Posted by doubler on February 16, 2000 at 01:25:11:
In Reply to: Can Someone Please Help... posted by Tom on February 15, 2000 at 20:11:03:
The technical demands of the tuba are mostly finding the proper balances between conflicting goals: to move lots of warm air, but to control it so that you can play long passages without stopping; to keep a firm and controlled embouchure at the corners while still relaxing the lips (when playing down low); to remain alert and ready to make meaningful music even when you've just counted 3000 bars of rest, and now you get to play (oh, yeah!) a whole note (sometimes); to remain agile in embouchure and tonguing despite the fact that your facial parts have to be moving in very precise ways within a mouthpiece the size of a punch bowl; and to remain musical while meeting the relatively great physical demands that tuba places on the player in terms of embouchure, air, and valve travel. There are other things: the fact that, increasingly, a tubist is expected to know fingerings for horns in more than one key, and the fact that playing in tune frequently requires adjustment of tuning slides while playing (thus it also requires a skillful ear).
The thing that makes tuba unique is that it is such a gas to play, and rewards you so richly with sound when you meet the challenges that, despite all of these conundra (look it up -- you'll need it for the SAT), and the fact that from the rest of the world tubists get very little respect, we still find that each day we wake up dying to try it again. Ask a golfer. He can explain it.
Another poster to this list has mentioned his introduction to the tuba, in elementary school. A Jr. High or High School tubist was asked to stand and tell about his instrument. He introduced his comments with the statement: "The tuba is a noble instrument." 'nuff said.