Starting all over again

[Euphistuba]

Good afternoon all:

Over the weekend I was talking with a friend who is coming back to Tuba after a hiatus of about 5 years. Prior to taking a break he was a pretty good player with nice sound and decent technique.

Having done something similar myself a couple of times in life I shared with him my experience, However thats just MY experience. I know many of you here have been in a similar situation.

So what things worked for you getting back in shape? What things didnt? What would you do differently? How long did i take you to get back into shape so you could play in an average community band? He has about an hour and a half a day of "man" time to devote to this.... Ill be interested to hear what you think!

[MackBrass]

I took my first break in 2000 and did not start playing again till 2005. The first thing that I encountered was no endurance, I could not play for more than ten minutes. After 6 months of playing I auditioned for the dayton symphony to see how far i came and made the semi finals. All I did was play every day and build up my endurance. The sound was still there as well as the knowledge, it just took time to get into shape. At first I said to myself "what the hell am I doing"? But its just like riding a bike but will take time and patience. To start just play long tones and work on easy articulation exercises as well as just one octave scales. Once you fell comfortable then expand slowly.

after dayton I lost interest again and did not start playing again till 2011, went through the same process. Even today I find myself only playing once or twice a week. When I am working on something the most I can do is about everyday for about 2 weeks at best.

again, be patient and dont try to play too much in the begining as the endurance will be the biggest hurdle.

Good luck,

tom