Late coming tubists

[Hank74]

This post is an invitation for anyone who has only recently been playing the tuba.

That would apply to anyone who didn't pick up the instrument until after college. If you are such a person, please post your story here.

In my case, I was a big fan of the tuba since I was young. However, I only begin playing four years ago and I'm now in my early 30s.

Are there any other stories here like mine?

[sloan]

How about "late returners"? I took a 25 year "hiatus".

Actually, I think I might be able to get away with claiming I started playing the TUBA at the age of 50. That Sousaphone I carried through High School and College doesn't count, right?

[P.J.]

I didn't start an instrument until 10th grade and played trombone and baritone through university. A few years after graduating from uni, I tried out tuba for a year or so before playing tenor horn and then returning to baritone. 2 years ago (I am now 32) I switched back to tuba (having experienced a full range of low brass, I have played some euphonium as well)and I hope it sticks for good with me this time.

[tubatooter1940]

This happens to tuba players and all others with aging and the passage of time.
Better than premature ejaculation!

[SplatterTone]

I originally trained in classical piano and organ; played organ for Lutheran and Presbyterian churches for about 35 years. The tuba is the most recent addition to the instrument list which includes recorder playing and classical guitar. I originally intended to play euphonium and started out on that because, when well played, it is such a lovely sound (not that the tuba can't be enchanting too ). However, the needs of the church band were for tuba. So I resolved to become proficient on that for the good of the cause.

I kind of would like to throw in some harp playing too, but the practice time is overbooked now so that I mostly practice the guitar and tuba, and adding another instrument is not practical.

In case you are wondering: Of the instruments I play (or play at!), classical guitar is by far the most difficult. One would think the organ -- with reading three lines of music and coordinating hands and feet -- would be the most difficult. But classical guitar is much more difficult (for me at least). Which might explain why you see so few truly proficient classical guitarists.

And getting that buttery-smooth sound of enchantment from a tuba ain't exactly a walk in the park.

[Dan Schultz]

I quit playing tuba in 1967 and didn't start playing again until 2000.

[Bill Troiano]

Back in the late 80's, this guy (in his late 40's) came over to me after a performance where I was a guest soloist with a local HS band. He never played, but had a tuba and wanted to learn to play it. I politely resisted, but he persisted and I ended up having him come to my house weekly for lessons. He was truly a beginner with no music reading experience. We got through a beginning lesson book in 2 months. Then, we went into the Getchell, Practical Studies I. He was chugging along. He participated in the following Howard Hovey Tuba Day and played in the massed tuba ens. I don't know how much of the music he actually played, but he was thrilled to be there. Then, he moved to NC. I got one letter from him saying he was still playing, but he didn't specify. Cool, I think!

[JohnMCooper]

I started on tbone in 5th grade, started playing baritone in junior high school. Made the concert band as freshman on euphonium while taking up bass tbone in the jazz band. Continued playing bass tbone in jazz bands to the present. About 5 years ago, a few of us in one of the bands I play in wanted to play some brass quintet music for fun. I voluntered to play the tuba part. I soon discovered I needed a tuba to play those parts. My first tuba was a Mirafone 184 BBb. I then bought an Eb tuba (still haven't learned the fingerings for it) and now I am trying to learn CC fingerings so that I can evaluate properly a B&M 5520 CC horn that is on loan to me for possible purchase. For me, I now prefer to play tuba over tbone and take every opportunity I can to play tuba in the jazz bands I play in.

[circusboy]

I started on cornet in 4th grade and played it through 9th or 10th grade.

Then I played nothing until I was about 28 or so, when I just got this incredible urge to acquire and learn to play a tuba, which I did.

I've been less than diligent over the years since, and I still suck at it, but I'm feeling like I'm going to upgrade the horn again and take another more serious stab at it.

Wish me luck.

[Dean E]

I am a returner. I never took piano or other music lessons.

In 1958 I started on a small Eb tuba in 5th grade school band. In HS, I played Eb sousaphone one year, then switched to BBb sousaphone. The band did marching, pep bands, concerts and contests. I stopped playing when I left school in 1965.

In December 2003 I resumed playing, after almost a 40-year absence, on an Eb York 3-valve monster I bought from an ebay auction. I did six TubaChristmases that December, and joined three community bands and one community orchestra. I collected some other nicely-playing Eb horns, and added CC last November, with a 5/4 Willson 3050 5-rotary valve heavywight.

[Gongadin]

I've collected 78rpm records for as long as I can remember. Plenty of novelty, plenty of '20s dance bands, and lots of ethnic. I realized early on that the sounds on the recordings that most appealed to me were the tuba and the xylophone. Already being a percussionist, I longed to try playing the tuba. Someone gave me a Besson 220, and I couldn't make more than a couple of 'sounds' on it. I had no experience with brass, only reed instruments (including bass sax). I wasn't gonna let the tuba beat me! I think it was about three years ago that I signed up for lessons with a woman from the military and learned the basics. She went on tour and stopped teaching. I still played on my own, because of the joy it brought me. Last year, at the Chambly Biere Festival, as I was departing after sampling a good many varieties from micro-brasseries, I heard the strains of a xylophone....then a tuba!! I thought I had drunk too much and died and gone to heaven. It turned out to be a band called Umanz, and now their tubist is my teacher. We communicate in broken French and broken English, and somehow the ideas get across!!

[Donn]

I had no experience with brass, only reed instruments (including bass sax).

Also only reeds at age 32 when I started with a beat up Olds tuba, but the bass sax didn't come along until I was 36 or so and making more money. Expelled from flutophone class in 3rd grade, I didn't get into the band scene until after college.

[Gongadin]

Man, I wish I could say I was expelled from flutophone class. That's so badass!