TubeNet

Yesterday I got my first gig through Facebook.

A couple days ago I spotted on the status of one of my french horn playing friends that he was rehearsing Bruckner 5 and commented on Facebook that I was envious. He replied that he would ask the conductor if they had yet fixed a tuba and yesterday to my surprise got back to me that they didn't yet have a tuba giving me the conductor's contact details. A quick phone call and I am booked to play Bruckner 5 in just two weeks time for which I am absolutely delighted. Now all I need to do is decide which tuba/s I'm playing and get practicing!

In what other unusual ways have tubists picked up good gigs?

I was playing guitar in a garage band at a bar-b-que place in Branson. A gentlemen came up to our bass player and asked if he wanted a show gig. the gentleman, whom I forget his name, was probably there, because our drummer was in charge of booking acts for the Welk Theatre when the Welk Show wasn't on. Our bass player declined, as he is the engineer who basically runs the hydroelectric power plant at Table Rock Dam. Not thinking much about it, since he is a long time Branson resident, he didn't tell the rest of us until we were loading up, joking about it. Wanting a gig, I asked if the gentleman was still there. He pointed to the parking lot and pointed him out as the guy was walking off to leave. I ran after him, caught up to him in the parking lot as he was getting into his car, and said I played bass and wanted the gig. He said he was just the scout for a bass player. I gave him my name and number to pass along. He gave me a name and number to call. I did. The guy I called turned out to be John Bahler, director of the Welk Orchestra. Here's how the interview over the telephone went: he asked if I was available every night if need be - yes. He asked if I had good reliable transporatation to get there every night - yes. He asked if I could read music - yes, and I bragged I could probably read music better than any other bass guitar player on the Branson strip. He said fine, he'd mail me a contract. That was it. No actual playing audition. The contract was in the mail two days later. About a week after that we started rehearsals on the "Precious Memories" TV special and I played the rest of the last Welk Show fall season (not including Christmas) with them. My folks didn't believe me when I said I got the gig as the Welk bass player. After it finally sunk in I was for real, they were excited for me and came to the taping of the special.