Playing Sousaphone in strong wind

[tubatooter1940]

My Eb King tuba with a recording bell was a problem at windy outside gigs until I scored a Tuba Tamer playing stand.
Now the only wind I have a fear of is me breaking my own wind.

[iiipopes]

Add freezing valves. In high school marching band we had four souzys. During one before-school field rehearsal, all of our valves on all four souzys froze. Mine froze open. The guy next to me froze with #1 down, and so on for the other two people - different valve combinations. So we four played the notes we could, and between the four of us we still covered the parts and got through rehearsal.

The director was first perplexed, when he heard all the notes, but not at the full dynamic of what he anticipated throughout rehearsal. After we explained, he was amused and never called for a before-school field rehearsal in sub-freezing temperatures again.

That's hilarious. Probably also a good thing that the director hadn't learned of mixing Everclear with valve oil for cold weather (or maybe he had, but didn't want the principal to find liquor in his office!).

Our band director was a tee-totaler. But the students....

[RyanSchultz]

Back in my marching days I put my left hand on the lead pipe--consciously not pushing the mouthpiece into my face--but rather, controlling the sousaphone if there was wind, uneven terrain. . . It can be done. Are you getting a sousaphone?

[iiipopes]

Back in my marching days I put my left hand on the lead pipe--consciously not pushing the mouthpiece into my face--but rather, controlling the sousaphone if there was wind, uneven terrain. . . It can be done. Are you getting a sousaphone?

I did it to keep from dropping the mouthpiece and bits, which I did the first show I marched as a high school freshman. The good news was that my marching was so precise the mouthpiece and bits dropped exactly lengthwise on a yard line, and I had a devil of a time finding it when I had to run back onto the field to get it after the half-time show was over, but before the football team took the field for the second half. After that: always had mouthpiece and bits securely gripped with the left hand on the run in.

[ScottM]

In high school, when I weighed a whopping 83 pounds as a sophomore, the tuba section ended up on one knee as the finale for the marching show. As you might guess I was on the end of the line. While we were in rehearsal at band camp, a sudden gust of wind hit me and over I went, taking the entire section of five tubists down. Dominos with tubas is not a pretty sight. The two directors had a big laugh as did the rest of the band. After that I learned to gauge the wind a bit so I could be braced for any unexpected wind gusts.
ScottM

[Wyvern]

Are you getting a sousaphone?

I will be getting prototype for the new Wessex Eb sousaphone in couple weeks and will start using (road-testing) for marching gigs of which I do quite a lot now I play with Wessex Military Band.

[Radar]

My Eb King tuba with a recording bell was a problem at windy outside gigs until I scored a Tuba Tamer playing stand.
Now the only wind I have a fear of is me breaking my own wind.

That must be why most bands put the Sousaphones in the back of the band!!

Although the wind does add a little bit of resistance to make marching with a Sousaphone a little bit harder I as of yet have not had a real issue with either carrying the horn or blowing it. I've only used a Holton Brass tuba, no experience with fiberglass.

[OldHorn]

That's what helicons are for.