When you were in jr high why did you choose your instrument

[WakinAZ]

You're probably ready for a short one after that...so --

It chose me: the day before I was to start on trumpet in junior high band, my mouth got in the way of a baseball at point-blank range. Did I mention I also had braces at the time? My lips looked like hamburger for a few days. Although I schlepped in my just-rented trumpet, the band director took one look at my mouth and guided me to the sousaphone in the back of the room.

Eric "big lips" L.

[zeign7]

Heh, I had no real musical background. The band teacher called me over the summer between 5th and 6th grade and asked me if I wanted to be in band. I, having not used the phone really yet said "ok" and that's that.

In 6th grade everyone played recorder for half the year then decided on an instrument after several weeks of handouts and demonstrations. I decided I wanted to play euphonium (baritone at the time it was called) only because a pretty piece that my teacher played on one as a trombonist at the time. When open house came around my parents decided that I would need braces so the teacher put me on trumpet instead.

So, a year later I move to another school district and continue on trumpet, never got braces, and decided to switch to euphonium the end of my junior year of high school for the reason "I would have to learn how to play all over again to continue in music and I feel more comfortable here (on the euphonium." It wasn't until my sophomore year of college that I remembered about originally intending to play euphonium. I am now a senior and play F tuba and euphonium both. Never counted on that when I was playing my brother's used cornet in middle school!!! (although even in college I have been told that my lips fit the tuba much more than a euphonium, which really is true).

[windshieldbug]

I started out on cornet, since that was what my father had played, and I liked the idea of continuity.

I auditioned for Music School on trumpet, then switched to euphonium. The other euphonium players were monster players, so I asked how they got that way. They said that when things got tight one year, they had taken from the tuba teacher. He was an old Bell student. The powers-that-be said that the only way I could get lessons from him was on tuba. So I switched, he took me, turned out to be the greatest person I had ever met, and my playing took off.

So like many other people, the tuba chose me, not the other way 'round!

[Conn 2J CC]

I joined Band just after 7th Grade because a friend of mine was. I wanted to play Trumpet like him, but our almost ready to retire band director wouldn't take any more. When I asked what other instruments he would let someone new play, he mentioned the Tuba. Not knowing just what that was, I agreed to try it. So, he ducked into a packed, under a stairway storage room. A couple of minutes later he pulled out a huge, ugly metal Sousaphone on a seat stand of it's own. I took one look, said no way, and turned around to leave. That's when he grabbed my shoulder and said "Now wait a minute, young man. I just dragged this horn out past 3 Snare Drums, a Bass Drum, 2 Tympany and 2 other horns just like it. GET UNDER IT!"

Given his size and mine, I wasn't about to bolt.

After a week of practicing at home, my mother asked me if I was going to try being in Band when school started again. I said yes, but that I was still thinking about trying to play Trumpet instead. She asked me not to, because she wanted me to stay on the Tuba. She liked the mellow sound of it, and that someone could be doing something in the next room like watching TV and my playing wouldn't bother them. So, I stuck with it for her. It's a relationship that's lasted for 33 years.

Mom passed away just over 2 years ago. When I got some money from her estate, I talked to my wife about how Mom liked hearing me play horns, especially the Tuba. We agreed that she would have liked knowing that some of her estate money went to buy me the horn she loved to hear and that I had never been able to afford. So, I bought a good used Conn 3J CC through eBay, and Dad and I drove 8 hours round trip to go pick it up.

Mom's in heaven now, and my horn's aimed right at her. I like to think she knows I've got it.

[Carroll]

Mom passed away just over 2 years ago. When I got some money from her estate, I talked to my wife about how Mom liked hearing me play horns, especially the Tuba. We agreed that she would have liked knowing that some of her estate money went to buy me the horn she loved to hear and that I had never been able to afford....Mom's in heaven now, and my horn's aimed right at her. I like to think she knows I've got it.

