Posted by Rob P-M on August 03, 2001 at 08:56:32:
In Reply to: Why tuba and not some other instrument? posted by Les Smith on August 02, 2001 at 16:40:25:
Like many kids, I was inflicted for a few years upon a good friend of my mother's who taught piano -- I learned to read music, but I just didn't like the sound of the piano (I still don't very much). I always liked the sound of bass instruments (had my Tubby the Tuba record worn out), but didn't think about it very much
Around the beginning of 5th grade (1958), the town's elementary school band director, a Mr. Harold Johnson, came around playing Pied Piper to recruit players. The school supplied the instruments and they had enough that most kids got what they asked for. Mr. Johnson was a professional french horn and tuba player, band directing was his day gig.
After demonstrating all the instruments and asking for expressions of interest, he said that he only had one tuba for the whole town (about 8 elementary schools), so he was going to have to be very selective. I was leaning towards doing trumpet or trombone, but his pitch caught my attention. So, when he asked who could already read music, I was one of the few who could and raised my hand. A week or so later, I was the proud (?) custodian of a little Conn Eb that I played through elementary school, switching (somewhat painfully) to BBb (mostly sousaphones of varying quality up to the 4 valve 20K my high school had and later a good Alex) in junior high. Mr. Johnson was a good teacher who encouraged me greatly.
I played through graduate school, never a music major, but always first chair in high school, college and grad school because there were no really good players around. At UC Santa Barbara, I also played in the orchestras -- there wasn't a single real tuba player in the School of Music. They were after me to switch to CC (as if the school's CC miraphone was better than my BBb Alex?) -- I played a few gigs on the CC, but didn't really like it.
Then, for no good reason other than a whole school year with no tuba parts in the music programmed for the orchestra (the conductor was in a heavy 18th century/early 19th century mode), I stopped playing. It was over 25 years before I picked up a tuba again to play in a community band at a friend's urging. I used the band's horn for a few months, bought my own and haven't looked back. I now play in several community bands and a brass quintet, and the occasional local orchestra.