Do you consider yourself a successful tuber/euphoid?

[TubaRay]

My principal is supportive, my VP is supportive, and my music supervisor is a great guy. All in all I'm a pretty lucky guy, I think.

You should buy a lottery ticket! You ARE lucky!!!!

What are you talking about? He's already won the lottery!

[Eupher6]

Well, let's see. The key word in that question is "successful."

And, of course, how "success" is measured.

For me, I turned a hobby into a career (thinly disguised as an Army guy) and enjoyed it so little that I wound up learning a foreign language fluently, translated documents, drove trucks, ran a supply room (with multiple property books), helped out in the sound room, scouted gigs, wrote letters, developed training schedules, and even played a couple of bugle jobs. On trumpet. Really, really bad trumpet.

Correction - it wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, I just didn't realize how much I needed it.

It wasn't till after I retired when I learned that there is no way in hell I could put down the euph and the trombone.

After retirement, and on my own time apaart from work, I studied the trombone with a well-known orchestral principal player. He helped me in my euph playing as well - duh!

I practiced more than I ever did while active duty - I had to in order to keep up with the really demanding music that Brit-style brass bands play at the top levels.

And I was able to play music that I loved, accurately, well, and with seemingly little effort. Made a few recordings and a few bucks along the way, but nothing to write home to Mom about.

Simply going through that experience made the whole adventure a success, as far as I'm concerned.

Sometimes you don't know what you have till you don't have it anymore. And while I never really "lost it" during those early years, I certainly got distracted and missed some marvelous opportunities.

But things happen the way they do for a reason. Now I'm middle-aged and don't have the lung capacity I used to. But I think I'm a smarter player, wiser certainly, and otherwise know that while I might've gotten away from the horn during a time when I was being paid to play it (some will argue with me about that), the horn never really left me.

I'd call that a success.

Allen "not really a pro anymore, despite the avatar - don't know who put that there" Lawless

[wr4]

My first reaction was 'I've never been paid for it in my life' but that's not true - I got five bucks for a July 4th gig in '63 or '64.
Over the past few years, I've made runs at a comeback - playing on my own - that went nowhere. This spring, I signed up for some lessons and found a couple of community bands. Before June, my last group performance was in 1967. Since June, I've played in 7 or 8 local concerts, going from about 50% participation in the first (totally sight-reading) to 98% in the last.
Am I happy? You bet. I've found a group of folks of a variety of ages who have established a local following and play pretty well...and they let me in! And my wife isn't laughing at me (with me? was I laughing?) nearly as much.
Would I do anything differently? I'm nowhere near as good as I was when I was 18. Maybe take 20 years off instead of 40? You kids at home, don't you try this. If you're at all good and you enjoy the playing (or maybe that's enough), find people to play with and keep at it. It's good to be back.

[MaryAnn]

I've changed a tremendous amount over the years, in what I expect out of playing.

It started out that I was trying to make a living, and trying to be a better player than I was capable of (not yet accepting that the old adage "you can be anything you want when you grow up" was not true.) Not to mention playing in a violin section, which we all know is made up of nervous, twitchy, competetive squeaky types.

When I migrated to brass, I surely fit in better with the rest of the section, and really enjoyed it much, much more. But I was still stuck in the trying to be better than I was capable of syndrome.

After I developed dystonia on horn, I had to make a major adjustment in my expectations. It was really hard, took a couple years, but in the end....I am much happier now. I got back my horn playing expertise but left behind the uptight attitude. I think in retrospect that perhaps the dystonia was a very good thing that happened to me. If I had not been able to recover, I probably wouldn't feel that way.

Now...I just damn near sold my F tuba because it hadn't seen the light of day for years, and I get invited to play in a TE quartet. It is only just started, but you know what? It is really, really fun, and it looks like it is going to be competent.