Beautiful, man, beautiful.

[KenS]

I started out in 4th grade with a cornet. I was ok, kind of stuck in the middle of pack. In 7th grade our junior high school got 2 new tubas and needed a couple of people to play.

I don't remember exactly why I volunteered, but Dean and I both volunteered. The school had an old sousaphone and stand that we brought home and I set up in my bedroom. I practiced on that like I never did on the trumpet.

Dean and I played in were in a practice closet for a couple of days getting used to these things. Two weeks later we had our first concert.

[Donn]

I actually might not have been a tuba player if the middle school had had a contrabassoon. That's right, a contrabassoon. One of the most awesome instruments ever! When played well there's nothing quite like the power, rattle and buzz of that instrument.

It was the Eb contrabass sarrusophone for me. Sort of a brass contrabassoon or a double reed contrabass saxophone. After playing school contrabass clarinets for a while, sitting next to the tubas, playing the tuba parts, and getting completely drowned out by the tubas, I joined the tubas. Not 5th grade, though, I was maybe 32. I finally played that Conn Eb contrabass sarrusophone for a couple minutes a few years ago, and I think the tuba was the right choice, but I would not say no to a contrabassoon.

[Highams]

11 years old, just moved to secondary school (all boys, became comprehensive in our 3rd. year there). Our form master (who had originally formed the school brass band) said if anyone was interested, there was a try-out for the band after school that evening.

This was more of an instruction than an announcement (lol) and was followed with the sound of a large book hitting someone on the head at the back for not listening.

So virtually half the class (it was either that or join the football team) trundled up to the music room. I was tall even in those days, so it would seem likely to be something low brass. I was given a Salvation Army Triumphonic 3v Baritone to take home and punish my parents and neighbours.

That thing was horrible to blow, did'nt get on it with it at all and was in danger of being left behind those already progressing on cornets, tenor horns etc.

A few weeks later the conductor got a Euphonium out of the cupboard and said "I wonder if you'll be better on this?"

http://s91.photobucket.com/albums/k309/ ... t=LSB2.jpg

It was a Hawkes 3v Excelsior, nothing great, but a dream after the SA baritone. Within 6 weeks the band purchased an Imperial 4v compensator for me.

We had a good annual budget for instruments and they were always recon quality B & H or Besson ones rather than student Chinese etc. a great advantage.

We did so much blowing in those early days at school, with the hymns for morning assembly at 9am, lunchtime band practice and quartet rehearsals (2 cornets, tenor horn, euphonium) after school, with a visiting paripatetic each day.

CB

[cambrook]

My parents insisted that I learn piano for a year in 6th grade (last year of primary school here in Australia - I was 11), after which I could decide if I wanted to continue. I did pretty well but decided "thanks but no thanks".

When I started high school the next year my parents surprised me by again insisting that I learn an instrument or join the choir. I thought this was against the spirit of our previous agreement, and in a fit of 12-year-old pique I decided to choose the most absurd instrument I could. Not knowing much about it I asked my dad what that big curly thing with an enormous bell that came over the shoulder was.
Not knowing much more than me he replied that it was a euphonium.

The following week I rolled up to the music department and asked to learn the euphonium, and the response was "we don't have any left, but we do have a tuba and that's even bigger". I had to have it - the rest just fell into place.
I still think my parents were wrong to insist, but as I earn a living 35 years later I'm very aware of what I'd be missing if they hadn't.

[Rick Denney]

I showed up to the band room in 7th grade in response to the invitation for new members.

The band director saw two things of supreme interest:

1. Big enough to hold and carry a sousaphone (the only tuba they owned).

2. Not too bright.

The rest is history.

Actually, she told me then that as a tuba player, I would always be in demand (I'm sure she was not talking about being a professional), and I have to say that she has been proved correct.

Rick "easily manipulated" Denney

[Wyvern]

I originally just wanted to learn an instrument as something to do in the lunch break at school, so at 12 decided I wanted to learn the trumpet.

