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I have been playing for 14 years now, but it wasn't until about a year or two ago that I really just liked the way I sounded in general.

Recording practice sessions was the bane of my existence for a while, but it really helped show me what I wasn't doing correctly, or what wasn't coming across to the audience.

When did you guys and gals really enjoy the sound you were putting out?

I'm not sure I ever have, even after 50 years. I recall a lesson with Arnold Jacobs back in the 1970s. He placed his hand on my right knee and said "Sonny, was that the best tuba sound you can imagine?" I said, "I don't think so." "Play it again." he replied. I did and he asked the same question and I gave the same response. This went on for several attempts. Finally he took my horn and tooted the same phrase with a certain wonderful timbre that I will never forget. "Now he said" play once more. I played just like him, and he asked. "Now what do you think" I said that I thought I played much better and sort of liked the way I sounded. Withjout realizing it, I was actually imitaing him. If we don't know what we want to sound like, then we probably have this nondescript sound, and more than likely it will not even impress ourself.

Today, I do have a very specific sound that I strive for, but rarely achieve 100%. I will confess though that I do appreciate that I have a good character to my sound, good interpretive skills and rather acute general musicianship. But it comes and goes with how well I stay intune and in shape. I don't want to say when I felt confident about it, but it was really not that long ago. (Well it may have been before some of you were born.) I keep practicing, even after 50 years as I find I learn something new every day. Life is a hoot.

When I started playing rotary tubas. Large tubby piston tuba sounds have never excited me, and I dislike them even more when I am responsible for them.

But once I started playing rotary tubas, the world started to make sense, and I haven't looked back. Some piston horns are okay, but overall, the German rotary sound is what makes me tick.

For example, I recently listened to the Vienna Philharmonic fanfare, once played by the VPO, and once by the USAF band (I think). Both were performed at very high levels, but the USAF version sounded soft and wrong to me.

Anyway, the piston vs. rotary sound difference is real to me, and when I started playing rotary tubas, I found a sound that I could produce that I really liked.

Or, you can be a much better player than myself, as Paul is, and strive for a sound for an entire lifetime and never be fully satisfied. That's just one thong that separates professionals from people like me.

I've always liked it. The problem was that for a long time I wasn't a good judge of what to like.

If a player's reach does not exceed the player's grasp, then what's a heaven for?

Probably right from the start. There was something that I liked about playing when I started in 4th grade. The sound was a part of it. As I "matured" my sound changed, but I still liked it. Some says I don't like my sound, but most days I do. Do I like my technique,..., hell no!

My problem was I did like my sound. A college freshman, I got my first listen of a Roger Bobo record, and then I had to do something about my sound. 3 years later I heard Warren Deck give a demonstration, and I still work on sounding like that (in another century).

The first time I played my teacher's (Dr. Jeff Hodapp) Rusk-cut York.

I was spoiled by that experience. No other horn I've played even comes close to that sound.

After listening to my college professor's sound for a couple years, emulating it, and starting my sound from full lungs. Does this mean, years down the road, that I love it every day? No. But on the days when I have a clear picture of the sound I want and fully tank up on air before starting my sound, it's very fun.

I could have added more to the backstory of the original question. I was a 3 year All-Stater, going for my fourth year, and I didn't make it. I had a good audition. The judge didn't like the way that I sounded compared to the other players. It infuriated me, because the week before that, I had just passed the audition to get into one of the Marine field bands. I scored high enough to choose my duty station. For a while, I thought the judge was just stupid. What part of good tone didn't he get?

I have been thinking about that audition for 7 years, listening to recordings of myself, and the greats, trying to get as close to a combination of their good qualities as I can. Sometimes it can be discouraging knowing what I want to sound like, and not being able to produce it quickly or at all.

I guess a year or two ago is when I developed a kind of "American CC tuba sound". I still have a ton of work to do to get my F tuba chops up to snuff. If I could, I would sound like a mix between Valentin Mauron and Floyd Cooley on the F tuba.

I usually start liking my sound in that sometimes all to brief honeymoon period after acquiring a new mouth piece or instrument.

I cant work out if the new equipment is helping or just the extra face time that new equipment promotes.

Generally though I am happy with my sound unless I have a chest cold then it becomes horrible.

My first ISYM band camp at U of I when I learned from Mickey Moore the magic of breathing correctly. Bell-front Vincent Bach baritone, but MAN did I sound good.