Todd S. Malicoate wrote:Kory101 is, of course, free to do whatever he wants with his life. The things that confuse me are:
1) Why he feels the need to "announce" this to the rest of the forum, and
2) Why that life decision necessarily illustrates some "bigger" point with regards to truths about musicians in general.
In other words...pfffft.
Todd,
Kory has had a presence on TubeNet for a number of years, asking meaningful questions, providing substantive suggestions to others...never "trolling."
20 years ago and more, the only outlets that people had for sharing difficult life decisions and experiences in the hope of mitigating their inner pain were an immediate circle of family, friends, and perhaps professional counselors.
Today, instant outlets for emotional outpouring are immediately available with a few keystrokes on any one or more of the online social networks.
TubeNet is, of course, populated with people who are much more focused on the tuba and euphonium. Their level of interest in tuba as listener, player, collector, etc. ranges from casual curiosity all the way to passionate life-steering engulfment.
Therefore, when one feels the need to share something joyful or, in this case, heartrending that relates to the tuba, there is no better channel to people who truly understand the experience, occasional frustration/challenge, and the love of playing tuba than the sincere participants on TubeNet. In many cases, TubeNet members are more sensitive and understanding of tuba-related situations than one's closest family members or real-life (not online) friends.
Thus, since Kory invested years of time, money, and heart into playing tuba, there is no better source of solace, commiseration, and support of his decision than the caring people on TubeNet.
It is noteworthy that some of the greatest and most successful tuba performers have made difficult decisions in the opposite direction of Kory's. In choosing to immerse themselves in so many hours each day with the tuba for their entire professional life, they've had to sacrifice things that others treasure--such as parenthood. Certainly the gentleman with whom I've studied tuba would have made a fantastic father. We could all think of several others whose warm, caring personality might have led to excellence in any other life pursuit, parenthood being just one of them. These life priorities are not always mutually exclusive (for instance, there certainly are many top-flight full-time tubists who are also parents). But many times, an individual may have come to the realization that investing so much time, effort, emotional fortitude, and yes, money into pushing through the multitude of auditions and competition to make tuba playing a career was just not going to work for them.
Perhaps something that Gene Pokorny stated on his Orchestral Excerpts CD could be, for some, the dividing line between those who choose to dedicate themselves to the tuba and those who decide to focus on other things (this is not an exact quote): The first requirement of being successful at playing the tuba is that you must LOVE THE SOUND of the tuba. That LOVE must be constant through the trials and tribulations of toiling to be professionally successful with the horn, or one really must question, as Kory has, if playing the tuba is the correct professional pursuit. If making that sound with complete musicianship and technique isn't paramount in your dreams, that could be the sign that you might want to follow another life path. That may be the realization to which Kory has come for himself.
In any event,
it was brave of Kory to share his decision and its accompanying emotional baggage with an online, public community of people who understand better than anyone else what it means to love playing the tuba.
), and getting into improv/avant/jazz stuff. Maybe that's an option for you Kory? Sell your expensive horns, get a decent one, and just play music for fun.
