Age Versus Tuba Playing Stand Use

[GC]

I have a fairly short torso, so I have to hold most horns off the front of the chair to keep the mouthpiece from hitting me in the nose or forehead. I started this in my '20's, and I still do this the same way. If a horn is not really, really heavy, I don't need a stand. I find playing on a stand more stressful than holding the horn with my legs. If I ever go back to BBb, I might consider using one. It's not likely to happen, though.

Now that I'm 60, I'm more likely to simply switch to another instrument if the weight gets to be too much for me.

[Ace]

I'm 75 and have no trouble holding a tuba in my lap. However, I sometimes have a bit of trouble lifting and spinning (emptying) the instrument.

Ace

[Lars Trawen]

Yes, I use a tuba stand, I have to.
I'm now 68 and bought my current tuba 15 years ago, a Melton/MW 200 Kaiser.
It's so big and heavy that it's extremely uncomfortable to have it in my lap.
I tested all available tuba stands at that time but found none that could be enough low adjusted, same level as the seat.
Therefore I found a piano-stool to be very useful, not the round one but the rectangulary.
Sitting right across the stool with one leg on each side I can place the tuba on the seat between the legs to carry the weight.
So, in this way it also works as a tuba stand. A piano-stool is available in most cases. If not I use a normal stand.
Today I have both Tubassist and the BBC stand but I prefer the latter one. It's easier to carry.

[jeopardymaster]

Maybe I'm nuts, but I think the horn sounds better on a stand than on my lap. It's a resonance thing.

[Dan Schultz]

Maybe I'm nuts, but I think the horn sounds better on a stand than on my lap. It's a resonance thing.

++1

[chronolith]

Turning 38 and I use a DEG stand (most of the time)

I started using a stand as a way to bypass bad chair issues at various venues (chairs too small to sit a tuba in front of me, slippery plastic chairs). My Neptune is just to big for me to rest on my legs.

I discovered that the stand allows me hold the instrument as lightly as possible and keeps me from straining to hold it, which sometimes introduces unintentional vibrato. It also means I am not interfering with the physics of the instruments vibration, or at the least minimizing it. Having the instrument at a constant height also helps me maintain a good posture while playing.

I use the stand with my big tuba but also my 181 for these reasons.

[JCradler]

Turning 38 and I use a DEG stand (most of the time)

I started using a stand as a way to bypass bad chair issues at various venues (chairs too small to sit a tuba in front of me, slippery plastic chairs). My Neptune is just to big for me to rest on my legs.

I discovered that the stand allows me hold the instrument as lightly as possible and keeps me from straining to hold it, which sometimes introduces unintentional vibrato. It also means I am not interfering with the physics of the instruments vibration, or at the least minimizing it. Having the instrument at a constant height also helps me maintain a good posture while playing.

I use the stand with my big tuba but also my 181 for these reasons.

I agree with most everything chronolith states. I'm a little older, but I don't think it needs to be an age thing. The stand instantly relaxes everything below the torso and allows the player to focus on good posture and mechanics. I found my accuracy was better when I began using a tripod stand and -call it a psychological crutch if you want- the whole outlook on playing was improved. As Chris Tiedeman told me- "John, you can achieve new levels of laziness with one of these things!" I'm sold.

[gwwilk]

Thanks for all of your votes, people. At this point it looks like more voters use playing stands (43) than do not (34), and there are no clear age related tendencies. I'm not going to draw any sweeping conclusions from this hastily conceived and poorly designed straw poll. The BBS polling system limitations are incredibly constraining compared with even the simplest instruments in use by professional pollsters.

That said, Age at First Playing Stand Use, Quality of Stands Available Then and Now, Weight/Dimensions of Instruments Played, Weight of the Player, Age of First Playing Stand Exposure, and Use or Disparagement By an Influential Teacher are all factors that might affect current tuba playing stand usage. There's no way to design a scientific poll using the BBS instrument, so all such poll results are flawed. I still think they're fun and interesting, but ALWAYS inconclusive.

But we play on because we must. Or not.

[sloan]

More players who VOTED claim to use playing stands than those who claim not to use them.

It's really somewhat rare (even more rare than entering a venue where someone is playing the tuba, period) to walk into a venue and see a tuba player using a playing stand.

Maybe the people responding don't play in "venues".

[bearphonium]

I have thought that, with my shortish torso, that if I ever got a good sized horn, I would either need to reroute the lead pipe, or use a rest that took the horn below the level of the chair. My York master could be held at my lap, resting on both legs, with the bottom bow slightly lower, but resting it on a chair was also adaquate...however, I, too, haven't missed any meals, so it couldn't share chair space. The VMI is a bit different; configured like a YEP321, it is four top action valves. I cannot hold that in my lap at any comfortable angle. Chair is too low, right leg is too high, and across the lap does not work. A stand works really well, although I do look like I am playing a euph on steriods.

[gwwilk]

Whether anyone uses a stand or not, I would strongly encourage players to NOT store them in the bells of their tubas...well...unless a given tuba is already really beat-up.

Well said. I transport my stands, a Manhasset wrench, a tiny stand light, spare AA batteries, my music glasses, pencils, and a dry condensate towel (an old dishtowel) in a Hakuba tripod case. So I have my tuba rolling along in its hard case pulled/pushed by one hand along with my tripod case in the other hand. Going through doors with auto-closers thus laden requires some learning, but it is fairly easy once the technique is mastered of using leg or elbow to flick the door wide open just before quickly lifting the tuba over the threshold before the door slams back against it. What's awkward is when some well-meaning soul tries to 'get' the door for you while standing in your way because they can't visualize the process! At those times I just thank them and tell them that 'I've got it'. I usually set up the chairs and music stands for our community concert band, and the frequency with which some joker unscrews the base of the Manhasset stand is amazing, but not surprising to most of you, I'll bet. Thus the stand wrench that I saw on sale at WWBW a few years ago.

As I get older (almost 69 now) treks with my tuba of several blocks have become more and more intimidating.