TubeNet

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You could always go with the "Because I Can!" response.

When someone actually wants a real explanation, though... The real reason I play the tuba is because my damned Jr. High Band director handed me one 15 years ago and said "You're going to make a great tuba player next year!" with a big smile on his face. I've been playing the thing ever since because it has been challenging and a lot of fun. I know I'm NOT a trumpet or woodwind player (ghast!), so the tuba just makes sense to me.

People usually look at me a little funny, but what the heck... if they understood they wouldn't be asking in the first place!

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I agree with Doc. "It's the sound, man, THE SOUND!" Charlie is onto something, too, when he discusses the control issue. A good tuba player can SERIOUSLY influence the musical outcome. Our typical part may be quite simple, but how we go about playing it can be quite complex. I enjoy the heck out of it. And the only time I get bored with a simple part is when either the conductor or the ensemble isn't making the most of what the music calls for(or when the entire piece is worthless).

Yeah, the same as Betch, I'm a second generation tuba player. My mom has played the tuba since highschool and has been playing in the local community band for over 20 years now. I now play along side her and plan to study music at university next year.

Also, I was handed the tuba and said, you'll be a great tuba player. Though, while playing the tuba, I've experimented on many different intruments, trombome, bass trombome, euphonium, trumpet, french horn, alto tenor and baritone sax, clarinet, and flute, yet I always come back to the tuba (and bass trombone and euphonium.) I think the most telling reason why I like playing the tuba is one day I arrived at band practise at 7:30 (half hour late and the only time I'd been late) and as soon as I walked in Ms. BK (the conductor) and several others commented on how hollow the band sounded with out the tuba. Thats just one reason of many, but i'd say its a good one.

I tell them "because I like knowing things that very few people know". They ask, "what things?". I just smile.

But there ARE things that we understand that most people don't. I don't think most people realize just how much the bass of the band matters. The trumpet players may be the stars, the middle brass the moon, the woodwinds the whispy clouds, the percussion the thunder; but we are the night sky. Without us, the drama could play out, but no one would very much notice. There's a control thing, sure; but a band without the bass is like a painting without a canvas.
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Joe Baker, who thinks all tubists know this, and very few others.

I say:

"Tuba? Tuba! What tuba?"

I had no choice; I started beginning band late and was told that it was the only choice I had available. I grew to love/hate (sound/dull parts)the instrument, and it became the springboard for learning to play several other instruments badly.

GC wrote:I had no choice; I started beginning band late and was told that it was the only choice I had available.

Isn't it ironic that the last instruments given out in beginning band/orchestra (tuba/st. bass) are the same ones that are most in demand when putting together a group.

If one ever has had the experience of joining a so-so band with fine BBb contrabasses like a York Master or a 40K and then hearing the overall intonation, blend, balance, and coherence of sound take off by several dimensions in the right direction, then the basic question of this thread has obsoleted itself.

Klaus

Ps: I haven't played tuba in an orchestra, but bassboning in such a unit has won the same acclaim, especially from conductors. But then one also can save a Haydn piano concerto performance by entering the dress rehearsal as 1st horn.

My lesson of a lifetime: intelligent and musical brass players RULE!

But then that is sort of a fascist statement, because such players hardly ever have achieved to form a majority in any context.

I am sure you have heard the very democratic (political structure, not partisan) Danish comment to Mt 5.5:

"Of course, they always have been backed by the majority!"

My 7th-grade band director persuaded me to take on the tuba on the basis that tuba players are always in demand.

She was right.

But that would hardly have brought me back and kept me working at the instrument. What did that was that, simply, I love the feel of making that sound.

And I like hanging around tuba players, as ridiculous as that seems.

TubaRay and I used to play golf together. He's good; I'm not. He'll tell you that I spent a lot of time cussing at everything from the weather to the grass. What kept me playing golf? 1.) the fellowship, and 2.) the one shot per round when the driver connected properly with the ball, and it sailed out of sight, straight down the middle. There is no feeling like solid, energy-transmitting contact between a golf club and a ball, and the search for that feel is what motivates millions of otherwise utterly incompetent golfers.

What other instrument could I play such that I could be friends with world-class performers? What other instrument has the potential to make that sound?

Of course, I don't say any of this except to members of the secret club. This is just what I'm thinking when when I, like Joe Baker, just smile.

Rick "because it's cheaper than a bass boat and I get to use it more often" Denney

Expectations are soooooo low that if the tuba player knows which end to blow in then he/she has better stock than most of the winds....

I enjoy having that advantage.



jon


the end with the cup thingy, right?

Even Miles Davis right from his coolness of birth utilised a tuba in his band.

But then his original tubist could double by keeping his embouchure smooth as a baby's bum (a Danish saying) without the barber bill becoming too heavy.

Klaus

the elephant wrote:"I learned to play as part of my Federal Witness Protection Program cover story.

Now I dig FBI!

It is fundamental bass instruction!

Klaus

Because I'm big and fat.

Smoking marijuana and playing the tuba has double the effect.

tomt wrote: it featured the triangle player in an orchestra - said he: "They can't do it without me." ding.

It is time to issue a warning:

Never buy a used car from a triangle player! (Is that a triangulist?)

You won't get a square deal!

Klaus

PS: Always tell the stage manager of your ensemble, that you cannot afford to be seated next to the triangle player!

Your tuba will depreciate in value too fast from all these dings!

OK!

It may be hard to get square deals even in the tubaworld, but at least you may find one coming out almost rectangular:

Good one, Klaus!

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