Not 5 3/4-years-old, but...

[Steve Marcus]

Rupert Gratz has a tuba studio in Salzburg, Austria:

This is my youngest tuba player. Tim is 7 years old and started tuba playing Sept. 2014. I have 15 boys and girls under 10 years. My oldest student is 74.

Tim, 7.jpg

Rupert Gratz' young tuba student.jpg

Rupert's young tuba student 3.jpg

I wish that I had been given permission to study tuba at their age!

[Steve Marcus]

Here are more young tuba students from Rupert Gratz' studio:

Playing a 5-4 Rudy at this age.jpg

Tuba duets at this age.jpg

Is everybody happy.jpg

Does anyone else have tuba students between the ages of 7 and 10?

[Ben]

That is fantastic that they are starting young. I wish I had also started the tuba at a younger age than HS. I do hope they use hearing protection. I hind sight, I wish I had done that too...

[sweaty]

The photos are cute, but as an elementary school band director, I would ask the following questions:

1) Are they making music?
2) Can they function in an ensemble?
3) How many of those kids continue with it?

It is natural for small kids (or big kids) to get discouraged with the size and weight of the tuba and decide it's not worth the effort. These little tykes will need lots of parental support, i.e. lugging the big thing around for them.

[Dylan King]

Landyn trying to play my Eastman CC, a day before his 2nd birthday.

[Steve Marcus]

It is natural for small kids (or big kids) to get discouraged with the size and weight of the tuba and decide it's not worth the effort. These little tykes will need lots of parental support, i.e. lugging the big thing around for them.

Rupert Gratz addresses this question:

Some children came to me and asked for learning, and I also recruited them in school. Some mothers said, "Why do you want to learn tuba, oh God" I like to work with the children, it's very nice and sometimes exhausting.

[Bob Kolada]

Can anyone identify those F tubas?

[luke_hollis]

Nice!!!

[NCSUSousa]

Can anyone identify those F tubas?

The closest I can find is the Cerveny 641-4:


Maybe Steve can get an id on these F tubas from his friend in Austria.

[eupho]

Great to see all of these kids playing. They will get something from it even if they don't continue. What key tubas are they playing. When I was teaching I advocated EEb tubas for beginners and, radically, through all of the levels. If you look at much of the wind band literature tuba parts lay right in the middle of the EEb tessitura.
Even small BBbs are difficult to fill for youngsters. When teaching on BBb horns I tast my 2 cnught the staff range first. Just my 2 cents after 32 years.

[Steve Marcus]

Can anyone identify those F tubas?

The closest I can find is the Cerveny 641-4:


Maybe Steve can get an id on these F tubas from his friend in Austria.

Apparently, NCSUSousa, you are correct about one of the models played by the young students.

Rupert Gratz explains:

The owners of the instruments [played by the students] are different. Some children get the instrument from the music school borrowed for a little rent. Parents buy sometimes an instrument or they get them from the marching bands. In Austria we say "Musikkapelle"!
The young students play f and b [BBb] Tubas, small size! Child tubas The picture with the Rudi Meinl was just for fun Models are http://www.cerveny.biz or http://jestaedt-instrumente.de/?page_id=340 [with] 3 to 5 valves...

Rupert just completed hosting "Tubatage 2015": http://www.musicmania.at/index.php/tuba ... IZEp-euyiY Here is a photo of this year's participants:

Tubatage.jpg

[Bob Kolada]

Thank you! Here's one played by an adult-

[ECUorchbound]

This is awesome. Though I worry about the physical development for the kids. It's such a young age for a large piece of metal to go against muscles that are still developing and growing. Careful instruction with that in consideration could lead to great things. I would hate to see a physical injury (or heaven forbid a deformity) because of improper care and consideration for young physical development.

I didn't even know what a tuba was at this age!