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I’ve been looking for an E♭ to play in brass quintet this past year. I had someone offer to sell me their YEB-321 at a very reasonable price the same day I was laid off. I started a new job today and am in Chicago training. So I’m going see CSO on Thursday. I can’t wait to hear their brass section in person. Unfortunately, I’m moving from Baton Rouge to Connecticut and my new job will have me traveling a lot so it’ll be hard to play in an ensemble. I’m going to be bringing my bass trombone with me everywhere I go to practice though. That is, until I buy that E♭ tuba.

Welcome, future Nutmegger! What part of CT will you be moving to? Hope you can get the eefer soon and find a group that will work around your schedule. I am starting a community tuba ensemble in the New London area and would be happy to have you join us.

Lots of community bands around here. If you're going to be farther west in the Fairfield County/New Haven area you might want to chat up Art Hovey in Milford. He's a phenomenal guy with a lot of connections.

I’m going to be moving to Simsbury right outside of Hartford.

I'm not sure if they still do, but Laabs Music used to sell those Jinbao compensating E flats (fully chromatic, which is really handy) for a pretty low price, but you sort of need to be short wasted to play them without discomfort, due to the mouthpipe angle.

Something really nice about the 3+1 configuration tubas for trombone players is that there's such a strong correlation to the playing slide and the separate F attachment, yet - with compensating tubas - the adjusted positions just happen automatically.

I'd love to sell you a nicer one later, but maybe you need to just stick your toe in the water for a while...??

Simsbury is lovely. Lots of groups in the Hartford area. I'm about 45 minutes southeast of there.

After you get settled and start your regular traveling work duties, you could post where your headed and maybe be able to meet up with other forum'ers..... just a thought.... also, just curious what your new career is?

Congratulations and good luck!

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Baton Rouge to Hartford is going to be a culture shock

bort2.0 wrote: ↑Mon May 08, 2023 6:54 pm Baton Rouge to Hartford is going to be a culture shock

meh...There are tight-ass people everywhere...It's just that - most everywhere else - not everyone is a tight-ass.

Hartford: half the crime, but - politically - just as many big dummies.

It's not about being tight-assed; it's about what is and isn't "rude." What's normal near Hartford is likely going to be extremely rude at times to someone used to Baton Rouge. However, that's better than the other way around, when a Hartford person moves South and is ostrasized because of their incredible rudeness, that to them was being funny. Been there done that.

I moved from KY to the Hartford area in 2017. Definitely no "southern hospitality" here, but I've found people to be generally friendly and normal. I think Mary Ann is pretty spot on. Folks are fairly blunt. You've got your gruff old New Englanders and yuppie/suburb snobs, but lots of friendly people, too. A lot less small talk (unless you're a gruff old New Englander, and then you talk to everybody about everything). We miss KY, but my wife and I both love CT, warts and all.

My favorite part of CT is the history. My town was founded in 1659, with a few original buildings and many buildings from the early 1700s around the old town green. Simsbury has an active historical society, from what I've heard.

I went from 12 years in Albany NY to Las Cruces, NM. It took YEARS to figure out, more or less, how to talk there. No one got my verbal sense of humor, even all the way up to my job in Tucson. I remember a co-worker telling me after a couple of years, "Mary Ann, people don't get your sense of humor, and you get a bad rap." I ended up being reluctant to talk about anything but the weather in small talk.

After all these years here, where there is more of a cultural mix, I no longer try to joke because people still don't get it and find it "aggressive." New Englanders, in particular, will say something that is so outrageous that nobody would actually say such a thing, and that is why it is funny. They laugh and Southwesterners walk away in a huff. Going the other direction, the OP just needs to understand that the humor may be quite different, and be ready to not wear the huff jacket.

Another, parallel thing: in the South, it is "Courtesy before efficiency." In the NE, it is the opposite: "Efficiency before courtesy." And it makes perfect sense to everyone IN the culture, both places. That's another reason why Southerners see Northerners as rude, and why Northerners find Southerners to be frustratingly indirect.