So, for today anyway, life is good. I'm thankful that I don't need to make money with music. Back when I did, and someone would invite me to their party just to be the free entertainment, that pretty much pissed me off. I still won't play at anybody's party to be free entertainment, but now no one thinks to ask.

Which is good.

MA

[Rick Denney]

I have discovered talents in areas other than music, but (again) I would prefer to do well at a few things other than to do "OK" at many things (also avoiding the total life disorganization that "pursuing many things" entails as well).

Heh, heh. I guess that means you are I are different.

Rick "who doesn't mine the total life disorganization that pursuing many things entails" Denney

[Eupher6]

I have discovered talents in areas other than music, but (again) I would prefer to do well at a few things other than to do "OK" at many things (also avoiding the total life disorganization that "pursuing many things" entails as well).

Heh, heh. I guess that means you are I are different.

Rick "who doesn't mine the total life disorganization that pursuing many things entails" Denney

Good point, Rick.

Perhaps bloke can answer this question:

"Why does pursuing many things result in total life disorganization?"

Hmmm, let's see. My list is short in comparison to many, of that I'm sure, but I've been paid to run copy in a major newspaper, bag groceries, cook food in restaurant and institutional settings, receive goods and store them, play euph, trombone, and really bad trumpet, translate, drive trucks, set up sound systems, and even hobnob with local politicians (should've gotten a Purple Heart for some of those experiences).

These days I manage quality assurance in a small plant that makes medical devices and perform a health and safety function for the plant as well.

Last time I checked, I still get out of bed in the morning the same way I did years ago, I don't drool (at least while conscious), and I still practice on a semi-regular basis.

I don't call that being disorganized at all - well rounded, perhaps (said as he rubs his ample gut).

[TubaCoopa]

I think for myself, happiness in music has nothing to do with pay or the quality of the tuba I have or anything like that at all. It's definitely all about the music itself. Maybe since I'm still a student and haven't gotten paid for a real gig my position will change in the future ( ) but I don't think so. Music has always been a comforting retreat from the stresses of everyday life and a neat little obsession too.

BTW, the "Cool beans, I got a new bottle of valve oil!" option made me laugh out loud, since I fall into the tuba stereotype of never oiling my valves. Seriously, I'm still on my first bottle after 4 and 1/2 years. Hey, it's almost empty!

[sloan]

I just finished a J.D., and I plan to start my Ph.D. focusing in theory/ed/arts admin - interdisciplinary.

If I may offer a completely unsolicited piece of advice - don't bother with an "interdisciplinary" Ph.D. It's a contradiction in terms.

It's OK to participate in MULTI-disciplinary research (as part of a team - or even, in extraordinary cases, alone) - but the whole point of a Ph.D. is to acquire *a* discipline.

If you will, imagine an orchestra where every player took an "interdisciplinary" point of view and was equally competent on all instruments...

I'm sure that your plans would make you the first counterexample - but my experience has been that people with "interdisciplinary" degrees have all been frauds.

As I look back on my (checkered) career, I can point to work which has spanned many different fields - but I was a welcome part of those teams because I brought my own "discipline" to the table.

End of rant...carry on as if nothing had happened...

[TonyZ]

I can honestly say that EVERY time I play the horn; in a lesson, in an orchestra concert, in quintet, in recital, ANYWHERE, I am completely ecstatic!!! Music is about you, and those you touch. Success comes in the personal revelation that you have just done something extraordinary! I am currently playing the Lion King, and I have two short tales that relate:

1. In the tune "Endless Night" there is a three-bar repeated section that goes on for a while. It is a build to a great climax. Some player before me had written in the part "An Endless Night of playing those boring 3 bars over and over!"--Someone needs a nap, and a reality check!

2. After a show, I was leaving the theater with my horn on my back, and a family stopped me. Their daughter who was about 10 years old, wanted to meet someone from the show. I introduced myself to her and she pulled me down to kneel beside her. She gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek and said "Thank you for the Lion King!" That, my friends, is success!! To KNOW that you have created magic for someone!