TubeNet

its not as easy as you might think. Players work their whole life to get the sound they want, its almost a never ending struggle. What I would first suggest doing is finding a tuba player whose sound you really like. Then as much as you can, just try to imitate that sound while you play. Imagine you are that player, and always have that sound in your head. Everyone likes a different player. My personal favorite is John Fletcher. The recording I have of him doing the Vaughn-Williams is absolutley astounding. Also, who do you study with? Try taking a few lessons with some professionals in the area, get a few different views on the way you like to be taught. Find out who you like most and go study with them. College also helps a lot because you get to study with whomever you please really...well almost. Find a school with a great teacher...and go take a lesson from him/her and see how you like it. If your looking for some schools, there are tons of posts in the history about schools and the teachers that go along with them. Music is what you make of it.

There are a good number of great tubists in Indiana who can give lessons. Hearing examples of great sounds live is a starting point. Contact Indiana University Bloomington and see who can give lessons. Mr. Perantoni is the number one guy, but he also has top notch students who can help out.

My best suggestion would be to listen to either live performances or recordings of the great players and then try to immitate their sound.

This is not to say that you shouldn't try to develop your own sound, you should, but listening to other players should help improve your sound.

See Yuh,
Sousie