OFFICIAL LIST: Horns Used by Players Dismissed at Auditions

[Ace]

Hilarious.

Ace

[PMeuph]

Not a joke:

I took an audition for a regional orchestra with a borrowed 981 EEb. I learned EEb tuba in the 5 days before the audition.

I came in third...there were only three of us

[Steginkt]

Yes, I've heard the 103 is actually the preferred horn. Remember that front action = better player.

[Mark]

I was on an audition committee where one person played their entire audition on a Besson Eb. This included the Ride and Prok 5. They were dismissed in the first round. I later asked a friend who also auditioned and he told me the guy only brought the Besson and apparently did not think it would be a problem.

[Donn]

the guy only brought the Besson and apparently did not think it would be a problem.

I guess there is such a thing as taking what you read on Tubenet too seriously.

[MaryAnn]

Or his sense of humor is too subtle for you at this time.....I think the only reason I got my orchestra position was because I was playing an Eb.

[mikebmiller]

I was on an audition committee where one person played their entire audition on a Besson Eb. This included the Ride and Prok 5. They were dismissed in the first round. I later asked a friend who also auditioned and he told me the guy only brought the Besson and apparently did not think it would be a problem.

OK, humor me here, as I don't actually play tuba, but do play trombone and euph. If the guy can play those parts on that horn, should he win the job? If there was a screen up, should the committee know or care what kind of horn he was using? Just curious.

[roweenie]

I was really sort-of expecting to be offered the Chicago Symphony Orchestra job (the last time it was open).

I determined that a YBB-102 (in lacquer) would get that job for me.
I played a "note-perfect" audition - and used a tuner, so there could not have possibly been anything that I did that the committee did not like.
I'm sure politics were involved...
I believe those who are designing all of these Chinese knock-offs are really missing an opportunity, but I'm sure they are politically motivated as well.

No clanging piston noises on that one - - -

[Three Valves]

It's all about the buttons!!

[timothy42b]

This is a good example of "survivor bias."

(I've been reading Nassim Taleb lately, sorry. Recommended, by the way.)

When we look at the horns that won auditions, we see only those who survived.

Others who played the same horns may have lost.

The same is probably true of teaching approaches and exercises. We see what the successes used, but what the ones who didn't succeed used is lost, and may have been the same thing.

[windshieldbug]

I was on an audition committee where one person played their entire audition on a Besson Eb. This included the Ride and Prok 5. They were dismissed in the first round. I later asked a friend who also auditioned and he told me the guy only brought the Besson and apparently did not think it would be a problem.

OK, humor me here, as I don't actually play tuba, but do play trombone and euph. If the guy can play those parts on that horn, should he win the job? If there was a screen up, should the committee know or care what kind of horn he was using? Just curious.

If there was a screen (even if there wasn't) it would be VERY OBVIOUS to the committee if what they were hearing was not something they expected a colleague to sound like in those pieces. It would be no more different than if someone brought a mellophone to a horn audition. They had better not only PLAY the part perfectly, but SOUND like the committee expects from all the other times they've played the piece. Very often, when a committee doesn't hear what they expect to hear they'll have another audition rather than take just the best on hand.

A good example of that was the Philly audition that Carol Jantsch eventually won. The first audition included players that had SUCCESSFULLY subbed with the orchestra but the committee was not overly impressed. Mz. Jantsch's musicianship won her the second...

(BTW: bloke's tuner mention was a joke. A full-time orchestra would be able to tell the difference between even-tempered and pure tuning and would expect to hear the correct shadings to be used... )

[windshieldbug]

"The committee would like you to play the second excerpt again paying particular attention to the intonation at letter "B". Please don't let it go so flat... "

[groovlow]

There is no "winning formula" regarding horns. It is poppycock to think so.

T h e winning horns thread is not about winning...

Its about $ELLING horns

[mikebmiller]

I was on an audition committee where one person played their entire audition on a Besson Eb. This included the Ride and Prok 5. They were dismissed in the first round. I later asked a friend who also auditioned and he told me the guy only brought the Besson and apparently did not think it would be a problem.

