How to tell the band director that I don't like playing

[dopey]

" _____ I don't like playing tuba anymore.. "

Seriously though, I was like you in high school. I played sax in jazz band, learned bassoon, my sisters trombone anything I could find. I spoke with my directors about dropping tuba back in jr high and my old high school director told me the I would be STUPID to change from tuba. A good saxophone, trumpet, trombone....are a dime a dozen. A good tuba player is rare and not something to give up.

Once I got to college that all changed. I really enjoyed playing tuba maybe it was the fact I went from 3 tubas in my section to 20. Or playing with people who made me look like a 6th grader, or the private lessons. I don't know what exactly makes it so much better, but I do know I am glad I did not give up playing in high school.

Do you play in any small groups? That is some of the most fun you will ever have as a tuba player. Everything from a quartet to Dixie to jazz. I used to get small groups together in high school after school and read through the greed/red Canadian brass books. Great sight reading and a lot of fun! My Dixieland group I play in now is some of the most fun I have ever had(and hardest!)

Get some etude books and start playing those. 24 artistic studies for tuba comes to mind. some gorgeous melodic playing. The only reason you like playing other instruments is because they are new and challenging, so why not make tuba challenging?

[Rob]

Serge,

There is no better instrument to play than the Tuba. If you want more proof of this, look at these forums at Tubnet, or others on Tubanews. I'll admit I haven't looked for like groups for other instruments, and that I am highly biased, but if you wish to make the 'right' choice without being able to see your future, this is it. Besides, there's no celebration for the Bassoon at Christmas time.

The Tuba is the backbone of any group it is in. It is also, for lack of a better word, the coolest instrument you can play. Yes, girls may think they like something else, the sax, the drummer, etc. but eventually....likely when you get to college, you'll find that what they are really looking for is the biggest instrument... and if you stick with it until you get to college, you can always shoot flames out of sousaphone bells during half-time if no one is paying attention...

If you could look into your future, there are a few things to consider: what could you see yourself playing after college, what instrument gives you the most opportunities, and if you are not going professional, but can play pretty good, what has the highest demand?


Now you just need to get over the hump.

You've played Woodruff's 24' studies, #'s 9 and 14. Are these your choices? Realize that all of these studies come from other books. If you really like those particular ones, get the etude book they come from.

9 is from Kopprash, as is 11. I think 11 is an exceptionally hard one to play, well worth trying but allow time to get it down, I'm still working on it, have been for many months. Additionally, try #6, it has always struck me as similar, and fun to try and play as fast as you possibly can.

14 is a Vasiliev. If you like that composer, try 7.

Two others to mention from that book, 17 and 19, try them.


I'm not sure what slow, grave like songs exactly would mean to you, but I would recommend another book that might be fun. Legato Etudes for Tuba, by John Shoemaker. Pub. Carl Fisher. There are several slow, melodic pieces in this book that might tickle your fancy.


One book you Need to get both for Tuba, Bass Trombone, and since you like jazz:

Basic Rhythms and the Art of Jazz Improvisation by Joe Tarto. Publ. Charles Colin

http://www.charlescolin.com/lowbrass/tuba.htm

You should find this fun and perhaps helpful, for either the Tuba or the Bass Trombone. I've had it for ages, and was surprised to google it and find it's still apparently available. Seems I can replace my coverless, falling apart book after all.

Perhaps if your teacher won't let you play Jazz on the tuba, you just need to give him/her some incentive. I recently played a piece, "Chase the Clouds Away" by Chuck Mangione. It is 3 pages long, has a killer bass line, and the only thing resembling a rest in the tuba line is a whole note that shows up 3 times. Though sometimes repetative, it is basically one big tuba solo. If your high school could handle it, suggest it to your director. I would think that upon completion your director would have a new view of you playing jazz. If you want, and you give me a week or so, I can email you a copy of the Tuba part.

Well, I'm going to have to charge you a bit more than 2 cents, but it seems to me you are in a similar position to me--poised on the edge of tuba, or not tuba. I was there in 10th or 11th grade, and thankfully kept it up, and am thoroughly loving it today.

Before you throw in the towel, try a couple of these suggestions.

Thanks,
Rob

[Ryan_Beucke]

I would recommend finding a private teacher. Sometimes all you need is some challenge, motivation, and someone to play with.

Even if you can't find a "tuba" teacher, find someone...low brass, brass, whatever. Someone who can at least push you musically and give you something to work towards.

[JHardisk]

Switching instruments probably isn't going to get you out of marching. Only quitting band will do that...and you didn't mention that as an option.

Or breaking your leg. Repeatedly. We can help with that!

Or... you could play football. Then, you have the chance to break your leg repeatedly, AND you can make fun of your friends out there marching with those gawd awful sousaphones. And if you break your leg, you can sit on the sidelines and do it... eh?

