The reason I play this unweildy beast

[windshieldbug]

Hey, I'm just saying it's a little large.

's why I said it with a smile...

[windshieldbug]

Now, how could you possibly say that? Sitting next to the guy who plays the sonically closest relative to a chainsaw with the first violins clear across the stage from you? I suppose it could be worse--you could be sitting next to the tympani.

Nope, stick me out in the house any day. That's where the best sound is. Playing onstage to me is more like getting a view of a bowling tournament by being a pinsetter.

Well, you do get to sit behind the violas, and not anywhere in front of the bass trombone's bell...

And since it's the orchestra you're referring to, I've always found that since the strings aren't very directional instruments it doesn't really matter if you're sitting on the stage OR in the first row. You've got to LISTEN either way...

But I'm just yankin' your chain... the rewarding part is being part of the musical process, writing or performing. Being part of the art, solo, quintet, orchestra, writing or playing sure beats sitting behind someone snoring any day (well, I guess you ARE behind the violas, so never mind... )

[tubatooter1940]

I played trumpet in a 9-trumpet choir in a chapel where the six keyboard organ had pipes thru the roof and 250 monks sang gregorian chant from the pews below. The acoustics of this chapel were perfect. Everybody sounded perfect. I got to do this twice and I will never forget.
Bloke, you have nailed it. Much as I like a good tuba, I like hearing me do it better-no matter what the outcome.
My first toot on a tuba LIT UP A large band room and made me smile. My first time playing with a large band made my vow to do this always. Gotta be right in the middle of all that great sound!
I tried some writing, ChuckG, but I felt I lacked a message.
SplatterTone, please take it easy on yourself. A tuba adds a lot and you know they're better off with you in there tooting away.
tubatooter1940
www.johnreno.com/

[Chuck(G)]

My first toot on a tuba LIT UP A large band room and made me smile.

Good for you! I've never heard an oboist say the same thing...and probably a good thing too. I mean, why would someone be playing an oboe if they liked tuba so much?

On the other hand, a good magnesium flare will light up a large stadium...

[windshieldbug]

As the oboe has been mentioned more than once above...

Inspite of their total (necessary) neuroses with reeds, etc., it is easy to see how it would be mighty easy to develop the "big head" as a principal oboist...The majority of the stuff the rest of us play (including the violins!) is in place in order to build up to just the right settings that function as...

...accompaniments for oboe solos.

I always thought that the big oboe heads were due to backpressure

[Leland]

... but getting to play at a big, resonant church under a really great choir with an organ along with is one of the coolest experiences I get to have as a tuba player. Anybody else feel this way?

That's how I spent most of my tuba time during my first few years on the horn. It was a decent-sized church, and the singing was usually the congregation, but at least the pipe organ was a real live pipe organ, with half of the pipes about three feet behind and ten feet above me.

Yeah, it rocks. Great sound to emulate and to blend with. Later on in college people told me that I sounded organ-like.

About being heard in Gloria recordings -- dude, just play louder.

[MaryAnn]

How about stupid oboe heads instead of (or in addition to) big oboe heads:
I got to hear, once again, the idiot oboe player in the orchestra "tune" the group before the first half of Sunday's program, which was the Grieg piano concerto. So, we had to tune to the piano A.

The A was hit on the piano; the oboeidiot then sounded HER A, which was clearly a quarter tone (or more) sharp to the piano A. She did her "usual" which was to BEND the tone down to the piano A. Pull the reed? What are you thinking? This player, BTW, in general has no concept of pitch; every once in a while her meanderings across the sound spectrum produce a few notes that are in tune with what is going on around her, and you think, "Oh gosh, she's finally got it..." and then they meander off again into never-never-pitch-land. I swear, some people should be de-handed at an early age so that they cannot be allowed to play instruments. At least if she were a singer I wouldn't have to listen to it.

MA

[windshieldbug]

The A was hit on the piano; the oboeidiot then sounded HER A, which was clearly a quarter tone (or more) sharp to the piano A. She did her "usual" which was to BEND the tone down to the piano A.

Hey, the piano is supposed to tune to the oboe, just like everyone else! The rest of the strings tune, and a piano has strings, doesn't it? If they knew how difficult reed making was, and how easy it is to take one of those tuning hammers to a piano, there wouldn't be any problem! It'd just be like tuning a tympani...

[Chuck(G)]

How about stupid oboe heads instead of (or in addition to) big oboe heads:
I got to hear, once again, the idiot oboe player in the orchestra "tune" the group before the first half of Sunday's program, which was the Grieg piano concerto. So, we had to tune to the piano A.

I was chatting with a friend who teaches high-school orchestra this past Saturday. He was telling me about a young oboe player in one of his classes. Very promising; shows a good ability to read and has nimble fingers and a good tone. He just doesn't seem to care about pitch.

When confronting said student with an A that was a full quarter-tone flat, the student replied that his tuner said that he was playing an "A" and wasn't that good enough?

[MaryAnn]

It is unfortunate that our new conductor finds it necessary to pass a tuner around amongst the violins just before the concert....but I agree with him that the final result is better that way. He does, however, have the presence of mind to tell them to tune only their A string to the tuner, and do the others by ear. He even stated that using the tuner for any more strings would result in their being out of tune! What was surprising was that no one questioned him on it, and there are a couple in there who can't find within a whole tone of the correct pitch when tuning an open string, even when playing the two adjacent strings together as a double stop.

All that said....we did a not half bad concert on Tchaik #5. Makes me think there really is a God.

MA

[windshieldbug]

He even stated that using the tuner for any more strings would result in their being out of tune!

It DOES depend on the temprement that is appropriate at that moment... but given your description, they're lucky to even know which string to tune to what...