OK, humor me here, as I don't actually play tuba, but do play trombone and euph. If the guy can play those parts on that horn, should he win the job? If there was a screen up, should the committee know or care what kind of horn he was using? Just curious.

If there was a screen (even if there wasn't) it would be VERY OBVIOUS to the committee if what they were hearing was not something they expected a colleague to sound like in those pieces. It would be no more different than if someone brought a mellophone to a horn audition. They had better not only PLAY the part perfectly, but SOUND like the committee expects from all the other times they've played the piece. Very often, when a committee doesn't hear what they expect to hear they'll have another audition rather than take just the best on hand.

A good example of that was the Philly audition that Carol Jantsch eventually won. The first audition included players that had SUCCESSFULLY subbed with the orchestra but the committee was not overly impressed. Mz. Jantsch's musicianship won her the second...

(BTW: bloke's tuner mention was a joke. A full-time orchestra would be able to tell the difference between even-tempered and pure tuning and would expect to hear the correct shadings to be used... )

Gotcha - so it would be like showing up at a symphony trombone audition with a small bore jazz horn, I guess. Not being in the brass band world, I don't get the chance to hear Eb tubas very often (or ever).

[Mark]

Gotcha - so it would be like showing up at a symphony trombone audition with a small bore jazz horn, I guess. Not being in the brass band world, I don't get the chance to hear Eb tubas very often (or ever).

Yes, or showing up for a principal trombone audition and playing the bolero excerpt on a contrabass trombone. Even if the player can pull it off, it just won't sound right.

[doublebuzzing]

Gotcha - so it would be like showing up at a symphony trombone audition with a small bore jazz horn, I guess. Not being in the brass band world, I don't get the chance to hear Eb tubas very often (or ever).

Yes, or showing up for a principal trombone audition and playing the bolero excerpt on a contrabass trombone. Even if the player can pull it off, it just won't sound right.

I actually don't think the analogy is a good one. No body in the world would professionally play Bolero on a Contrabass or play a mellophone in place of a horn. But in certain respected places in the orchestral world (like London), the Eb tuba is used for almost everything in some orchestras. It might not be done in America but it is done.

[bone-a-phone]

Gotcha - so it would be like showing up at a symphony trombone audition with a small bore jazz horn, I guess. Not being in the brass band world, I don't get the chance to hear Eb tubas very often (or ever).

Yes, or showing up for a principal trombone audition and playing the bolero excerpt on a contrabass trombone. Even if the player can pull it off, it just won't sound right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEnb8kdEmXo" target="_blank

[bone-a-phone]

I really do not understand why principal trombonists do not play the bolero solo on a small bore tenor trombone.

A lot of trombonists do. But when you're playing for a hall as big as the big orchestras play in, louder on smaller instruments means a lot more edge, and Bolero isn't about edge. We've had this discussion more than once on the trombone forum, and several people do play it on small(er) bore instruments. It sounds good and fits the style on smaller bores as long as you don't have to fill a huge hall. You're expected to play it on large bore in auditions, and those expectations can be hard to shake. I prefer to play it on a 0.525" slide (medium bore) on my 88h (large bore), which gives it a little more brilliance, but still with the projection and color (and full lower range) that you need. I think it sounds dull on 0.547" bones.

The big problem with Bolero is that it has a 2+ octave range, and even if you can get the high Db (on treble staff), you still have to be able to make the C (on the staff) at the end sound good and full.
A lot of truly small bore bones (<.500") just don't have a reliably full sound on that C. I think 0.508 - 0.525" is probably the ideal range for that particular solo. The original (Paris, 1928) was almost certainly played on something smaller than 0.500".

[GC]

I'm with Bloke. To me, a King 2B or equivalent is the perfect horn for Bolero and for tarting it up.

[pecktime]

Surely the most important thing that all Audition LOSERS have in common is.....



They all played the Tuba! When will they learn?

Bloke is leading the transition to NTSOTNBATs (non tuba shaped objects that are not big assed tubas), and it behooves us all to buy a Moog and win all the jobs.