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This is a question mainly for sousaphone players who were in a marching band or in any kind of band with multiple sousaphones, like Tuba Christmas.

When you were playing with your fellow sousaphonists, did it seem that you were hearing the person to the right of you more than your own sousaphone? That's what I went through at my TC last week. As I mentioned in another post, hearing a more experienced player on the sousa next to me helped me out keep pace with my own playing.

Being that the sousa bells point toward a crowd rather than upward with a regular tuba makes a difference.

Now here's a question for the regular sitdown tuba players, do you have the same experience of hearing the other tubas instead of your own?

Hank74

Hank74 wrote:Now here's a question for the regular sitdown tuba players, do you have the same experience of hearing the other tubas instead of your own?

One reason I take an F tuba to TC is that there are few prepared to play the first tuba part and it needs helpers. But the second and more important (from the perspective of my own enjoyment) is that I'm playing a different part with a different voice and it makes it much easier for me to tell what I'm doing.

In a regular section, I almost always hear the person to my right more clearly than myself, but I never really have problems hearing myself. If he is playing way too loud, then it's a problem, but it's not a situation I tolerate for long because it undermines anything I'm trying to do to balance the band. If I can't hear myself from the player to my right, I point to the dynamic marking he is ignoring in his part (if he's willing to accept my direction--I am the section leader but I don't like giving that sort of direction, espcially to playes better than me), or I suggest to him later that in a 45-piece amateur wind ensemble, strong tuba players need to hold back in the quiet bits. When we are balanced properly, I hear myself clearly along with the player to my right.

If there is someone to my left, then I ask myself what he is hearing.

Rick "who thinks balance is a rare commodity at TC" Denney

Much worse than sousaphones were the 5 (Cerveny) helicon players from Godwin HS. It wasn't that they were bad, but with the way a helicon bell faces it was right in my ear, until I moved up a row. I was the only one with an Eb horn though, and I brought an 1880 Boston "bombardon," so my sound was definitely discernable against all of the BBb horns, even those playing the tuba 1 part.

For the Huntsville, AL TC last weekend, I took the easy way out and brough my usual BBb. The second tubas sounded pretty good, except for a couple of Sousaphone players who missed the rehearsal and decided to play most notes down an octave.

To help the Tuba I section, I brought my 1895 (?) "Symphony" Eb helicon. and my 16yo trombone-playing son, Peter. He practiced religiously for a week, and found the peashooter Eb to be an adequate bass trombone.

He did complain that "the horn doesn't give you much help - whatever you buzz comes out the bell". I've been using the smallest tuba mouthpiece we have (the one that came standard issue with my YBB-621S) - but I suspect it's too big. The helicon was modified (by the previous owner) to use a standard King BBb Sousaphone goosenect, but the bore shrinks back to the original size where the gooseneck meets the original tubing.

Any suggestions on an appropriate mouthpiece? I'm thinking SMALL backbore and SMALL cup volume (but with a shank to fit a standard BBb gooseneck.)