Love me a P bass. I played one for years until I got my Fender Jazz.

They're passive, so you're not going to get a ton of pop in the sound from the bass. You can either play into that with flat wound strings and lean into the percussive thump, or you can add color with round wound strings. (I've ...

Bobo Solo rips on bass tubas. Very small mouthpiece. Sort of fatiguing until you get used to it. But sings in the high register and produces a great low register on a bass tuba (i.e., it doesn't produce a contrabass-tuba-lite low register and doesn't work well on contrabass tubas). When I first had ...

... and why should it be a meaningful compliment?

(Playing bass guitar)

"You've got a great tone!"

Okay. It's an electronic instrument.
I set the knobs on the guitar and the amplifier where I like them.
If something is goofed up on either one of those, I fix it (defective parts, worn out ...

If I had the $, I'd probably buy this and I'm sure I would be happy with it.

I went back and listened to some.recorsings from when I used this. It really was a good sounding tuba. I bet I could play it better NOW then I did back THEN. :tuba:


I had the same experience with my MW 2155. When I ...

When I started listening to them, I think he was on something akin to a Yamaha 621CC. He played a Getzen CB50 for a bit. I've given up trying to figure out what is more recent instruments have been. They look like they are pieced together in the Conn factory.

I think he played a Miraphone 184 way ...

The two of you who feel like it could have used a slightly larger bore, seems like the only other choice these days is 19mm/.750"/3/4"...

...yet a few instruments have been made in the past with a .709" bore, and two or three makes of sousaphones with a .728" bore.

(These are metric sizes ...

I played one of these for a couple hours years ago, and I was also really impressed. Played a lot bigger than it looked. Very open, clear sound. Poppy low register.

Years later I play one of the Gnagey King/Holton tubas. Very similar. Also plays a lot bigger than it looks. Also very open with a ...

The problem we have, or the advantage, is that we have recordings of groups that Gershwin was working with during the recording or performance.




But I guess my point is - Is the composer right? And if the composer is always right, what is the point of conductors? Or different performers ...

It's up to the conductor, not the tuba player. I think we definitely get the first shot at playing at the way we want to play it, but if there's disagreement... If you want to play it, you'll Play it the way the conductor wants it.

For that matter, some of the variations that we've all heard ...

However, I squirm a bit anytime someone takes a hard stance on "composer intentions" though.


100% agreed. I had some really interesting courses in grad school that tackled this topic.


My opinion boils down to: Then every recording and performance would be identical. If you could even ...

Thank you all!

I do have Mastering the Tuba (in its current "Mastering Brass" form). I'm very fluent in treble clef in concert pitch and have also worked through my daughter's Suzuki violin books up through Book 6.

I will check all of these out.

I haven't bought a new etude book in years. I like etudes. But I keep repeating the same ones over and over. My current stack is:

Bordogni (and also Rochut I and II)
Blazevich
Kopprasch
Snedecore
Vasilev
Shoemaker
Seiber
Tyrell
Verne Reynolds (horn)
Arban

I know there is a newer Snedecore ...

yeah...just a little chuckle for the weekend.

Someone got it right off the bat. :gaah:
(Google ruins everything. :laugh: )


https://i.imgur.com/xYa1LGa.png


A friend (amazing organized and darn-good trombonist) wrote a brass quintet theme-and-variations on Over The Waves (back when we were ...

Google Maps tells me it's 5.2 miles between Pesotum, Illinois and Tolono, Illinois. Both in Champaigne County.

This article talks about the two towns during WWI: https://thekeep.eiu.edu/historia/

The concerns about the dynamic of (a) being critiqued in front of others and (b) having people be at different levels and feeling "less than" in front of others is handled by the method of teaching. If it is positive, constructive, and everyone's successes, however small, are celebrated, it is not ...

I have wanted to do this for a long time.

Back when I was in college, I spent a couple summers at the Domaine Forget program in Quebec, which included daily masterclasses with Roger Bobo and Lance Nagels. They were great. Fun, relaxed, motivational. We usually did group exercises, got Roger's and ...

It's a great part, but lord does it move.

I am not against CCs. I would use my CC for almost all Gabrielli beyond a quintet or sextet arrangement. And I'd play CC on something like Gabrielli with the right quintet. Likewise, regardless of the marking in the part, I use the big horn on things like ...

Potentially a military orchestra based on age restrictions?

I find it interesting to see West Side Story on bass tuba.

Cincinnati Symphony—changed audition rep clarification after invites for “C Tuba”.

French orchestra and rest of the world—please do it on bass tuba


I don't understand the ...

That band part looks like a hoot. Thankfully the sixteenth run is slurred. Maybe I can convince a band around here to program it.

The Brute Squad wrote: Tue Apr 21, 2026 8:04 am There's an edition of Freischutz that has tuba in it?

I can't find one, and this is the first I'm hearing there may be one. I certainly hope they're willing to provide copies of the excerpts, because that will be a hard one to source.