Posted by Ike H. on November 11, 2002 at 23:45:13:
In Reply to: Doubling For The Tuba posted by Collin on November 11, 2002 at 20:09:16:
As a player and teacher of all three of these, I'm a little prejudiced, but I think if you lean towards the string bass, you'll find you already have a head start on it by playing electric. Maybe a little moreso than bass bone from tuba playing. It just depends on what you really like and what your natural tendencies are.
You just need to take some time and try both instruments out. There's a pretty good handful of guys here in Nashville that can do this "triple" and one guy, when pressed can play all four(his best thing is bass bone, and can handle tenor&euph - sickening!). But there may come a time when you will need to decide whether you want to be a jack of all trades(fair-to-middlin' on several things) or an excellent specialist on one or two instruments. Such questions are one of the many things a musician confronts when winding a way through a crazy business like this one. You will find, though, that most pro musicians have to do a myriad of things to make ends meet(play, arrange, copy, contract other musicians, studio engineering and more).
But for now, at your stage of life I would say is, to explore and discover what you like to do musically, and just enjoy the ride.