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Not sure that can be quantified. Your doctor is probably right. Have you heard of the Breathing Gym? That would certainly count, and it would likely help your playing, too.

Most of the exercise comes from carrying it.

More physical exercise will improve your tuba playing. I took up the tuba as one way to strengthen my lungs. I am breathing better now but I am also taking a variety of medicines for my lungs also.

If I can find it again, I'll post it but I saw somewhere else- I think on a tubanews.com forum- that a famous tuba dude suggests a half hour of brisk walking a day to improve breathing. Makes sense, actually. If you are in better physical shape, you should be able to breathe better and play better.

I would agree that playing the tuba is exercise. The fact that one gets warm and eventually physically tired shows that you are exercising.

I heard on the radio a few years back that playing of a brass instrument for an hour used the equivalent energy to walking ten miles - I don't know if that is fact or fiction.

I have done a lot more playing this last year and have lost some weight, so that could be a factor.

Certainly marching with a tuba is exercising - weight lifting and all

Don't know about you, but I consume about one beer per hour of practicing to keep the chops lubricated and the mind relaxed (and any other excuses I can think of). So I'm sure it's a net loser in terms of calories for me.

Regular exercise will help you in lots of ways. Even walking is good. I'd suggest bicycling if you have good roads and/or trails.

Bill Anderson
Just packing up the mountain bike to go ride ...

Sounds like an experiment for Mythbusters....

TMB

I'm not one to talk.... but...

If your doctor is concerned about you getting physical activity, I'd suggest focusing on your doctor's orders.

The real question should be:

"How many calories do I burn while sitting at the computer, messaging on discussion lists."

You should have your doctor check the strength of your trunk ("core") muscles. If you play a brass (or oboe, I found out this year) those muscles get quite a workout. The fact that I end up sweating when I practice is an indicator that I am getting exercise, whether or not your doctor would think so.

In medicine, we have to do some thinking for ourselves sometimes when the circumstances we're dealing with aren't something the doctor studied in medical school. And doctors make assumptions all the time based on patterns they see very often.

Of course....it won't hurt you to get more exercise, will it?

MA

Here's the calories for trombone:

http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/activity/206.html

It lists a few other intruments, but not tuba.

Toobist wrote:Here's the calories for trombone:

http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/activity/206.html

It lists a few other instruments, but not tuba.

Since Trombone is listed at 238 and the trumpet at 170 a 40% increase for playing an octave lower does that mean the Tuba for an hour would burn 333.2 calories (a increase of 40% over trombone).

Also since this is for someone weighing 150 pounds does that involve a simliar increase in calories based on body size. This might get me to over 600 calories for an hour of Tuba playing based on my math.

%*!!$#!^

My tuba playing, combined with losing some significant weight and other mild exercise, such as treadmill or lawn work, have increased my lung capacity and overall cardio health more than had I not gone back to tuba, and it is reflected on my med charts.

Tuba playing may not something that by itself could be considered sufficient, but it is definitely significant as a part of an overall lifestyle health regimen. And being on rat poison for a genetic clotting condition, which by definition reduces O2 efficiency, is definitely helped with regular playing.

Hi tredonme --

In the mighty words of Abe Torchinsky, "tuba playing is an athletic event ...". And if you were to ratchet it up a notch or so, ala the Don Harry school of practice, you'd work to extreme volume levels as well as extreme pitch levels/ changes. With an instrument the size of a tuba, you bet there's some athleticism involved. And if you wanted to REALLY get fanatical about it, John Wooden's maxims to his UCLA basketball players such as "do all the work you need to during practice and the game is NO PROBLEM ..." -- when transferred to the tuba realm -- DEFINITELY involve some exertion and endurance testing, without a doubt.

It really depends on what you put into the playing, where you have a chance to do it [playing in TIGHT living quarters where LOUD and LOUDER playing could get you permanent residence under some distant bridge is NOT recommended ...], and what your objectives with the instrument are. It can also depend on who the particular doctor is and what his level of sophistication is with regard to performance arts.

General agreement here with iiipopes and MaryAnn in that, to get the most athletic mileage as a means to enhancing your playing, you'll probably need something in addition to just the horn. Maybe try cycling or swimming more, and even regiment them some -- you can get a BIG return from either for relatively little input.

Sorry, but I've got to completely agree with the doctor on this one.

Watch out, here comes the monkey wrench! I am 67 years old, have been playing for 59 years, practice a minimum of 2 hours a day (average over 3) and have been doing this for years. My playing improves with my practice routine and seems to have nothing or very little to do with my physical work out. I am 5'10" tall and weigh about 155 or so pounds but this has been only in the last two years. Prior to this, I weighed as much as 320 lbs. My tuba playing was neither improved nor hurt by exercise; it remained the same if I did the same practice routine. If I changed practice routines, the playing changed. Right now, for exercise, I walk about 4¼ miles a day in about an hour. I have done this for 357 out of 362 days so far, this year. I have been doing this for two years. I am in pretty good shape but play not much better than when I was in my 20s, did no overt exercise and was playing professionally 5 nights out of 7 every week.

Physical exercise, especially walking, is wonderful for your overall health and tuba playing is simply wonderful, so I do them both but I don't think tuba playing does much for my cholesterol, weight or blood sugar and I don't think walking does a lot for my tuba playing. ymmv, I am a small sample in what should be a larger study to draw any conclusion.

William Parlier wrote:

euphoniumguy227 wrote:try this this is a sure fire way to make tuba playing count as exercise.
step1 set your music and metronome on the tread mill control panel
step2 stand on tread mill with tuba(sousaphone preferable)
step3 start tread mill and start walking

step4 crank up the speed and blast out die Walküre.
I'm sure you'd loose weight then.

If I tried this, I would lose more than just a little weight.

Since i was born, i have pretty much been a small guy. Freshman year of high school i was 4'11" and very skinny. I started playing tuba and over two years i grew to 5'11" This could just be me hitting a growth spurt late and hitting it all at once, but my band director seriously believed that it had something to do with the tuba. He said that he read in the instrumentalist (i think it was that or another magazine), that some university actually did a study on why a majority of tuba players are big guys. Anyone else here something similar

Albertibass wrote:Since i was born, i have pretty much been a small guy. Freshman year of high school i was 4'11" and very skinny. I started playing tuba and over two years i grew to 5'11" This could just be me hitting a growth spurt late and hitting it all at once, but my band director seriously believed that it had something to do with the tuba. He said that he read in the instrumentalist (i think it was that or another magazine), that some university actually did a study on why a majority of tuba players are big guys. Anyone else here something similar

I like that - "Increase your size playing the tuba!"

Jonathan "who at 12Ib 4oz was born a tuba player (maybe even a BAT player)"

Neptune wrote:I like that - "Increase your size playing the tuba!"

And all this time I've been responding to those confounded emails and never gotten any results. LOL