What instrument would you choose if you had to start over?

[dfear]

Actually, oboe. I just like the sound (plus the teeny cases and the fact that it takes so little air).

I had an oboe player once tell me what it was like for him to play oboe. His suggestion was to take a coffee straw and insert it into your embouchure, pinch off the open end and blow like mad!

I hated playing the oboe in woodwind methods...I couldn't get pass the dying duck, goose and cow stage! However, it is a very pleasant sounding instrument in the hands of someone that knows what they are doing with it.

[Donn]

Knowing what I know now, maybe I would have chosen one. Rather than fooling around with just about every known bass instrument plus a few excursions into the treble clef. But it's too late now. I don't really understand myself on this, but lately I feel I have to practice chromatic button accordion and valve trombone, even though there's no conceivable reason I would ever need them for anything.

[Rick Denney]

Probably guitar. Where I live (Appalachia), guitar players are common, and decent ones are in demand. There are frequent jam sessions, and I do like the bluegrass style a lot. You can enjoy sitting around a campground just playing chords to accompany someone better, and you can go as far with it as you want to. It's the tool of choice for people who just like making music with their friends, especially in our generation. Making money with it is another matter--too much competition from players who are too good.

I also enjoy playing euphonium, and the melodic possibilities of that instrument are greater than with the tuba. Community bands always seem to need utility euphonium players.

But the sound of the tuba has rotted by brain. Nothing else provides that level of satisfaction.

Rick "not liking the constraints of the question" Denney

[MartyNeilan]

Electric Bass.

I can get around OK on the e-bass, but if I spent the kind of practice time and education on the bass that I did on tuba, I would be able to walk into any.. (fill in the blank).. and play my pants off on paying gigs.

But, in hindsight, how much fun can you really have with ketchup?

My wife and I have our differences, but I would probably still marry her all over again. Same thing with the tuba - I will probably never make a full-time living playing tuba, but there is no other instrument that can compare. That is why we are all on this board.

[NC_amateur_euph]

Cello - for the sound.
Piano - to become a musician.
Guitar - for more playing opportunities and styles - and easy portability.
Oboe - to always be in demand in community band.

Then I'd go back to euphonium for the sheer beauty of it (in the right hands).

[Chris Smith]

Bagpipes only because I want to wear a kilt!

[kingrob76]

Where I live (Appalachia) ...

There's no way that "just west of Leesburg" qualifies as Appalachia (in my mind). At current growth and building rates you're about 3 hours and 47 minutes from having a Starbuck's on every corner of your property and a Walmart down the street. You have indoor plumbing. You own a full set of teeth. Now if you were west of Winchester, *maybe*....

[Rick Denney]

Where I live (Appalachia) ...

There's no way that "just west of Leesburg" qualifies as Appalachia (in my mind). At current growth and building rates you're about 3 hours and 47 minutes from having a Starbuck's on every corner of your property and a Walmart down the street. You have indoor plumbing. You own a full set of teeth. Now if you were west of Winchester, *maybe*....

There is a bluegrass jam session in Round Hill (just west of Purcellville) every month, with a regular attendance of about 150 musicians. We are about that far west. I can walk out to the road (to get out from under the trees) and look at the Blue Ridge. That's about as Appalachian as it gets. Last fall, we attended a bluegrass festival at Watermelon Park (probably not actually called that, but that's what people who grew up here call it) on the banks of the Shenendoah River. The Shenandoah River isn't in Appalachia? The headliner was Peter Rowan, one of the performers on Old And In The Way, the seminal recording from the local music lovers of our generation, most of whom find an excuse to make Galax (look it up) every year. My wife, who grew up in this county, clogged for years. Nobody where I grew up Texas even knows what that means--it's definitely an Appalachian thing. The bluegrass festival was 15 miles from our house, half of which was going south before going west to cross the Blue Ridge at what used to be called Snicker's Gap. I can be standing on the Appalachian Trail within 20 minutes of leaving the house, in either of two different directions, one of which is in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, and the other of which is called Bear's Den, another trail waypoint, on the top of the Blue Ridge. If Wal-Mart is scheduling a store in north Loudoun County soon, they are going to have to build a town to support it. The biggest town up here is Lovettsville, population 1160. Lovettsville edges out Waterford by about 40 people. Not quite Wal-Mart terrain, and not much being built around here just at the moment. You must be confusing us with Ashburn. The nearest Starbucks is 10 miles away, back towards you, in Leesburg.

Granted, it's not eastern Tennessee or western North Carolina, but saying it isn't Appalachia is like saying Denver isn't in the Rockies just because it's not Vail.

And there are lot fewer teeth out here than you imagine. And just because I have indoor plumbing doesn't mean I always use it.

Consider yourself thumped, Reston-boy!

Rick "a Virginian for 10 years and shocked to realize it" Denney

[The Big Ben]

I've changed my mind. After some long consideration, I think I would have liked to play the clarinet. The case is small and there are usually lots of chicks in the section.

[tofu]

[Rick Denney]

female groupies of rock stars are usually hotter than - ahem - tuba groupies!

How would you know? Where did you find a sample?

(The only good-looking females of the opposite sex who are attracted to tuba players that I know are married to them. Those don't qualify as groupies and there's only one of them I'm allowed to admire.)

Rick "unable to construct the experiment" Denney

[Tubaryan12]

1. Flute - easy to lug around
2. Trombone - Then I could play in a salsa band and watch the ladies shake it!
3. Bass - lots of employment opportunities.

[Davy]

For me, I would say either Euphonium (For the sweet sounds), Trombone (Particularly Jazz Trombone), Bass Trombone (full time) or maybe Horn, for the awsome sounds it can have.

But, I am particularly happy with the Tuba, for obvious reasons.

[ken k]

definitely the bass, both electric and acoustic.

I would love to be a jazz bass player. I love to play it on the tuba too but would love it even more on the bass.

ken k

I like the banjo idea too

[rocksanddirt]

Tuba.

I began on the trumpet in fourth grade, and played and played.....

always wanted to play the tuba, and now I am. (once it's back from the shop).

[DonShirer]

I'd like to learn how to play banjo properly (instead of cheating on the tuning the way I do now).

If that isn't possible maybe the tympani (I played these one summer in grad school and was told that tympanists seldom buy their own instruments!) or the instruments whose sound I admire the most, bari sax, bass clarinet or (to honor my daughter in law) bassoon.

[eupher61]

If that isn't possible maybe the tympani (I played these one summer in grad school and was told that tympanists seldom buy their own instruments!)

OH? Maybe not for main orchestra work, but for anything else you're gonna have to have something to play, and something to haul it in. But, many do use their own tymps in their orchestra gig.

[TMurphy]

Tough question.

Horn would definitely be one of my top choices, along with string bass (electric and acoustic). I also wish I'd started learning guitar sooner than a month ago.

[oldbandnerd]

Previously I made a joke about wanting to play the serpent . After seeing what other had to say I thought I would give a serious repy.
I really can't imagine playing anything other the euphonium. I do have a great love for other instruments and their sound but euphonium is it for me.I started band wanting to be a drummer but was forced to play trumpet instead. My second year of band I no longer had the borrowed trumpet to play and was then put on the euphonium out of neccessity. I haven't regreted it once ever since.

[kmshimfe]

I would have to say either bass trombone or the contrabassoon. Contrabassoon just dominates over all other woodwinds.