Doubling..err..tripling on instruments??

[Samcai8]

So, in 6th grade I got put on tuba. The following two years, I played trombone in jazz band. In 8th grade I started playing trumpet a bit for fun. I'm a freshman in high school now and I currently play bass trombone for jazz band, tuba for wind ensemble (just recently made first chair, woo!), and trumpet at home.

Question is- will this have any poor effects on my tuba playing?
Playing those extra two instruments has given me a LOT of range added to tuba (Awesome, whale calls!) and improved my rhythm and high register reading. Other than that, I haven't noticed anything. I'm afraid, though, that in time this will lead to some weird embouchure malfunctions. Should I be scared of focal dystonia coming from this? Has anybody done this for a long time/known of somebody who has done this for a long time?
Thanks- Sam

[hduong]

I double/triple quite frequently in pit orchestras. Tuba/Electric Bass/Upright Bass/Acoustic Bass, Trombone/Bass Trombone/Euphonium or Guitars/Banjo. Spend a lot of time in a practice room with your instruments, practice all your parts, and warm up/down when you're playing,

[MaryAnn]

No it will NOT cause dystonia. It may even help prevent it.

[Radar]

I've been going between Trombone, Euphonium, and Trumpet for decades, and a few years ago added Tuba to the mix. As long as I devote practice time to all of them I've never had an issue.

[alfredr]

Not that I'm anything (nor ever have been) other than a rank amateur, but when I was a student, my memory is that learning, or maybe experimenting, with other instruments was not encouraged. (It may just have been my particular band director's position, maybe that was just for people like me.)

When my two sons were learning, one on tuba, one on euphonium, I encouraged them to try any and all other instruments on the theory that anything that might make them a better musician or give them a better understanding of "music" would tend to make them a better player on their main instrument. I have a house full of miscellaneous instruments as a result of buying things for them to try. I tended to buy cheap rather than good, so most of them are still cheap rather than good. Now I have grandkids coming up.

One still plays a variety: tuba, trombone, flugelhorn, marimba from those days; one hasn't played hardly anything since aging out of drum corps 8 or 9 years ago.

So basically, the answer is: Your mileage may vary.

[Dan Tuba]

I've doubled on bass trombone, euphonium, tuba, and occasionally horn for about 15 years. I haven't noticed any negative effects. It does take consistent practice to become proficient at doubling on two or three instruments in the same performance(pit orchestra, etc).Having the ability to double has definitely opened up a lot of playing opportunities for me over the past 15 years.

[roweenie]

I double regularly (and sometimes switch "mid-number") on tuba and bass saxophone, two entirely different, and somewhat diametrically opposed, embouchures.

When I first started the bass sax, I found it useful to practice both horns simultaneously, that is, switching back and forth between the two in immediate succession. I believe that trained the muscles to easily and quickly adapt to one or the other instrument.

[roweenie]

Horn - Buescher "True-tone", circa 1924.

Mouthpiece - Martin "Handcraft" hard rubber (aka "the dill pickle").

Reed - Bari (plastic!), hard strength.

[roweenie]

Yes! It's a lot of fun to play, and as Adrian Rollini stated, far more superior (?) as a bass instrument (in a dance band) than the tuba or bass fiddle.

BTW, he wrote a whole treatise on it (serialized in 9 parts in the "Melody Maker" magazine, 1928-29).

[roweenie]

Yes! It's a lot of fun to play, and as Adrian Rollini stated, far more superior (?) as a bass instrument (in a dance band) than the tuba or bass fiddle.

BTW, he wrote a whole treatise on it (serialized in 9 parts in the "Melody Maker" magazine, 1928-29).

this ↑

...and a helluva lot more fulfilling than "Meistersinger" or "Fountains".

Shhhhhh! Don't give away the secret....

[pecktime]

I have one of the Wessex Selmer copies. it's a good horn. Apparently there are two factories in China making bass saxes- One makes a modern Selmer copy, the other makes a copy of a 1920s Bass.

I found that a good mouthpiece is essential, I use a Dill pickle (or pickle barrel) one and it's great. I also have a Runyon refaced by Paul Coats but it's too edgy on the Wessex bass.

[tubista]

Hi! I'm a high school senior, so while I can't really speak as someone with oodles of experience, I'm sort of you a few years down the road. I started playing tuba in sixth grade and trombone in jazz band when I was in seventh and have been consistently playing both since. In the last year I also picked up bassoon for wind ensemble at my school (bassoon player graduated and we have an abundance of tuba players here, and having picked up bassoon for fun shortly before that I decided to take up the part so it was covered).

My experience of consistently playing multiple instruments has been a bit of a rollercoaster. For the longest time I really enjoyed it and relished in the variety. Trombone and bassoon have made it so I never had to work to improve my high range. My low range took some more work to develop, as I just recently got comfortable with pedal C. I think that this might have been a result of years of shying away from really working on that range consistently. Not really sure if it was the other instruments that affected me there.

At the end of my junior year, I had a major change of heart. I started looking toward the future and realized that I wanted to specialize. Out of the instruments I played, the only one I saw myself continuing with in college was tuba. Over the summer I began to devote just about all of my practice time to tuba and as a result have improved over the last few months more than I ever have before. Previously, I would spend a few hours a day practicing and 2/3 of that time would go to stuff other than tuba. I plan to ride out trombone and bassoon until I graduate, but once I am off to college it's going to be tuba time.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that a lot of it depends on your goals and where you see yourself in a few years. Like I said, I have become a much better player since cutting back on other instruments, but that also may be that I simply have more time to practice tuba specifically now. I think for where you are now, you still have some time to explore and figure out what you want to do and which things you're the most serious about. It's not so much about the effect they have on one another, just how you want to spend your time and where you want to be.

On a related note (pun intended)... if you get a chance or ever have some room in your schedule, join choir. Learning to sing properly has helped me greatly as a tuba player and musician overall.

[brassbow]

Like others have said practice all equally. I did a couple pile of albums where I played Eb cornet, bb cornet, alto, mellophone, baritone , tuba. Zero problem