When I went for my first lesson, the brass teacher said my teeth were not right for a small mouthpiece and gave me a euphonium for my first lesson.

Then, for my second lesson I went to the store cupboard to get the euph and saw an Eb bass (never knew it was a tuba at that time - everyone called it a bass) which really appealed to me. So I said, "can I learn that" and have never since wanted to play anything else, but tuba. A year later I "progressed" to BBb bass and not long after played a solo of Saint-Saens "The Elephant" in concert to the whole school.

On leaving school at 16, I thought my use for the brass bass (as I called it - still not knowing it was really a tuba) was over and with other interests stopped playing for the next 3 years.

Then a local brass band approached me and asked if I could help out on BBb bass in a forthcoming concert. I went along, and played with that band for the next 20 years.

I may have stayed, just a brass band player, but attending a classical concert with a girl friend heard Tchaikovsky 3rd Symphony and at last discovered I wanted to play tuba in a symphony orchestra. From there on my enthusiasm for the tuba and tuba playing has increased dramatically. I am now tubist for two community symphony orchestras (and frequently play with others), am a member of two wind bands, a tuba quintet, and a brass band, as well as doing any paid freelance playing I can get.

Jonathan "who thinks learning the tuba was the best thing to come out of school!"

[JohnMCooper]

Went to beginning band in 5th grade all prepared to be a clarinet player. The music teacher was/is a trombone player. Nobody had signed up for trombone so he talked my parents into switching me to trombone because I had long arms. My mother told me that if I played clarinet, it would give me buck teeth. So I switched.

I didn't start playing tuba until about 10 years ago (I was in my early 40's). Some of the guys in the jazz band I play in wanted to start up a brass quintet. Since I played bass trombone they thought I should be the tuba player. Played for a while on a Hirsbrunner euph (what an awsome horn that was) then I found my 184 in the Recycler. Now I'm hack tube player along with being a hack trombone player.

[tubeast]

My musical career started when I was around 2 1/2. Someone was wise enough to buy me a "Peter And The Wolf" record (Berlin Philharmonic) and taught me how to operate the record player. Soon, the same record had to be bought due to excessive wear.
At about eight I joined the church choir, being the only boy soprano. Bach, Schütz, and Telemann are fun to sing.
Dad owned a collection of various brass instruments. Since we already had flugelhorn, french horn and trombone players in the family, I chose the flugelhorn as well when I turned 14, joining the same youth band my brother and sister were in at that time. This setup was great to play the usual 4 voices as a family brass choir, which we still do when we meet.

In band, I was forced to play trumpet, since I was the only kid who actually OWNED a flugelhorn.
There were several items that encouraged me to switch to the tuba:
- My trumpet teacher (majoring in music ed at that time) happened to play tuba as his primary instrument in college.
- We had this charismatic, very talented tuba player in band who really conveyed the coolness of the instrument
- among other things, Dad owned an old 3-valved 3/4 BBb and my BBb Helicon, so cost wasn´t an issue.
- after 1 year of consistant work, my technique, but not range on trp and flh had improved

So one day I walk up to my teacher and ask for a sample tuba lesson. We discovered I had a lot more talent for the tuba than I had for high brass, so I switched.
That was 3 months before graduation from high school. I never looked back.

[tubatooter1940]

It was love at first tuba toot. The warm bass sound rattled the windows behind me the first time I got to blow a sousie and I was thrilled to be asked to learn it.
I had a fascination with snare drum soon after and pursued drumming with such gusto that I was allowed to march snare drum in all those long Mardi Gras parades.
At age 16, trumpet was my new obsession followed by trombone but tuba has always been my best instrument and always will be.
After a 26 year flirtation with rhythm guitar and vocals coupled with brass solos in rock bands, I got my grubby hands on a Soviet Army issue Eb tuba and befriended a guitar/vocalist from New Orleans who appreciates a hot tuba line and we just completed our second c.d. together.
I shouldn't be having this much fun at my age.
Dennis Gray
tubatooter1940 http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnrenohfc

[NC_amateur_euph]

I owe it all to my Dad. He wanted me to play cornet because renting a horn was cheaper than the dental braces I needed - and he had a buddy who straightened his buck teeth by playing cornet.

