FEMALE TUBA PLAYERS

[Highams]

I currently teach a 'late starter' who is just past the big 5-0 age and is really progressing on a Willson compact 4v compensator!

She is also of small build but that's no real problem.

CB

[Arkietuba]

I think that more and more women are picking up the tuba (at least here in Arkansas). My college tuba section has a girl. My All-Region band, when I was in high school, had a few girls. There are now girls making the All-State bands. I hope this trend continues, especially since a few of the girls were hot (sorry about that ). Seriously, I do wish that more and more women pick up the tuba and become proficient at it.

[bigboom]

I went to a concert for the Dallas Brass last winter and their tuba player was female, I can't remember her name, but she was pretty good, I had never seen the Monte Czardos (sp) played live and it was very impressive. That's a good group if you ever get the chance to watch them, they played Sing, Sing, Sing and the piccolo trumpet player made his horn sound exactly like a clarinet, with little squeaks and all, by far the coolest effect I have ever seen on a brass instrument and without electronics.

Ben

[Erin]

My college tuba section has a girl.

Of the 7 tuba players in the band and wind ensemble at my university, 5 of us are women. Of the 5 people in my studio, 4 of us are women. In high school, 3 of the 4 tuba players at my school were women, and all of the euphonium players were women as well.

I was floored when a male teacher once asked me if I had ever felt as though I was at a disadvantage in the tuba playing world because I am a woman. Until that point, I hadn't realized it was an uncommon phenomenon.

[Tom Gregory]

two of my tuba students were SISTERS! Both very small. One still plays (and takes lessons), the older one went back to the flute.
TG

[JB]

I was floored when a male teacher once asked me if I had ever felt as though I was at a disadvantage in the tuba playing world because I am a woman. Until that point, I hadn't realized it was an uncommon phenomenon.

And still, it is a very different professional world (particularly tuba) now than, say, 30-40 years ago. Whether one wants to acknowledge it or not, this is a bona fide issue. Many barriers have been broken down, but there remains a certain "novelty" factor when seeing a female tubist in a professional situation.

[vmi5198]

My Tuba professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, in Ontario Canada was Jane Maness. She is a very good player, and plays a mean PT-6. We did Belshazaar's Feast together. It was great!

[Ames0325]

I dunno why I started playing tuba. A week or so before "Band day" for fifth graders I decide I want to play the tuba. My older sis played(s) the string bass so there could eb something there who knows anyway I sure am glad I did. Lately I have been burnt out with music in general but when I can get into TUba is a blast. I can;t imagine playing anything wlse as my principal instrument. And there are only two tuba players in my section and I'll admit while he has a better since of tiem my range both low and high is a heck of a lot better than his.
( and he is good--tuba major as well)
Amy

[Sally Larsen]

Back when I started playing (circa 1965!), there were virtually no female low brass players in my region. I started on trombone in 4th grade - even that was unusual, but Wes Diemer, my first band director, understood.

I had a significant overbite, which involved lots of dental torture, and three years later, when I started junior high, my band director suggested that playing with torn and bloody lips was perhaps unnecessary. She (Audrey Murphy) was a euphonium player - a true rarity- so she had no preconceptions about women and low brass. She wrote out the fingerings for me, parked me in a big brass Conn sousaphone held on one of those seat/stands, and I played with the band the next day.

My high school director, Jay Dolinger, was a tuba player. From then on it was smooth sailing.

Just to give you an idea of what young women faced as bass players in my area in the sixties and early seventies - when I played electric bass with the jazz band, I wore a coat and tie. When my high school marching band section lined up - there were seven of us - I stood in the center because I was eight inches shorter than any of the other sousaphone players. I "got" to play the brass horn because we only had six fiberglass horns. That actually worked out well, because that horn had huge projection, and while the guys' plastic travesties might have been light to carry (especially in parades....), I could really make myself heard.

Flash forward: now I play either as the only tuba player, or in sections that are 50/50 female/male. I very rarely see any older women playing tuba, but there are quite a few powerful female players coming on locally.

I've been very fortunate that I've met with huge support and enthusiasm all along.

[drandomtubas]

I got really sick of all the obnoxious girls in the flute section in my junior high band... my band teacher started begging people to switch to low brass, and I jumped at the opportunity to actually be of use instead of just another flutist.

For the past seven years, all of tuba players in my high school band have been girls. There are currently 3 of us. (-:

[Arkietuba]

I assume that's Heather (U of A right?).

No, sorry...I go to the Univ. of Central Arkansas (about 3 hours away from the U of A).

[Julie W]

I started playing on a Sousaphone in the 4th grade because I thought it was really neat that I would be crawling into my insrument everyday. I wasn't always meet with opened arms but apparently that worked for me as motivation because I'm doing well now. I have come across a few other females on the horn, give it another decade or so and the numbers will be mroe favorable!

Julie

[jaredsan]

anyone notice how many views this thread has, vs. its amount of replies and time it's been here?

giant capital letters: "FEMALE" ...

case closed

[MaryAnn]

I took it up three years ago (at 52) because I was asked to. I had been playing the bass bone part in the brass band on a euph (anything to NOT play alto horn) ... and the conductor kept saying "buy an Eb tuba! Buy a tuba!" ... so I did.

Tuba is more fun than any of the other instruments I play. I also found that if I want to play in a brass quintet, I have to organize my own, and being the tuba player (instead of the horn player) gave me the most opportunity for finding the other four.

MA

[Lee Stofer]

My oldest daughters are twins, who started out in band on trombone and french horn, respectively, this year. The trombonist has shown interest in doubling on euphonium, or tuba when she grows a little more, and Dad's 100% behind her on that. My third daughter, 9, relishes playing her antique Conn tenor sax, so there's probably no hope of her ever being a tubist. But, my youngest, 8, has only done piano lessons, but has an embouchure much like her Dad's, and is very solidly-built - maybe she'll play tuba. . . .

[Dylan King]

I think women playing the tuba is the greatest thing ever. If more chicks played the tuba, more chicks would like good beer, understand football and baseball, and would have stronger tongues and mouths, and really know how to use them.

If every chick played tuba, every day would be like the Superbowl.

[UDELBR]

If more chicks played the tuba, more chicks would {...snip...} have stronger tongues and mouths, and really know how to use them.

Thanks for that little detour through the gutter, SmokeMan.