confessions: the most over-the-top tuba playing in your past

[JHardisk]

Sometimes, I tend to get just a wee bit carried away at work...

This one, I was caught on video. (Listen to the final few seconds)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-qL3GAn73w" target="_blank

[Chuck Jackson]

Sometimes, I tend to get just a wee bit carried away at work...

What the hell was wrong with that? Balanced nicely, great sound and style. GREAT sounding band, even with the sharp trumpet player. I'd have to kill the snare drummer, though. Only thing worse than that is having a gong by your ears. Kudos to you, you are a hell of a player and you are in a hell of a band.

Chuck

[TUbajohn20J]

Sometimes, I tend to get just a wee bit carried away at work...

This one, I was caught on video. (Listen to the final few seconds)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-qL3GAn73w" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Wow you cranked that pedal Eb! That made my day.

[TUbajohn20J]

Let's see, I can think of many times I've played extremely loud. Last year our sousa section was having an outdoor sectional around 9 pm. It started off ok, then I guess we got a little carried away because a lady drove up to us, said that she had followed our sound, and was searching for us to tell ask us to play softer or go somewhere else because we woke up her sleeping baby. Turns out she lived about a mile away. What can I say, I get some sort of pleasure from playing extremely loud.

Here are some examples. Listen at 2:32
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hG96llbukc" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

And here is a couple of us messing around with the "power rangers" theme on sousas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y1pb9kx66I" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

"power rangers" intro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXA24hn1Zp4" target="_blank" target="_blank

It is definitely a workout playing that loud!!

[dwaskew]

the one that stands out for me was in a rehearsal when in grad school at Penn State. Mark Lusk (trombone prof. extraordinaire at PSU) has a fantastic arrangement of the Faure Requiem for brass choir. He kept many of the original "extra" instruments--organ, harp, string bass, but had all the rest of the orchestral and choir parts covered by brass.
At any rate, he was (is) a stickler for pitch, pretty much above all else. We were working hard on some big chord stuff, and obviously were settling well into pitch--so much so that we actually broke harp strings via sympathetic vibration. Just playing along, and started hearing loud twangy sounds. After we finished the section we starting looking around for the sounds--luckily the harpist wasn't sitting with her harp at the time, but was none too please with us, nonetheless.

[Steve Marcus]

We were working hard on some big chord stuff, and obviously were settling well into pitch--so much so that we actually broke harp strings via sympathetic vibration.

Dennis, I think yours is the best post in this thread because you weren't trying to be "over the top," rather, as musical and in tune as possible. Ahh, the power and majesty of a great brass ensemble...

...and the Fauré Requiem is a gorgeous piece. Mark Lusk's arrangement must be magnificent.

[imperialbari]

It seems funny that several stories revolve around Nutcracker.

The last time I played it, I was in a pit that had a ceiling (as the pit had been extended up under the stage, because the original pit was only big enough for a 1920's vaudeville orchestra) which was only about 1-1/2 to 2 feet above the bell of my tuba. The other brass players showed me how I could sit in a certain place that would lower me away from the ceiling, but (for the entire run) I sat right next to the bass trombone (in the customary position). Man, was it L-O-U-D under there (and quite funny as well).

bloke "probably not as loud 'out front'...' never received any complaints from the aging continental European conductor"

Wouldn’t the CC helicon have been better for that job?

Klaus

[imperialbari]

the one that stands out for me was in a rehearsal when in grad school at Penn State. Mark Lusk (trombone prof. extraordinaire at PSU) has a fantastic arrangement of the Faure Requiem for brass choir. He kept many of the original "extra" instruments--organ, harp, string bass, but had all the rest of the orchestral and choir parts covered by brass.
At any rate, he was (is) a stickler for pitch, pretty much above all else. We were working hard on some big chord stuff, and obviously were settling well into pitch--so much so that we actually broke harp strings via sympathetic vibration. Just playing along, and started hearing loud twangy sounds. After we finished the section we starting looking around for the sounds--luckily the harpist wasn't sitting with her harp at the time, but was none too please with us, nonetheless.

If that is sympathy, I would rather abstain.

Klaus,
harp owner, not yet harp player
no, not blues harp, but 33 strings Irish, fully hooked

[davidgilbreath]

...I had just come off THE pivotal period of my playing career - I'd worked with Sam Green all summer and he had completely remade me as a player.

250 piece band. Left them all in the dust. Got an award too, at the banquet. And the next year I was gone to CCM.

Gee, I wonder who the award was named after? I heard that I had to share it with a trombonist

[tubamonster]

In ninth grade marching band, we were rehearsing the fight song and for some reason I was playing especially loud. When the song finished, the director said, "This is not [My Name] and 88 friends". I was one of five tubas.

