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That LA Times reporter who presented at ITEC told us about a professional player who actually had a sousa modified so the bell wouldn't cover his face. Apparently the player thought this was a great triumph for tuba players everywhere, allowing their previously obscured faces to be seen.

In high school, nobody ever told me this was wrong. The entire band's sousaphone section looked like that. Sorry everyone.

I'm thankful that when I was in college, we had some DC military band tuba players who would help out with our marching band... and made damn sure we wore our horns correctly!

I wore my horn wrong during high school. After researching from here, I've gotten at least one school in our area to wear them right... now I've got several to go, including my alma mater.

That is so awkward, how can one not know it's wrong??

It really wasn't too uncomfortable to march like that, and I never gave it much thought. When I was in 8th grade or whenever, the section leader slapped it on me and said "wear it like this." We all did. It wasn't until college that I discovered the correct way, and it was much easier.

It bothers me so much how my section wears their sousas, I've tried to fix them but they're very resilient so I've since given up. I actually started wearing it the correct way on accident, because I was missing a bit, and thus was forced to angle in from the right and shift the whole thing more to the right. Like you said, it hurt a little at first, but since the second week or so that I got used to it, I've had more fewer issues with neck, shoulder, etc. pain than anyone else. Needless to say, I could never go back!

A few years ago... upon on the insistence of the president of a high school band support group... I unsoldered the transition and revolved it so the bells could be directly above the player's head. It looked like crap and the sousas were surplussed as soon as the next regime took over.

Don't let the kids (or a stupid band mom like what happened here) rule your program.

Stick with the sousas.