So we got a (rental) cornet from the local music stealer and I played it for a semester. By then I was about 43rd chair (out of 45) cornet and going nowhere fast. The Band Director put out a call for somebody to play baritone, of which the band had two. He made it sound attractive - the music was in treble clef, the fingerings were the same, what's not to love?

I don't even recall the school horn - but the Band Director soon came across a Conn short-stroke, swivel bell "baritone" in a pawn shop (thank goodness for living near an Army base that offered basic training). He convinced my Dad to buy it - I recall it costing $ 125.00 (and that was back when the earth was still cooling and $ 125.00 was a significant investment). I mowed lawns all summer paying it off.

With just a smidgen of practice, I went from 43rd cornet to 1st baritone and started having some success. I was hooked - I liked that success idea. I kept mowing lawns (long growing season in the part of the world) and paid to have the horn shipped off and reworked - dent removal, fresh lacquer, thumb hook on the second valve slide and finger ring and rod on the third valve slide. So that's what B-natural sounds like. Now I was stylin'! I studied through high school with various trombone and trumpet profs at the local college and was a pretty big fish in a pretty small pond.

I played that horn through high school, but marriage, kids, engineeing curriculum, and co-op work assignments got in the way of any serious collegiate music. I've played off and on in church groups and community bands ever since. I still have the old Conn short-stroke but play mainly on a Besson 967S now.

If there is a point to all of this - other than a pleasant (for me) wander down memory lane - it is that falling into the baritone and getting an early taste of success carried over into other aspects of my life. Would that all junior high and high school students could have that same taste of success, whether in music, art, sports, whatever.

Oh - I still need braces but I've made my peace with protruding front teeth.

Thanks to the Original Poster for this opportunity.

[The Big Ben]

Dudes:

I started in 5th grade with the trumpet. Good times. The teacher wanted me to play trombone because I had a good ear but I could not be convinced. Mr. Wright was a clarinet player in the Seattle Symphony and liked to teach kids. He was a good guy who would give free lessons after school to anyone who wanted them. I took him up on it and another guy did.

7th grade, Herb Alpert had struck and 20 of the 40 kids in band were trumpet players. I had heard that a baritone (treble clef) used the same fingerings and I found an old baritone in the back room and became a baritone player. That is the perfect instrument for a teen aged boy- marches have cool parts and you can play it loud as hell. 9th grade, I decided to play French horn so found a horn in the back room and my friend, Roald, showed me how to play it. Cool!

I played horn through HS while also playing trumpet in the Jazz band. In college, I played in the "recreational orchestra" where students and faculty played for fun. That was neat. A few years after college, I played both trumpet and horn in a community orchestra until I couldn't stand the politics of orchestra primadonnas who couldn't play for ****.

I've been playing the tuba for about nine months now and will be giving the orchestra another try this year. We'll see what happens...

Jeff "I love to play" Benedict

[WakinAZ]

I've laughed out loud at some of these. Pair the awkward jr high/middle school years with the sometimes odd environment of bandrooms, and you get some pretty humorous anecdotes. It is interesting to note not many of us initially chose tuba/euph/bari.

Eric "still chuckling at 'back when the earth was still cooling'" L.

[bearphonium]

We had the option of band or orchestra in the 5th grade. The kids that I didn't like went towards the orchestra, so my buddies and I went towards the band. They chose trumpet, and wanting to be different, I chose trombone. A photo exists of me, arm fully extended at a generous 4th position. I stuck with it, and when I went to Junior High, my folks bought me a Holton tenor 'bone. By the end of 8th grade, my buddies had switched to baritone and tuba.

