TubeNet

A few months back at rehearsal, we were sitting in concert arch and I was getting a little bored since we were waiting for the director to get done doing whatever he was doing before hand. I turned to the euphonium player and thought to myself that I never played a euphonium before. I asked him (being a good friend of mine) if I could try his euphonium. He said sure and handed me his secondary mouthpiece and let me play on it. I took it up and found my F on the horn. When I played, it sounded pretty good, my friend actually said, "Wow! Have you ever played euphonium before?!" I said no. He was pretty shocked, he said I sounded very good for not having played euphonium ever before.

Later a few other people who saw and heard what happened came up and complimented me (since I was still relatively new to the band). This is coming up now because I want to try out for a DCA Drum Corps (it's like DCI, but less intense). I've never seriously picked up euphonium and practiced before (due to lack of equipment that was mine), but when I did, I didn't have many problems producing a nice tone and finding my partials. I found I could play most of my tuba music on it no problem. I have quite a few months to practice and train for DCA, and there is a corps that is only a few hours drive away and is taking practically anyone they can get since they are so new. I figured it would be fun to try and do a season on euphonium.

What is a good marching euphonium mouthpiece? I would ask my friend whos mouthpiece I used, but I won't be seeing him for a few weeks. Also any tips on going to euphonium from tuba? Also I am not 100% converting to euphonium. I will still play sousaphone for marching band in high school. So yeah, if anyone has had experience going from tuba to euphonium and knows of a mouthpiece that made the journey a tad easier, let me know.

Also, I would assume a marching euphoniums are large shanks right?

I cannot claim to have switched from Tuba to Euphonium but it would seem practical to play on a bigger euphonium mouthpiece than usual. I marched baritone with the Madison Scouts in 2008 and we all played on Hammon Mouthpieces- size 12L; this mouthpiece was GREAT because it is fairly deep and allowed for a darker sound on the marching horn. The euphoniums that year played on Hammon 20BL- these are, of course, deeper and outside of the marching band world are used on Bass Trombones. Karl Hammond made mouthpieces with Terry Warburton for a while... so similar quality to that of the Warburton series people play on.

If you aren't interested in spending a lot of money on a mouthpiece, people tend to flock towards the large-shank Schilke 51D's when it comes to marching band. They are shallower than the Hammond 12L but do the job when it comes to marching band- you could find a used one online for anywhere between $25-30.

Both the Hammond and Schilke would be great investments because if you choose to continue playing euphonium after you're done marching DCA, you would have a decent mouthpiece to play on a concert euphonium.

Hope that helps!