Posted by Paul Scott on August 03, 2001 at 09:43:54:
In Reply to: Why tuba and not some other instrument? posted by Les Smith on August 02, 2001 at 16:40:25:
I played clarinet in fourth grade and was not very good at it. My older brother played in the high school band so I was familiar with the sound of an old King sousaphone that he played in the basement. The bass sound it produced intrigued me because at this time , (late '60s-early '70s) these sounds just weren't common in my house. We had transistor radios, a TV with tiny speakers and no stereo, which would have been a luxury. The only bass sounds I heard were the pipe organ in our church, the high school marching band, and the sousa downstairs. I often think of this when I'm trying to sleep at night and a car with one of those BOOM BOOM BOOM sound systems rolls by! Anyway, I started on an old Eb tuba in sixth grade. I was encouraged by a wonderful classroom teacher, (Miss Dorothy Jefferson) who changed my life by doing so.