Posted by Rick Denney on March 30, 2003 at 12:11:06:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Best Tone Quality posted by casual observer on March 30, 2003 at 01:39:08:
Yup.
There are two reasons why people play the tuba. One is that they got talked into it by a band director who needed a tuba player (using any of a number of different arguments), and continued out of a sense of momentum in order to avoid having to climb that learning curve again with another instrument.
The other is that they are in love with the resonance and sound of the tuba.
Some people have elements of both, or start with the first and end up with the second. That was certainly the case with me. I didn't really fall in love with the sound of the tuba until I heard Mike, though by the time I heard him I was in my 20's and had been playing tuba off and on since the 7th grade. When I wrote him asking for lessons, I told him I wanted to sound like he does (of course I realized I would at best only move in that direction).
Last night, the Loudoun Symphonic Winds played a concert. In that concert, I had a small solo at the end of a Grainger piece. I played it, and for once didn't choke. But I got much more visceral thrill from the fff half-note countermelody in the Tschaikovsky Coronation March. The wall of sound in our part was utter contrast to the high, technical stuff going on in the treble instruments.
Gene Pokorny said as much in his excerpts CD, where he suggested that someone who plays the tuba but who doesn't have a deep love for the sound might want to consider another instrument. The corollary to that is realizing that our love for the sound as sound is not necessarily transferable. My wife could clearly hear the difference between the Holton and the other insruments I compared it to on the day I bought it. But I was the one giggling uncontrollably.
Rick "who thinks that 'thick pillow' is the key to the popularity of the grand orchestral tuba concept" Denney