Re: Is it the tuba or the player?


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Posted by Chuck Jackson on January 28, 2001 at 14:18:51:

In Reply to: Is it the tuba or the player? posted by Jay Bertolet on January 28, 2001 at 11:42:32:

I have no doubt that the player makes the horn. I very rarely get on a soapbox, but we are turning instruments into dieties in a small sense and forgetting that sweat and toil make the player. This will offend some people, but, if you have a $50.00 talent a $10,000 tuba will sound like a crap. If you have music running through you, a 3 valve peashooter will give you a voice for your thoughts. Will it be optimum? No. Will it transmit the intent? ABSOLUTELY. It pains me to see young people clamoring and going into debt for a York style instrument because they are going to be orchestral players. Save your money y'all. Chances are you won't be and you will be stuck with a very big dust collector. If you have music in you, you will succeed and then you can fine tune your voice by the choice of horn. Many fine players have gotten jobs on what would be considered sub-par equipment. Equipment is nothing, what is inside of you is everything.
As an aside, in 1979 I went to Glassboro State U for a tuba conference. A well known Orchestral player gave a talk. The first words out of his mouth were "The chance of any of you making a living playing in an orchestra is ZILCH(his emphasis). Never give up, but face the facts and get a degree you can use". How many people want to hear that today? Being 40 is a lot easier on my ego then 19 was. Thanks for reading if you got this far.

Chuck






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