Posted by jlb on June 16, 2003 at 11:10:28:
In Reply to: Is the Tuba a 'good' instrument? posted by Becoming Frustrated on June 15, 2003 at 18:44:18:
My intro started at the beginning of my freshman year at high school with the band director saying to me "You look like you could carry a sousaphone." I swear that's true. It turned out I could and it also turned out I could get a permanent pass from study hall (which I hated) to practice in the music room at the back of the stage (which I loved). So I spent and hour or two each day with the sousy, a method book, and a piano figuring out how to play. Made South Jersey District Band the next three years and All State (just made it - first year as an alternate) the next two years, so I got to play some pretty good music with some pretty good ensembles rather early in my learning process. I still find myself whistling the fugue from "Schwanda the Bagpiper" 55 years later.
BTW, my band director was a clarinetist, so he could not help me with more than the basics on tuba, but that man was one of those 'salt of the earth' people you meet occasionally, so I'll take umbrage at any further disparagement of clarinetists.
John (who finally got some real lessons at a quite advanced age) Breyer