While playing Sibelius's 2nd Symphony Finale, at the end I was playing extremely loud (and extremely sharp.) The auditorium I was in is horrible. The sound is "sucked" in towards the stage. There are curtains hanging above that absorb the sound of any bell-up instrument. The bass trombone player kept telling me to play louder. I played louder and one of the directors who was listening from the audience said my volume was fine during rehearsal. Finally the performance came, I was playing on a Miraphone 191. At the end of the Finale, I had to take a breath every 1-2 beats I was playing so loud. I was completely out of breath at the end and felt lightheaded. I didn't do anything different from rehearsal. A few days later I heard the recording, and I was sure playing loud enough. I was the only tuba player in a roughly 150 person orchestra, and the tuba section was by far the loudest section (even louder than the timpani.) It was horrendous. Given that the auditorium was so bad, I figure that I must sound loud in some parts of the auditorium and soft in others.

[Wyvern]

When I was at school playing a quite narrow bore 3 piston top valve Huttl BBb we did a rehearsal in a church. I had an ffz note on D treble clef (C bass clef) which somehow popped out particularly well on that tuba. I hit that note with such force that it was almost like a gun shot - the conductor stopped the band, looked up and said "are you trying to blow the roof off?"

[Tuba Guy]

When I was first using the Cerveny, we were doing a concert of a Mascagni opera, and 3 Verdi Pieces (Aida, Forza del Destino, and something that I didn't play in). The university choirs were standing behind me (specifically the altos). This was also when I was having a ton of intonation problems with the horn, and had just figured out that the louder I played it, somehow the more in tune it got. I didn't think it was too over the top, but a bassoonist in the audience wasn't happy with the final result. Oh well

[Brutal Tuba Master]

HAS to be in the orchestral experience. Marche Slav has a basic supoorting brass part, but with a build where the triplets followed by two eight notes are marked triple forte, so myself and the fine gentleman next to me decide to partake in seeing who can pay louder. so after recieving 'the hand" many times the conductor stops to ask who can be heard the loudest, which everyone clearly knew the answer to. it wasn't a congratulatory stop, but to us it sure felt like one!

[Todd S. Malicoate]

What a superb troll post. Congrats!

[averagejoe]

What a superb troll post. Congrats!

word

[David Richoux]

When I was deployed on the USS Comte de Grasse (DD 974) for UNITAS 38, (a diplomatic cruise around South America) we (US Navy Showband) were asked to play during an "Unrep" (short for "underway replenishment"), which we were not happy about. During an Unrep, another ship comes along side while underway, and supplies are sent over via a line between the two ships. Manuevering and communication between the ships is tricky, and in order to provide motivation and Esprit De Corps, we were sent to the Missile deck (about three decks up from where they were doing the unrep) to provide inspirational music for the evolution.

snip
Kurt

That's hysterical. My Dad was on USS Roanoke (an unrep oiler, AOR-7) and he never mentioned live entertainment... I would think the distraction would be annoying as hell to the bridge!

I was on the USS San Jose AFS-7 from pre-commissioning (1970) to 1972. We had a 8 piece volunteer rock & soul cover band and I was playing trumpet and t-bone. Most of the band had vital jobs during unreps so we never could do a performance like that. We did play for ship's parties (after months of delivering food and supplies to other ships and bases around Vietnam.) We actually played in a nightclub in the Philippines once (Olongapo - "Sin City!") and did pretty well.

[Lee Stofer]

I may have exhibited some "over the top" playing in my past, particularly while in the Army, generally when my patience had worn quite thin. Stepping over the line all the time shows a lack of maturity, and musicality - But, by the same token, music is communication, and sometimes you have to speak your mind!

I won't bore you with details, but after one field ceremony I received my most unique critique from one of the french horn players, a good-old-boy from Indiana who exclaimed, "Sergeant Stofer, you could jump-start a hot air balloon!"

[Ken Herrick]

Maybe it wasn't so much "over the top" but, still good fun. While in the Aus Army Band in melbourne we did a monthly "parade" at the barracks. The Brigadier commander was quite friendly and after we had done Who'll Stop the Cavalry which featured a nice little tuba solo for the inspection of the troopies, he came to the band. "Musician Herrick, that was a nice solo, but I'd really love to hear Under the Double Eagle".

We just happened to have that on our parade card so the Brigadier's request was duly honoured. At the appropriate spot the rest of the band dropped down to a piano level accompianment while I let rip. Good fun.

Later got invited to one of his official garden parties as a "guest" with the proviso that I bring a tuba and play under the Double Eagle. The "refreshments" at that do were well worth blowing a few notes!

Not long after i came to Oz, I got a call to play 2nd on La Sacre with the Melbourne Symphony. Now Jake had pointed out to me that one particular low F# SHOULD sound UGLY.

In the one rehearsal I had I gave it the full treatment. The entire orchestra stopped, as did the conductor. The 1st player was a "converted" Euph player who's zFFFz on his Boosey Eb would have matched my F on the King. They had never heard anything quite like it. "Aaah", said conductor -a fairly famous European - "THAT is what that note is there for - to bring a halt to what has been going on."

That was rather like a particular G in the Bartok Concerto which also serves that same musical purpose. Gunther Shuller once remarked that I had made it the most important note in the tuba part.

Once in a while, instead of being at the bottom of the heap - "over the top" is where we belong.