Well, the decision of what to play this fall in DCDD was finally made, thanks to help from a friend. I was realy agonizing about what to play this year.
1) Had a 'falling out' with French Horn this year and needed to step away from it for awhile.
2) Wanted to play Trumpet, but found out we already had plenty and they not only don't need me, but don't really want me to play it.
3) Could've played Euphonium, which was my main instrument, but wasn't really into it as I don't have a good horn and the band also doesn't need them.
4) Percussion was on my mind until I found out we have 9 coming this fall...definitely didn't need another.
5) Wanted to play what the band needed most, tuba, but had no instrument and found out that most places don't rent them or have extremely limited selections of them to rent.
About 2 weeks ago I was beginning to get really worried cause it looked like I had nothing to play that I wanted to play. But awhile back I had asked my friend Scott (a real tuba-player....shut-up Scott, it's true) to help me pick out a rental tuba and he had agreed. So when I told him that was off because there were none to be found, he very kindly and graciously out of the blue, offered to loan me HIS tuba. I was floored, but immediately excited and now it looks like I'm going to be playing tuba afterall. Thanks SOOOOOO much Scott!
Just to prove that I really AM crazy, I also decided to switch from Bari Sax to Trombone in Swing band (had been considering it for awhile and we really need them badly).....AND managed to get Stonewall brass moving forward, which means that I'll still be playing some French Horn...and I still have Bari in the sax quartet. AND I'm attempting to get good enough on Claude Bolling's Toot Suite to play trumpet at the small ensemble concert next fall.
So....I'm learning two new instruments, Trombone and Tuba - and the Tuba is a C Tuba meaning I also have to transpose everything - and still playing two others in groups and another as a solo. But the craziest part is, there are four different brass instruments all with radically different mouthpiece sizes (ok, Horn and trumpet are pretty close.)
And none of these instruments are my real one. I really hope I can handle this.
And I'm also doing all of this while under a new conductor who is going to simply think I'm a lousy tuba player and completely nuts.
Oh well, never claimed to be sane :).
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5 comments:
YOU are amazing - as a friend and a musician!
Ok... so just as you told Scott to shut up... you shut up. You ARE amazing and will do great on Tuba. OMG... CPSB will have 3 tubas this fall... AMAZING!
How's it working out with the horn?
By the way, I forgot to give you the tuba players' rules for ensemble playing:
In slow pieces, play ahead of the beat.
In fast pieces, play behind the beat.
In other words, the tempo is whatever feels good to you at the moment.
You have the biggest instrument in band and it takes the longest to warm up properly. Never show up early enough to accomplish this before the tuning note is given.
When the concert master or conductor tries to get you in tune, look helpless and say, "I'm not warmed up." The more out of tune you are the more helpless you should look.
However, be careful not to display any actual remorse for being out of tune.
Never, under any circumstances, practice.
Midway through the season, be sure to ask the conductor if he/she is taking the piece in "2." This is especially important to do if the conductor has explained his/her meter choices repeatedly since the first rehearsal.
After the conductor has explained where he or she wants to start in a given piece, exclaim "where are we?" loud enough for the conductor to hear, most effective if you can do this in the split second before the downbeat.
And finally, and most important of all, never, ever under any circumstances, look up at the conductor during a piece if you think you might be "off." ESPECIALLY if you think you might be off.
After all, the conductor's probably just another tuba player, anyway.
If you can follow these few simple rules you will be a successful tuba player!
I see you learned everything you know about the Tuba from 'Bruce's Golden Rules about tubas'.
You forgot one though....steal your tuba from the band in the first place.
To answer your question, I absolutely suck so far on tuba...this should be interesting.
I've heard of "bi-sectional" before but dude... you're up to quadrisectional now... or is that just pan-sectional?? BV
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