Posted by Brian C on August 23, 2003 at 13:41:12:
In Reply to: Sousaphone Tips posted by Lauren on August 22, 2003 at 13:59:33:
I'm not a huge guy. I'm 5'10" and was roughly 200 lb. through most of my sousa-playing years. I am not going to advise you to not play sousaphone, but I'll elaborate on some of the other suggestions.
A few years back, a woman came on here looking for advice for her daughter. The daughter had played sousaphone for ten years and her shoulder was permamently separated -- the ligaments stretched. My shoulder hurts almost every day at some point due to similar but less extensive damage. I'll probably look into surgery in the next few years.
On the other hand, I think that part of my problem was where I rested the tubing on my shoulder. All of its weight was on the joint itself, i.e. the tubing rested on that part of the shoulder furthest from the neck. I also carried my backpack solely on that shoulder.
First, you should address whether you are using proper sousaphone carriage techniques. You can find threads on that subject in the Tubenet archives. Second, do what the others suggest. Use your right shoulder for part of the time when not playing, or even rest the horn on the ground when possible. In college, our at-ease had the tuba on the ground in front of us, one hand in the bell (like a French horn) and the right hand on the outside of the bell. I forget how we organized the attention position.
If all else fails, quit.
For anyone else reading this who has a mechanical inclination and a knowledge of plastics, I've given some thought to developing a sousa harness that would more evenly distribute the weight. Email me if you want to talk about it.