When I got to high school, I meandered around 3rd and 4th chair. In 11th grade, another guy, who was state tuba champion, wanted to learn trombone so he could play in the stage band. We spent about two months of lunches in the band room, swapping horns and playing some interesting duets, that included a Eb upright, a good 4 valve upright euph and the BBb tuba and trombone to the point where he could join stage band. I had been playing bass 'bone in both stage band and orchestra, and was delighted to let him take over the bass 'bone in stage band. It was an OLD large bore, F-attachment with a funky mouthpiece and a funky odor. (I did the same thing over the summer, and swapped with another buddy who was a french horn player who wanted to join stage band, and as a result, taught myself how to play the french horn) As a result, at one concert, between my tuba buddy and me, we played a tenor 'bone, a valve 'bone and the bass 'bone, the BBb and Eb tubas, and an old straightened out mellophone.

I was still mucking about at 2nd or 3rd chair, and after high school, thought that my playing days were over. After I had been accepted into the local college, I got a call from the band director, Max McKee. He asked why I wasn't playing, I told him I wasn't real good, he suggested that he be the judge of that, and auditioned me. I was accepted into the wind ensamble and the marching band! When we came back to school at the start of winter quarter, there were 8 trombone players. I was the 8th trombone player, and we only had one french horn player. I switched over, and played mostly 3rd horn for the next 4 1/2 years. After graduation, they had no tuba players, so I came back and sat in as a community member, and played the tuba for one quarter (old, bell front 3 valve BBb).

I played in the alumni band for a while, then work stuff got in the way. I gave my nephew the french horn that I had, and he played it throughout high school. (He is starting the same school this fall, and will be playing french horn in the same band that I did!)

I had not played for about 15 years, and after a two-year period that saw my mother in law and my mother die 8 months apart, my parter go through an auto-immune disease, and me go through breast cancer, I decided life was really short, and I chose to start playing again. I bought a cheap ISO euphonium off e-bay, and went to join a New Horizons band. I showed up with my euph, and when I told the director about my music background, she said "you play the tuba?!?!?"

I now play tuba for both a New Horizons band and a "growing older but not up" marching band. I bought a 3/4 York Master BBb from Tubenetter fpoon, and march with a borrowed King sousaphone. I got to play this summer in a surprise retirement concert for Max McKee made up of American Band College grads and alumni of his. It was an awesome time!

Long post I know, but I've really enjoyed everybody's story and subjected you to my own.

[Davy]

Here's My musical Story...

4th Grade; wanted to play the Trumpet, French Horn, or Tuba. Itook the "Buzz" test on the mouthpieces, sounded best on tuba, and started there. In sixth grade I wanted to play In the Jazz ensamble, so I picked up Trombone with the help of my trombonist brother. Swithced to Bass 'bone in 9th grade. Went to the 2006 NYSSMA Conference All-State on Tuba in 11th Grade. Which brings us up to today, where I play Tuba(Looking for a personal horn), Bass Trombone(Have one), and Baritone in a Local Drum & Bugle Corp (I also beleive in playing multiple Instruments:) )

[Brassworks 4]

The morning of the first day of summer band (a couple weeks before 5th grade) my Dad asked me at breakfast what I was going to play. I had no idea but I knew it wasn't going to be the alto sax. I spent the summer teaching myself that "awful" instrument, as we had an extra laying around the house. I mastered the first book in Belwin - it was just too easy.

I asked Dad what he thought I should play. His response was "Play the baritone. You'll get all the great countermelodies in Sousa marches" I had no idea what the instrument looked like or how big it was (it looked huge to a little girl). But I choose it anyway - and STILL play all these years later.

Dad was right - countermelodies are great fun!! By the way, it wasn't long after I started playing when I taught my dad the term euphonium, not baritone.

Thanks Dad.