Posted by js on April 16, 2003 at 07:40:03:
In Reply to: Horn advice posted by Tim Mayes on April 15, 2003 at 13:45:39:
An oversize tuba is a specialty instrument.
As a high school player who cannot be evaluated through the internet, your playing level is almost certainly not advanced enough to "specialize" at this point. Years and years of work are ahead concentrating on fundamentals and playing in ensembles considerably smaller than ninety musicians (solos, etudes, brass quintets, your college orchestra - once you get high enough in your college's "pecking order" [probably 60 musicians], etc.)
Again, those who have responded to you can only assume that you are at the level of "a very good high school student" and not that of a true primadonna (this word meant literally, and not with its typical connotations).
If you are, as a high school player, currently playing at the level of an orchestra professional (like one or two players of the past, such as the current Pittsburgh and Indianapolis Symphony tubaists) you should acquire whatever instruments you believe you need, but in my experience the ability to play (at age 18) like the two musicians mentioned above in the parenthesis usually goes hand-in-hand with already knowing what one wants to acquire in the way of equipment.