Toot Your Own Horn (pun intended)

[DevilDog-2013]

What was your greatest musical acomplishment and how did you get to that point?

Erica

[Steve Inman]

Being marginally good enough on either tuba or guitar to be able to contribute to a variety of musical situations as an adult amateur (local quintet, community theater pit orchestra, community band, church orchestras, church worship band, 12-piece brass choir I organize at my place of employment every Christmas). Nothing special, but certainly enjoyable opportunities to share in music making for the enjoyment of others and myself.

Cheers,

[Michael Bush]

It's been so long ago that they tend to run together. Now I'm a community band hack. But back in high school I won auditions that allowed me to play under some very famous and memorable band directors, such as William Revelli and Frederick Fennell. Those rehearsals and performances are some of the best memories I have from that time of life.

[opus37]

I like the new question. I play to make people happy. Myself included. I guess I'm like the majority of folks here who are community band/church players. This year we put on a Christmas Music pageant that included a rock band. They gave me a cello part and said go for it. It turns out the part was a solo with the lead singer and the rock band. I got the part right and it was a hit. It made 600 people very happy and they now have a new appreciation for the funny horn in the back of the band. For 20 minutes one evening, I was a rock star....

[DevilDog-2013]

goodgigs:
Sorry, that wasn't neccessarily the point of this post. I should have been more clear.

But what am I trying to accomplish in music? I have no idea. (I know this is cheesy but,) I just feel like I was meant to be a musician. I can't see myselfe doing ANYthing else with my life. I originally joined band because my sister made me. Then my old band director convinced me to play tuba, and since I actually got good, there's nothing that would convince me to give up. I don't know where I'm going or what people will say, but I'm going to keep playing tuba. And that's all I know right now.
Well actually, I do know another thing.... that this is going to drive me insane now! haha x]

Thanks

[DevilDog-2013]

Wow.... just wow. They are AMAZING! Now I'm stuck on youtube looking up cool brass groups.

But how is (was?) playing in a symphony? I'm not sure where I'm headed but I do want to play in a group like that. Either brass ensamble or an orchestra or something.

[SousaSaver]

Just going to music school was great. I got to play every single day in many different groups and I got to hang out with excellent players when they came through town to do clinics or give recitals.

I guess the real honest answer is repairing or setting up horns for excellent players who then tell me how happy they are with the work. That feels really good and is a nice boost to the ego.

[MaryAnn]

My initial response is that although I've spent a great deal of my life as a musician, sometimes getting paid, and lately not....I don't feel I've really accomplished much. I've had fun, other people seem to like what I can do, but me....I hear people who are galaxies better than I am at every turn and with every musical thing I try. So my greatest accomplishment, in my own eyes, is the few simple brass pieces I've written that made it into print and which I hear of being performed every now and then. Even given that, I still feel like a hack.

MA

[Tubachin]

My greatest musical achievement is now a junior at Eastman School of Music, majoring in tuba performance. Billy started playing the tuba in 4th grade and I was his first tuba teacher (volunteer). I worked with him for many years until he needed a "real" tuba teacher to get better.

I fondly remembering the early years, spending more time filling up the school's sousaphone with water and having him "find" the water with the water keys. I thought he was going to be a plumber. I guess I was successful at making the tuba fun and help him realize his passion for music.

We have gone on tuba road trips down to Dillon's and Baltimore Brass in search of new instruments and have played in many a TubaChristmas. We still play duets when he is home for the holidays, I happily play the 2nd part.

I am as proud of Billy as I am of my own two boys. Nothing that I have done musically and will ever do (I suspect) will top this achievement.

[Bob Kolada]

I used to have this little beater Conn Eb (now I have another, a King; whoops...) that most people either stared at or just didn't like. But that was THE horn for me! I have never felt so comfortable on a tuba. I loved the sound, it was easy to play, gave me enough of a challenge in the low register (3 valves) to keep me working and to temper some of my aggressiveness, great pitch,...

The most musical point of my life was on that horn, playing a few songs on it when I played bass trombone in The Music Man. Wells Fargo was a giant singing flugelhorn, Shipoopi was a poppin' duet with the bari sax (switched back to bass trombone for the rest of it for the glisses ), the last 76 Trombones song was fantastic,...
That was like 6 years ago and I still get chills remembering it and how happy I felt while playing it.

