Best choices to support 55-60 member band

[catgrowlB]

Well-played (full, round and not blatty/harsh) sousaphones and bell-front/recording-bell tubas can sound very good in concerts bands. Along with certain tubas that project sound well, yet have a good amount of fundamental in the sound, and blend well.

Tubas ARE 'the basses' in concert bands. Think more string bass section sorta sound from the tubas. In an orchestra, there is one tuba that usually plays the sonic role of being the link between the trombones and the string basses. It's a more 'independent' bass voice in orchestra.

[2nd tenor]

To my mind the OP is pushing at the boundaries of what is practical and their chances of success are limited.

There might be marginal gains to be found here and there and cumulative marginal gains can make a useful difference, but what’s needed is simply beyond what’s reasonable to ask of any player. A lot of time and money can be spent seeking better equipment, sometimes there’s a marginal gain and sometimes there isn’t anything but financial loss. Might tuition help? If a suitable teacher could be found then some marginal gain might be made, but as before time and good money can easily be lost on tuition. Might an instrument restoration and overhaul help? If a really good Technician can be found then there’s likely at least some marginal gain to be found too, but expect a big bill and results can be variable. Here in the UK a pal’s BBb was professionally rebuilt by arguably the best repair company in the UK, his Band picked up the very large bill and the Tuba is both better than new and generally marvellous. Is his experience typical? I wouldn’t like to say and as above expenditure doesn’t guarantee gain.

Can some large framed folk with big Tubas knock out a lot of sound? Yes they can, but I don’t know of a way of adding 6” to my height and 50% to my lung capacity so what I can do is limited by the frame that I live in.

Marginal gains and physical limitations aside there are a few ways forward:
# using electronic amplification for the tuba part (microphone and speakers).
# acceptance that the tuba part can’t be as loud as might be desired.
# recruiting other folk to the tuba part.
# recruiting other folk to bass voices (eg. Bass Trombone) that overlap with the Tuba part.

I wish the OP well, but to me what’s being asked of him seems unreasonable.

[Rick Denney]

Guys, I suspect the OP is playing in a band that accepts all comers like most community bands, and there’s just a shortage of tuba players available for that band at present. I doubt anyone is asking him to do anything beyond what he’s doing already, and he’s just trying to explore how to make the best of it.

Playing a big tuba is about efficiency, not size of the player. Jacobs famously described his York as an old man’s tuba—one that made the most of what was provided to it. Some big tubas are harder to play than others, but my experience generally supports that description. My air capacity never has been great, despite my size, and it’s less now than it used to be. But I still find that a big tuba makes it easier to add real weight to the bass relative to me abilities.

Will it be enough? Depends on the rest of the band and the venue. And what is “enough?” My similarly sized band has four tuba players most nights and we obviously don’t make the sound of, say, a premiere military band with four players (all playing big tubas) present. If that is the standard of “enough” then none of us measures up.

But it should be an improvement, and make playing in the group more fun, which is the point.

Rick “doesn’t have a subwoofer on his stereo yet music still issues forth” Denney

[bloke]

When I'm playing with bands (whether offered a modest honorarium to fill in - because all the tuba players are out of town on a concert date - or with some very accomplished players), I really prefer to be back there by myself.

As a lone player, I can control the pitch, the volume, and the phrasing.
(There's no "bass drum section" and nor is there a "conductor section" are there?)

(I understand the American wind band "tuba section" thing, as well as the British brass band "two contrabasses and two basses" thing, but I'm speaking of personal preference, and not traditions.)

I can name "a" tuba player with whom I've worked whose intonation, interpretations of volume levels, and phrasing - and mine - of of the same mind, but I honestly can't name "some"...at least, not around here, and - when I'm playing in a wind band with tuba player whose sound is nice, their tuning is good, but they're constantly under-playing, it makes me feel like I'm being an a-hole when putting out the appropriate amount of sound (not obnoxious, but "appropriate"...ie. ENOUGH) during any passage above mezzo-piano or mezzo-forte.

note: This response is only about me, my experiences, and my personal preferences, and is not meant to be advice, and very little of the playing that I do is in wind bands. In my last (third - I was in a hurry to graduate) year in undergraduate school, a third tuba player in the so-called "symphonic" band was deemed not up to the task - and was sent down to the so-called "concert" band, which left me and that one ("a") tuba player as the pair of tubas. Then, "a" quit school and got a job playing tuba and electric bass in an Army band in Germany, which left just me. I was quite happy being the lone tuba, and that was my first experience having complete control over how the tubas in the band sounds. (My favorite playing is in no-sheet-music jazz combos, whereby I not only control the sound and volume, but also the type of beat/feel and the chord inversions.)

[Rick Denney]

The conductor of the band in which I play is a retired premiere military tuba player (Gil Corella). In the deeper past when we’ve had only me available for an important concert, he’ll invite one his friends and colleagues to join us. Thus, I’ve played next to some high-end pros over the last 26 years—Karl Hovey, Jack Tilbury, Jan Duga, Chris Quade and some I’m forgetting.

One such was Bob Pallansch, RIP. His rule was that he would only play with one other person because he only wanted to have to match one person.

I learned a lot about how band pros play from these folks, in addition to what I’d learned back in Texas.

Now, the section has left me behind, which is a good thing. Albert Islas (ex-AF) plays with us when his orchestra dates don't conflict, and Cameron Farnsworth, now teaching but who started in the group while in high school and then studied tuba at JMU will join us when we need help. And so will Rob Ross, who is always welcome. Plus, we have Dan Stine and Terry Ghiselli—guys much better than me. Solid pro-quality players all.

But I have to tell you, the low brass is about ten times as likely to get the hand as we are to be asked to play louder.

Rick “now in the reinforcement part of the section” Denney

[bloke]

The conductor of the band in which I play is a retired premiere military tuba player (Gil Corella). In the deeper past when we’ve had only me available for an important concert, he’ll invite one his friends and colleagues to join us. Thus, I’ve played next to some high-end pros over the last 26 years—Karl Hovey, Jack Tilbury, Jan Duga, Chris Quade and some I’m forgetting.

One such was Bob Pallansch, RIP. His rule was that he would only play with one other person because he only wanted to have to match one person.

I learned a lot about how band pros play from these folks, in addition to what I’d learned back in Texas.

Now, the section has left me behind, which is a good thing. Albert Islas (ex-AF) plays with us when his orchestra dates don't conflict, and Cameron Farnsworth, now teaching but who started in the group while in high school and then studied tuba at JMU will join us when we need help. And so will Rob Ross, who is always welcome. Plus, we have Dan Stine and Terry Ghiselli—guys much better than me. Solid pro-quality players all.

But I have to tell you, the low brass is about ten times as likely to get the hand as we are to be asked to play louder.

Rick “now in the reinforcement part of the section” Denney

I guess that's my point.
I'm not PERSONALLY accustomed to playing in a band with two or four other tuba players, and when I see pianissimo, my mind thinks "this is very quiet and in the sound of the ensemble, but it has to be heard because - if it wasn't supposed to be heard - it wouldn't have been written" and - when I see fortissimo (of course all these different dynamic markings are in different contexts, but still...) I'm thinking of a fortissimo whereby it's just me generating it and not some "mezzo forte X four players" type of thing.
Also, the timbre a four players collectively creating a fortissimo doesn't really have a fortissimo timbre; it's more like playing through a bass guitar amplifier with a lot of bass and not much treble yet turning up the volume...a totally different effect.

I suspect everyone reading this knows exactly what I'm talking about, even if their individual experience is mostly playing in a multiple player concert band.