What Makes Us Tuba Players

[Donn]

Haha, I haven't heard the "mrs degree" bit before.

Sounds like you might be under 60.

[bort]

Haha, I haven't heard the "mrs degree" bit before.

Sounds like you might be under 60.

I'm barely halfway there.

[Steve Marcus]

From the age of 3, I knew that I wanted to play tuba. At that age, there was a picture that hung above my bed of a circus scene. I remember staring at the tuba (sousaphone) player.

My father let me use his record player at that age. I would place my ear close to the speaker so that I could hear the bass line better.

Whenever I heard music, I would grind my teeth very slightly to give the impression internally that I was providing the bass line.

On Gene Pokorny's Orchestral Excerpts CD, he states (I don't have the exact words) that the first requirement to be a tuba player is that you have to love the sound of the tuba.

We're not trumpet players in that we're content to play mostly background roles in ensembles and many of us have no aspirations to be soloists...We're often content to 'lead from behind' as it were.

There are always exceptions to that statement (we all could name tuba soloists), but I believe gwwilk's comment is generally true.

Then there's Garrison Keiller's description of tuba players, with his tongue firmly in cheek:

The brass section is made up of men who were at one time in the construction trade and went into music because the hours were better. They are heavy dudes, and that's why composers wrote so few notes for them: because they're juveniles. The tuba player, for example, is a stocky bearded guy who has a day job as a plumber. He's the only member of the orchestra who bowls and goes deer hunting. It's not an instrument for a sensitive Lutheran, and anyway, there's only one Tuba player and he's it.

[Steve Marcus]

Inadvertent duplicate post

[MikeW]

We're often content to 'lead from behind' as it were.

Sounds modest doesn't it ? I used to feel that way, until I realized that actually I'm an arrogant SOB who glories in driving from the back seat. That was the day I also discovered responsibility and accountability (which is good), and stage fright (not so). You won't do justice to the music until you realize that the bass can't hide, any more than the drums can. The bass spends most of its time in the rhythm section, so no-one (except maybe deaf trumpets) can avoid hearing you, and only the iron-willed can avoid following you; You just have to man up and face the fact that you can't be anything else BUT a leader/driver.

On the whole, I would say that (among the amateurs I meet) most players are at least as attached to their own instruments as tuba players are to tubas, but for some unknown reason most of them seem to regard a tuba player (or at least this tuba player) as some kind of obsessive weirdo, so if you want to feel special/different, go right ahead, you've probably earned it (one way or another). If there is a consistent difference, I would guess that basses take a wider view of rhythm, but players with melodic lines tend to get over anxious about playing the next figure, to the point where they neglect accurate articulation between figures; nothing gets up a bass's nose faster than a trumpet hitting a cue a few centi-beats early.

FWIW, I've no idea how instruments choose their players, but the first time I played a tuba felt just like being welcomed home, and I see no reason to leave again.

[gwwilk]

We're often content to 'lead from behind' as it were.

Sounds modest doesn't it ? I used to feel that way, until I realized that actually I'm an arrogant SOB who glories in driving from the back seat. That was the day I also discovered responsibility and accountability (which is good), and stage fright (not so). You won't do justice to the music until you realize that the bass can't hide, any more than the drums can. The bass spends most of its time in the rhythm section, so no-one (except maybe deaf trumpets) can avoid hearing you, and only the iron-willed can avoid following you; You just have to man up and face the fact that you can't be anything else BUT a leader/driver.

On the whole, I would say that (among the amateurs I meet) most players are at least as attached to their own instruments as tuba players are to tubas, but for some unknown reason most of them seem to regard a tuba player (or at least this tuba player) as some kind of obsessive weirdo, so if you want to feel special/different, go right ahead, you've probably earned it (one way or another). If there is a consistent difference, I would guess that basses take a wider view of rhythm, but players with melodic lines tend to get over anxious about playing the next figure, to the point where they neglect accurate articulation between figures; nothing gets up a bass's nose faster than a trumpet hitting a cue a few centi-beats early.

FWIW, I've no idea how instruments choose their players, but the first time I played a tuba felt just like being welcomed home, and I see no reason to leave again.

Good points. Tuba players generally regard rhythm as the primary, essential element of any musical experience. If there's no identifiable rhythm there's no music. I love the chugging of railroad steam engines, the clickety-clack of rail cars passing at high speed while I wait at a crossing, the sound of reciprocating gas engines, the whop-whop of tires on new pavement expansion joints, and the sound of a well-constructed sentence--all because of the associated rhythms. I'm irritated by people who randomly drum writing instruments on their desktops, and I hate it when my tuba playing loses the music's rhythm.

[arminhachmer]

Is this yet another 'study'?

"Sometimes a tuba is just a tuba ..."

Ah, Kevin is the winner. Again. Kevin, you are my hero. Now you have to keep playing tuba.

[Donn]

For myself, the attraction to bass instruments could have started with placement in the choral bass section. Or it could be that given the choice between two parts, I'll take the one with fewer notes.