On a serious note, it sounds like you need motivation. As mentioned, a private teacher could help to kick start this. Try expanding the repertoire you work on (as also mentioned). Or, take a break! Lord knows we all need breaks, and you could take one to pursue other interests. I make my living playing the tuba, and I take breaks semi-frequently. It's always a great treat to come back to the horn and remember why you enjoy playing so much. This, for me is especially true when I do other things not tuba or music related on my breaks (mostly remodeling at my wife's request!). Working an "honest man's" job makes me really appreciate that I get paid to make a silly buzzing sounds from my lips, and heck... I even enjoy it!

Good luck with whatever you decide!

[lgb&dtuba]

Next year I will most likely be one of two tubas in the marching show (I don't like marching that much) and I was wondering how I should tell my band director that I might want to play another instrument for marching and concert season.

You "might want to play another instrument"? Sounds like you really don't know what you want to do and are looking for a bunch of strangers in this forum to tell you what you should do. What anyone else here would do in your shoes is irrelevant.

Once you figure out for yourself what you want to do, just do it. Don't make up a bunch of reasons, excuses and rationalizations. You don't need them.

[tubatooter1940]

Hi Serge,
If you have a burning love for music performance you will keep seeking a happy outlet for it just about everywhere you go.
If your most recent musical work is your best work so far, that is how you know progress is being made and you may be well off to stay at it.
If you feel stifled by anyone or anything outside yourself-it may be time to make a change.
I played tuba thrugh high school and college but started playing trumpet along with at age 16. I wanted to play guitar. I do so admire the instrument. I was a trumpeter in a rock band the first night I brought a guitar to a gig. The guys in the band hid my guitar while we set up. I managed to convince them to let me try it on one tune. I wasn't great but a second guitar is a lot of help and freed me to sing backup.
For the next 24 years I sang lead and backup,rhythm guitar and played solos on trumpet, trombone and rarely, guitar six nights a week until the U.S. Postal Service offered me a family health care plan.
Serge, I may be a maverick and you may be as well. Follow a road that brings you happiness and peace. If you're good to people along the way and able to hold most any job, you might wind up happy.

[sloan]

You ask: "How do I tell the band director X" and then write a long post describing 'X'.

The answer is simple: print out your original post and hand it to your band director.

then, discuss it.

One suspects that if there are really only 2 Sousaphone-carriers in your Marching Band, your choice might be to play the Sousaphone or join the choir.

Life is short. if you don't want to play the tuba...then don't.

[LoyalTubist]

Like Earl Hickey, I have a list of stupid things I did through my half of a century of life. Unlike Earl, my list is confidential and not even my wife is allowed to see it.

But first on that list is my resignation from my high school band prior to my senior year. I look upon my time in high school band as a happy time in my life but for some idiotic reason, I didn't like the way something was done and I quit. I missed playing at my own graduation (a big tradition at my high school) and I didn't get to do a lot of the stuff that everyone did with the band back in those days.

I apologized to my band directors about three years after my high school graduation... both the director and his assistant began working as college band directors. They accepted my apology.

The problem is that it has been 33 years and I can't forgive myself.

Stay in the band. No matter where you go from where you are you won't regret it.

[geomiklas]

Kid, I can relate to your situation. In my case though, I didn't like the middle school band director (and maybe she didn't like me too).

In the 5th grade, I started playing a York trumpet that my parents bought at a yard sale. By the middle of 6th grade, I was so disgusted with the teacher that I smashed the lead pipe on the trumpet. My parents couldn't afford to fix the trumpet and the band director needed a baritone player, so you know what happened. I finished 6th grade playing baritone horn, bass clef. By the end of 6th grade, the band director told me that she needed a tuba in next year's 7th grade band and asked me to play it. I said "NO WAY", got a summer job and paid to get the trumpet fixed. It wasn't until writing this reply that I remembered how mean she was. There I was a trumpet player, and she wouldn't let me play Baritone T.C.. Her scheme was to get me to learn Bass Clef so she could switch me to tuba. So I got my trumpet fixed and played it again in 7th grade--the band director resigned at the end of the year.

At the beginning of my 8th grade, the band new director asked for volunteers to play the tuba--I didn't move, not quite yet. Then one day the band director announced that he was starting a stage band and the boosters were buying a bass guitar. That is when I asked if I could volunteer to play both the bass guitar and the tuba. The rest is history--just look at my signature.

gm

[geomiklas]

Coming to tubenet to find out how to get out of playing the tuba is like going to www.Peta.org to find out how to skin a cat.

I don't know the answer to the former but, to the latter, I recommend starting behind the ears.

Michael Vick might be qualified to give insight on this.

[LoyalTubist]

Coming to tubenet to find out how to get out of playing the tuba is like going to www.Peta.org to find out how to skin a cat.

I don't know the answer to the former but, to the latter, I recommend starting behind the ears.

Michael Vick might be qualified to give insight on this.

I am a member of PETA.

[LoyalTubist]

I edited that while you were posting so it wouldn't seem like it was coming out of nowhere.