper in the long run) to go where the tubas are than to poll the semi-anonymous masses.

In addition to the one seeking information rarely knowing the qualifications of the person giving an opinion, the people giving opinons rarely know the qualifications of the seeker.

I've come to the conclusion that your average school-age player, even including college kids who are not intending a professional performing career, are probably just as well off calling Tony, Matt, Dave, or Roger and asking their opinion. "I'm in high school and I play Z sort of music. My school tuba is an X and here's why I want one of my own. I have Y to spend. What do you recommend?" I doubt anybody doing so would get an incompetent instrument for the money.

Even better would be to 1.) have a private teacher, and 2.) ask him.

Sending a 9th-grader to a tuba store to "try them all and see which one picks you" is mostly likely not a good strategy. Young 'uns (and even not-so-young'uns) need to have something picked for them that is good for them. Even experienced players (hand raised) often end up with a room full of tubas in search of something they cannot recognize or even understand until they find it, or until they mature enough as players to be able to detect it.

Most of these threads have the pointless praise of the instruments the praiser happened to buy, as self-justification for the purchase. But most also have responses that provide a useful range of choices, a way to evaluate them, and the right people to call to get real help. Free information may be worth what you pay for it, but I suspect few seeking it expect any more.

If a kid has his heart set on a particular tuba that is a known dog, he'll hear about it. If his strategy is flawed (i.e., buying a new Asian tuba of unknown quality because it's shiny versus a used but not-so-pretty tuba of known quality for the same money), he'll hear about it. No harm in these results.

But if he's trying to achieve greatness by buying a great tuba, and he wants to know if a tuba is great by who plays it, then I absolutely agree with you. Ditto if he wants a tuba just because it's expensive or just because it's like the one Alan Baer (or whoever) plays. He'll hear that, too.

Rick "too eager, perhaps, to contend on a subject that is not politics or religion" Denney

[imperialbari]

There are so immensely many strategies to follow, when choosing an instrument.

Some strategies will pursue instruments, which are fine for the players going right for the typical core sound of a given instrument type (and then the term of "typical" divides tuba players into at least two main schools).

The instruments chosen by one of these strategies will be quite even in response on all notes, as such "heavy duty" players will not accept "dead" notes, which will be perceived as black holes in the musical line by the public. And overly responsive notes will have the ceiling come down on such players. Not desirable, as "survival" in its core sense is paramount even for such players.

As I am considering myself such a player, I could mention such notes on such less than desirable tubas. I won't, but I will in deference to truth say, that my interpretation of this concept does not lead to virtuosity.

Another strategy in choosing instruments will support virtuosity as represented by at least one of the younger stars on the tuba firmament. The strategy of this player (of whom I in another TubeNet thread have expressed my eternal admiration) is to play just below the full core of any note.

The result is extremely musical in a tuba context. The evenness of sound is on a par with really good string and piano players. The phrasing is vivid and detailed. This person is a musician at a level rarely heard in the world of tubas. If you would dare to doubt my evaluation, then I can say, that a jury packed with tuba gurus actually has confirmed it.

This player has chosen an instrument, which is NOT within common undisputed esteem. Tuba brutes like me wouldn't choose that instrument. And in our second acts a bassboners, we would pull the feet of any such tuba player balancewise.

So choosing one tuba or a full compliment of tubas also is about being a musician or being a boar cum bore.

And if we should descend into semantics, I can imagine something worse than the boar cum bore: the bore without the boar quality.

By permission I will sort of quote a posting on the old, and for me still the truest, TubeNet:

The bore of any brass instrument in general is the entity on the meaty end of the mouthpiece.

Klaus

[Randy Beschorner]

Thank you for your attempt to tone down the lemming pursuit of the latest or "greatest" hot tuba. Between your comments and Rick Denney's have been some valid points. I consider myself a knowledgable, but flawed amateur, so I do enjoy comments, not because they are gospel, but in the midst of all that chaff (substitute expletive if preferred) there are some good questions that I should be asking and looking for when I go look/listen at horns.

I see a couple of problems with the lemming crowd response to these polls.

Without going into a rant, there are those who are lazy about their thinking and research. They do not want to go through the process of selecting a tuba that fits them specifically. Hip-hopper jeans are an example of this one-size-fits-all mentality.

Another problem I see is the concept of the perfect horn will create the perfect sound. This takes the responsibility for our art/craft off of us and moves it to the tuba or to the manufacturer. Our inexpensive hobby is collecting mouthpieces. Some of us can afford to collect horns. Others buy and sell horns on a seeming whim.

The issue for a number of tuba players is the proximity to the tuba meccas of the U.S. I know that for the prices involved, the economy is there for air fare, etc. but for most of us removed geographically from L.A., South Bend, Baltimore or New Jersey, it becomes a problem convincing spouses or parents to make that trip. (On that front, I consider myself lucky that I live a couple of hours from WWBW, outside of Chicago.)

I guess the overall problem I see is not in the responding to the poll on TubeNet or partcipating. The problem is in how various people use that material. In an ideal world, educating the reader would probably be the best response.

In truth we do not live in a perfect world. The other unsaid element here is that if a person is an idiot in taking these polls as gospel, they probably would be an idiot in the showroom of Dillon's, Baltimore Brass, etc.

Thanks for your insight (incite?). It did not come across as a know-it-all statement.

Randy Beschorner