Greetings Friends, I've been very fortunate to have had access to six wonderful instruments from Rudolf Meinl during the past year or so. I've got a good bit of downtime at the moment so I thought I'd write somewhat of a review about these wonderful tubas. I was very lucky to be playing with the ...

Jogging is one of the best things you can do for your breathing. There's nothing you can do to increase your lung capacity but exercising regularly will help keep the tissues flexible. Try going for a jog in the morning, have a rest for at least an hour afterwards and then play your tuba. I promise ...

Congrats! Those early PT6 are amazing, really a completely different instrument to the later ones.

I’ve finally solved this debate!

The answer is you need to own both.

From memory the Adams is quite a bit taller than the miraphone.

Generally from what I've seen, the BBb will come out for the bigger German/Russian repertoire. -Later Wagner -Some of the Bruckner's 7, 8, 9 (with some parts on F) -Prokofiev -Certain Mahler -Certain Strauss works -Certain Shostakovich There's not really any hard rules on using Bb on these works ...

In Australia all of the pro orchestral players are primarily using C and F Tuba. C tubas across the country are a mix of York copies, couple of rotor PT6 and Thors. F tubas mostly German style instruments like PT-10 or Miraphone Belcanto. A smaller number also play German style Bb for the ...

I would also add that good tuning is also about sound colour and balance within a chord. Re: bloke. Everyone can learn a pitch to some extent, but true perfect pitch if a form of synesthesia. To them pitch is as obvious as recognising the colour blue. Definitely not necessary for being able to play ...

The first time you play with a professional orchestra it ruins your enjoyment of anything inferior permanently . I can’t stand playing in a group that doesn’t play in tune, it means I can’t sound good no matter what I do. One of my best friends is an oboe player with perfect pitch. The kind of perfe ...

The Schlipf mutes are really good and they have many sizes for optimal fit. I find the intonation is decent and there aren’t any dead notes.

Mutes range from completely useless to almost good. They’re never going to work perfectly.

I wouldn’t say a professional tuba is necessarily easier to play for everybody. Your level of playing is a really important factor. A professional tuba is meant for a professional to sound really good. Some of these instruments are actually pretty demanding on the player and require a certain level o ...

If you have the talent, the drive and the determination then you will succeed. It took me 12 years, two tertiary qualifications and a lot of freelancing to finally get employed as a full time tuba player. I was offered a position in a military band in 2023 and have been fortunate to be employed full ...

Players with good sound production play with less tuning slide. Tension makes makes the pitch go up a lot. The most resonance is in the bottom of the slot.

For professional use: York copy 6/4.

Americans often don’t have the highest reputation for intelligence in commonwealth countries. I think part of this stems from the bastardisation of the English language. It’s amusing to us how many words have been changed to be more self descriptive or have had their spellings simplified in American ...

Often you don’t need a mute very often, but when you do need it it’s pretty darn important to have it. A younger version of myself may have gotten a bollocking for not having a mute when I needed it. Don’t be like me, just have it.

I would agree with the examples offered forth of the off the shelf 2165 and the 45 SLP being at the opposite end of the spectrum - as opposed to so-called "stuffy". I do NOT dismiss either one of those models as "bad:, and I'm glad to sell them to someone else who really likes them, but tubas ...

‘Stuffy’ describes an instrument with significant back pressure. This is very subjective as everyone is used to the instrument that they play. I’d describe the low register of a Besson compensating Eb or Bb as stuffy. I’ve also owned a B&S symphonie that was stuffy. Every Cimbasso I’ve played has bee ...

Unpopular opinion: the best Chinese made tubas are equal if not considerably better than anything currently made in America.

They are very different instruments. I’ve played both quite a bit. Nirschl York. Far easier to play in terms of facility, versatility, clarity especially cleanliness of legato playing. Typical York 6/4 sound- voluminous, beautiful, open and round. Rudolf meinl. Far more work to play, difficult l ...