Unfortunately, most everything is scored for four trombones PLUS a tuba, though the arrangements are basically for a Nelson Riddle type of orchestration - which is basically a big band (yes, five saxes) plus strings and a few orchestral winds. I love playing the fourth trombone book on those types ...

How much until they go up in price as more models are offered? Messina used to be cheap and are some of the more expensive bags. I ask this due to my consideration below. I ask this because my Miraphone bag for my CC is now 15 years old. Zippers have been the only issue, but I put a key ring on ...

[/quote] She's over-the-top smart (excels and is a year-or-two ahead in all subjects). She doesn't need to spend her life messing around with a bunch of weirdos, making no money, and being treated as if someone pushing a mop. [/quote] One of my colleges has a new audio engineering/recording program ...

"Someone I know" is in one of the "big" American orchestras. Without him squeezing in a much teaching as he can manage, his wife cleaning houses and (both of them) working online at the successful musical instrument business that they started (actually, via the wife taking out a "student loan ...

The @bloke solo no 0 is what I use. It has a Miraphone C4 cup, a tighter throat, and can come with a rim of your choosing

I figured I would post this here to generate more interest. Jim Self is writing a tuba concerto and you have the opportunity to be involved. Bryan Doughty at Cimarron Music is also covering 40% of the consortium fee for the tuba and piano version to make it more affordable. I am not involved with ...

Something Tommy Johnson was known to say:

Small Tuba-use a big mouthpiece

Big tuba-use a small mouthpiece

Thank you for the kind words--however your son is the one who is doing all the work and has always had professional communication and maturity. One of my recent goals in teaching, not in my official teaching philosophy "yet", is that I want my students to become my colleagues, and as I get older and ...

This weekend was Solo & Ensemble competition for my central Ohio students. I had a record number attend and their scores were impressive. Some students had some super nerves, but I think everyone learned a lot from the process. Though this makes me happy, what makes me more proud is the way they ...

Going to hijack this thread: I believe Alexander tubas had at least 3 common shank sizes. It almost makes me think that some mouthpieces were designed for some tubas. For example, for the Conn 5XJ series and potentially the King 2341 newer style, a Bobo symphonic was used in some of the final ...

Just to clear the air here: I was playing in Italy at La Scala for many months in the spring/summer of 2017. My phone rang and it was management of the Sarasota Orchestra. They were calling out of the blue to offer me a one year position as Jay Hunsberger had just retired. I accepted, and we moved ...

Well said. I definitely need to take this more into account when I play. Too often I get frustrated and allow that to impact my playing. We could all afford to be kinder to ourselves, in music and otherwise. In a way, music is even more mentally dangerous than sports. I feel in sports, we are ...

I mentioned in my warmup/routine thread something I started with, and I think it deserves a separate post. So, recently I have done some mindset training with Steve Rosse, principal tubist of the Sydney Symphony and a trick he had me do changed everything about my playing, when I remember to do it ...

I decided to add a couple minutes of Clarke Chromatics before today's session. I don't play based on feel, but based on sound, but I knew even before playing my lips were tight along with my jaw (had an emergency dentist appointment late last week and my jaw where my last wisdom tooth is tends to ...

A whole bunch of college studio teachers have only played in youth and university orchestras, a few more play in freeway philharmonics, and even fewer play in full-time orchestras. Typically, those who play in full-time orchestras teach at institutions which ask very high tuition rates. F tuba ...

Something else I would strongly encourage players (between the ages of 15 and forever) to do is to study with fine musicians who are not tuba players. I tend to believe that tuba pedagogy is just now beginning to catch up with vocal and other instrument pedagogy, and - still to this day - there is ...

Colby Fahrenbacher interesting approach. I’ve personally done long tones first thing (before the recent addition of a melodic piece which has changed everything for the better) because I wanted to focus on the tone I was trying to get (I do a lot with playing around with tone color in my playing f ...

All the the examples that you have given can be true for you, while it can also be true that your exposure to injury risk is higher. That doesn't mean you WILL experience an injury, but that you are more likely to experience an injury. So this leads on another tangent Colby that relates to the post ...

Back to warming up : On days when I have little time in the morning for my full warm-up/fundamentals, at a minimum I try to do long tones from pedal C to middle C. If time allows, I also like to do full-range turn studies and diatonic scales. It takes probably about 20 minutes but hits a lot of the ...

bloke Agreed. A lot of times it’s soft chords too. I tend to play very loud doing orchestral stuff and I shift to thinking big. I actually rarely warm up when doing popular music gigs, like a double set with 6+ hours of playing in tuba quartet, a lot of times on F. I might horse flap on the way and ...