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Cameron Gates wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2024 3:09 pm OT: This reminds me of seeing the tuba god Tom Lyckberg come in to the USMB band hall after a 3-week vacation, reach into his locker and beat the paddles of his Rudi to free up the glazed rotors, grab the horn, sit down right as the oboe was giving the tuning note for a rehearsal, play his Bb, then open his folder of music he had never seen before. It was then that he promptly schooled the rest of us on proper tuba playing. The stones on that guy were legendary.

The Creature.

Cameron Gates wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2024 3:09 pm The old guys would never think of this. They took a nap when they got to the hotel, ate dinner, got on the bus for the performance, arrived with 25 minutes before downbeat, got dressed, sipped coffee and planned that night's drinking spot, went on stage where their horn was and played a tuning note. Rinse and repeat for 7 weeks.

Supposedly when AJ was asked the best type of warm-up, responded "Put the tuba by a radiator and go get a cup of coffee". On the one hand, it sounds overly glib. On the other hand, it doesn't sound too far from the "artist in your head" pedagogy.

I never studied with him, only spoke with him very briefly on the telephone once, but everything I've ever read that he said or heard him say in a audio or video recording I shook my head yes to. I try to just start playing and not necessarily something easy. If I'm a little bit sleepy and breathing a little bit shallow and those sorts of things, I may well step outside and do a brisk walk - such as three minutes away and three minutes in order to wake up and breathe more deeply as well as getting a little adrenaline going. Once I sit down with the tuba after that, it's as if I've been playing for a half an hour. Again, I don't necessarily start with something easy and not necessarily with some "routine" drills, which I might insert later, but probably only if I think I need to brush up on particular ones.

By posting this, don't misinterpret any of it as me assuming to be as fine a player as he or as wise as he. I'm just saying that I agree with him.

Cameron Gates wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2024 3:09 pm
OT: This reminds me of seeing the tuba god Tom Lyckberg come in to the USMB band hall after a 3-week vacation,

The first mouthpiece that I actually owned came from Tom Lyckberg, via another USMC guy (Luke Spiros) that I had come to know via the computer BBS scene at the time. A then-new Conn 2 that I still have, but has had the snot beaten out of it during 4 years of parking lot marching band practice oopses.

kingrob76 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2024 4:06 pm

Cameron Gates wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2024 3:09 pm OT: This reminds me of seeing the tuba god Tom Lyckberg come in to the USMB band hall after a 3-week vacation, reach into his locker and beat the paddles of his Rudi to free up the glazed rotors, grab the horn, sit down right as the oboe was giving the tuning note for a rehearsal, play his Bb, then open his folder of music he had never seen before. It was then that he promptly schooled the rest of us on proper tuba playing. The stones on that guy were legendary.

The Creature.

Yep, the Creature deserves his own original thread. The problem is that there are so few people around to give first hand observation comments. He did not promote himself in any way. He did his job and inspired the hell out of others lucky enough to work with him. I have heard about every tuba player in the country in some way or another it seems and there is no one who could/can do what he did on a tuba. He could snake a stream of sound the width of a coffee straw or a redwood tree through any horn at any time. His time, pitch, and ungodly volume is unmatched, along with his ability to make everyone in a large ensemble lock in on his production. For over 30 years he conducted one of the finest bands in the world while sitting in the back row. He never got a bow. I’m sure he is good with that.

I used to work with a trombone player who doubled on sousaphone in our trad. jazz band. He picked up a Wessex Mighty Midget at one point to use when the band would take extremely small planes to more remote locations. His thought was that it would easier to fit it and any additional amplification equipment (if not provided locally) on the plane than a sousaphone. I don't think he ever ended up taking it on the road, though.

I played around with it every now and then for fun, and I remember the valves always feeling particularly terrible right out of the case (we never had it serviced though, so I'm sure that would have made a big difference). It always struck me as an extremely niche instrument that I personally never had a use for, but I could see others being able to take advantage of it.

I've played Chinese rotor tubas in the past, but that's part of my life that is in the past.

Maybe it's possible to make them feel amazing and be reliable, but I must not possess the skill and dutiful ethic to get those results.

Chinese Pistons are better than Chinese rotors. There, I said it

William Roper, a professional musician I met several years ago at a Tuba Christmas Ventura, CA, and have seen him playing in various performance venues in Southern California, here playing one of his original compositions ( "Cygnus olar - Schwanengesang,") on what I believe is his MW travel tuba:

I will also mention that I saw Mr. Roper playing with the Luckman Jazz orchestra at the Walt Disney Music Hall in downtown Los Angeles playing on his travel tuba covering 3rd trombone parts. I believe that performance was either in 2015 or early 2016.