#2 is a compilation of some of the earth moving I did on that same horn- shaking a gazebo floor in an outdoor community band concert, "monster-ing" a combined brass band, organ, and 2 choirs playing the last chord in a hymm or something (cannot remember the name! started with solo Bb tuba with the low voices;, alternately singing and stomping in Enigma Variations in brass ban;, Festive Overture, Academic Festival Overture, Light Cavalry Overture,... in brass band as the only Eb with 2 hosses on Bb,...

I'm not there yet on my current King, but I'm starting to get the sound close to what I had on the Conn and I'm finally getting the intonation solid. That low D I used to complain about? Played some with a tuner today and it was spot on. I think I was hanging on to bad tendencies from other horns (was super flat on my Conn Giant, -is- flat in first with both valves on my bass trombone) and not playing the note. I used to be hardcore about just playing the note and that's gone away for several reasons.

[Steve Marcus]

What was your greatest musical acomplishment and how did you get to that point?

I don't know if this was my "greatest musical accomplishment," but it is one of my fondest musical memories.

I attended a concert by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Brass at Northwestern University in the summer of 2005. One of the numbers that they performed was Richard Bissell's brilliant arrangement of Duke Ellington's "Caravan." It blew me away (sorry for the pun). My immediate thought was that Chicago Brass Band Players, a 10-piece ensemble modeled after PJBE/London Brass for which I was serving as tubist and Musical Director, should present it at the 2006 North American Brass Band Association Small Brass Ensemble Competition (3-10 players allowed using traditional British BB instrumentation--no percussion; tenor horn in lieu of french horn, etc.).

After the concert, I congratulated Royal Concertgebouw's tubist, Perry Hoogendijk, for a great program and asked if he knew how to get the chart for "Caravan." He confided in his colleagues; several of them chimed in that it was recently recorded on a London Brass CD called "Surprise" and that the music would be available through their publisher.

I bought the CD. "Caravan" was the lead-off track. I was blown away again, and was ready for the reaction of the CBB Players to the idea. Some embraced it; some remained neutral; some were downright scared and/or resistant to the proposal. After all, some of the Players had never really performed a high-energy swing chart like this (e.g., we had won the NABBA Small Brass Ensemble Competition in 2005 with an arrangement of Vivaldi's "Winter" from The Seasons. Quite a contrast!). Some also legitimately wondered if we could pull it off sans the drum set helping to keep the group together and maintain the forward momentum (no conductor was permitted).

We dug in our heels and worked hard on the chart, which included lots of tonal and rhythmic contrast and an extended section of syncopated unison playing at both dynamic extremes. We even got around the rule of no percussion at a point in the slow middle section where nothing happens but brushes on high-hat cymbal by having me (tacet on tuba at this point) create the sound with air through my teeth.

There were approximately 12 ensembles competing that year. Guess who took first place? More importantly, we accomplished a great sounding performance in a genre that was stretching some of the players' musical horizons. BTW, the tuba part, with its occasional solo, was fun, too!

P.S. One other fond musical achievement was when I was invited by my former piano professor to perform (on piano ) in an alumni recital at Temple University Boyer College of Music. When I had been a regular student of his, he stubbornly forbade me to play transcriptions. "Steve," he would chide, "There is so much beautiful original music for the piano--Chopin, Schumann, etc. You do not need to study transcriptions." Well, this was my chance to finally slip one in--in a lesson with him and ultimately the performance at Klein Recital Hall at Temple. I played Rachmaninoff's version of the Bach Violin Partita No. 3 in E Major. If you are familiar with Rachmaninoff's "transcriptions," he adds many of his own inner voices and channels the pieces through his own harmonic language. It was very satisfying to play--not just because I had broken the mold set by my former piano professor, but because the 3-movement Rachmaninoff is a great piece in its own right to listen to and to play!

[tclements]

3 come to mind:
1 - Winning San Jose Symph gig
2 - Solo tour in Japan
3 - Playing with SF Symphony

[bearphonium]

Playing a west coast premier of Armenian Dances II with Dr. Alfred Reed conducting (when I was in college)
and
Playing in a retirement concert for my college band director, about 6 months after starting to play the tuba

Both of those have less to do with my accomplishments than my amazing good fortune.