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Redeemed myself today... did a main stage gig at an small city arts fest.. A mostly NOLA set... Had probably a 200 person audience.. and I didn't blow my solo.. For a good round of applause and a thumbs up from our drummer.. So feeling much better this week than last.

I did a barbershop concert

Been busy this week, but on Wednesday night I helped out with the concert at my daughters' middle school. I played bass with the sixth graders and cello with my oldest daughter in the 7&8 grade orchestra. My youngest daughter played viola a couple chairs down. It was pretty special to me!

prodigal wrote: Sat May 16, 2026 7:25 pm My youngest daughter played viola a couple chairs down. It was pretty special to me!

The top band at my kid's high school invited parents and alumni to play with them on Sleigh Ride at the Winter concert. I've played it for 4 years but this was the first time I got to sit next to my son.. I think it was one of my favorite concerts ever. It will be a free years before I get to sit next to my daughter.. I am looking forward to it but also don't want to ever come.

Orchestra concert. American in Paris went really well.

And no, I didn't jazz the solo up!

I have two concerts remaining, both in early June. Today was Brass Band music. I played my way through "Tico Tico", "Pastime with Good Company", "Overture Promenade for Brass Band", and "Skyfall". The Holton is a terrific horn to rehearse this repertoire with. I would bring it to the rehearsals and the concerts if I had a front-end loader or a semi-truck to transport it.

I guess you were jamming with Ole King Henry VIII.

I had to cover for the younger band today, and they were working on trios and such, so I got the PT-15 out and did some practice. A little Tyrell, Hungarian March, RVW, Gregson, and Wars and Rumors of Wars, until Orchestra. Good times! The kids said I'm sounding good, and they like practicing, so it was fun.

I received double coverage for the whole period, and I got to practice!

Oh, and playing RVW convinced we to sightread Dives and Lazarus with my Freshies. It went rather well.

It's great working with kids who like challenges!

Great idea for a thread here!

I play in a community band, so I have actually been practicing multiple pieces from the concert folder. However, on most practice sessions, I typically have a steady diet of selected Sousa and Fillmore marches. Additionally, I've been working on the Holst 2nd Military Suite in F. It's nothing exciting but for me as a "new" tuba player, these pieces are really helping me to develop my technique and tone.

The past couple days I've been transcribing (by hand) Vincent Bach's "Hungarian Melodies" for F tuba. Trumpet version is in concert F minor (written G minor in Bb treble clef) and my version is in C minor for F tuba. Fun to mess around on. Even though I transcribed it for F tuba, nominally, I've been playing it on the 186 CC.

Yesterday, I played a York 6/4 BB-flat.

Having this instrument in my own lap, I was immediately made aware that these are not 6/4 size, but are 7/4 size.

The only thing that might keep them in inside the 6/4 size category would be the .750" bore.

Carrying around a 4-valve (plus rotor) version of one of these is not for the faint of heart. I can't imagine that instrument fitting inside any modern production hard case, and any high quality bag would need to be custom made.

Tuning is good with that instrument, and probably about as good as anything.

The low range worked just fine for me, though the instrument's owner was telling me blah, blah blah, and blah blah blah about it.
My own 6/4 BB-flat (Miraphone 98 - rotary vallveset) is clearly not as large, though it's bore size is much larger (.835"). That said, the valve section is located further down the instrument on the 98.

I found the same to be true with both instruments, that the 2nd partial valved versions of double low C and double low BB aren't particularly friendly, but the false tone versions of both on both instruments are quite friendly. With a bore size of only .750" on the York valve section, those two false tones are really friendly (with the resistance of the smaller valve section bore). That said, those are pitches that we never encounter in written music, though we can't help playing them at home in practice, can we?

In spite of the extremely wide bell (referring to the bell ITSELF, and not to the 22-inch rim diameter), I was still able to get some zing out of that instrument (for those rare times when it might seem appropriate). I tend to believe that the .750" conservative bore size assisted me in that endeavor. I could learn to play that instrument, and set down the model 98, but there would be perhaps a couple months of learning curve.

What I played yesterday was intervals. Lots of them. Ad nauseam. It's getting better, fewer clams. I don't know if that is a tuba term or not, but it's definitely a horn term. Some horns have more intrinsic clams than others.

The high school band director is hitting the big 40.. so his wife solicited short videos for his surprise party. The family (me, my wife, son, daughter, and son's girlfriend) threw this together really fast.. like 15 minutes to arrange something, and a run through then a quick recording using the MacBook camera and microphone.. it is a little (a lot?? tuning what tuning????) rough but fun

I've been wrestling three tubas lately:

Miraphone 186 CC
Cerveny Piggy CC
Rudi Meinl 5/4 CC

All have their quirks. The zippiest by far is the 186. I've found that the 186 has a fairly bright, "present" sound. It feels like it could cut through anything. Articulations come out very clearly, and intonation is very good. It demands some slightly faster air than I am used to, having mostly been playing on the RM 5/4 CC before I got it.

The Piggy offers a little more depth/roundness of tone with a fairly immediate response. Intonation is not as point-and-shoot as the 186 but still very good, especially based on my experiences with other Piggies. Yes, there is a bit of gruffness to the sound that has to be embraced. I've had the Pig for over two years now and I've been very pleased with it, so this is sort of my baseline tuba by which I compare others.

I've been borrowing the RM 5/4 CC for the past couple months and have my own on the way. Big, dense sound, not entirely Germanic like a big Alex but with a bit of blossom like an American 6/4 tuba. I would say it's sort of a hybrid of those archetypes. Clarity is an issue and it is a bit of work to play, and the immediacy of response below the staff also takes some finessing, but the payout is really satisfying. Intonation is excellent.

Oh yeah, what have I been playing...

The 186 is the (not-so-)shiny new thing, so I've mostly been playing it in band concerts and the like. Outdoors, I feel like it does a decent job cutting through the ensemble but doesn't offer as much bass voice support as I would like, especially if it's just me or me and one other person.

We had a concert the other night with some cool stuff to celebrate the semiquincentennial, sort of a musical history of the USA:

National Anthem
A Hymn to New England, John Williams
American Civil War Fantasy, Jerry Bilik
America the Beautiful, arr. Carmen Dragon (you know the one)
Dixieland medley, arr. Sweeney
The Homefront: Musical Memories from World War II, arr. Christensen
Summer of ’69, bunch of Woodstock rock tunes
Armed Forces Salute
Black Granite, symphonic march by James Hosay honoring those who died and are on the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial wall
USA 250, march by Joseph LaRosa, a local composer
Stars and Stripes Forever, Sousa

So, all that on the 186. It was fun, but it was just two of us covering tuba and I felt like I was working pretty hard to support the group. The other guy was playing a Conn 4J BBb. I'd have preferred a recording bell horn for the outdoor gig.

At home I've been working through:
Bobo, Mastering the Tuba
Bai Lin lip flexibility
Schlossberg
Arban's
Kopprasch/Blazhevich/Bordogni du jour
Tyrell for some sight-reading practice

I don't really have a daily routine, but just work through these as my whims dictate.

Also working up The Morning Song by Roger Kellaway on F tuba. It's been fun.

That program would have rocked on the Rudy 5/4.

I've owned and played a lot of tubas before, but the 5/4 Rudy BBb that I owned was probably the most incredible tuba I've ever played. It doesn't have to be overbearing, but even a large ensemble, you can make it so that you are heard about and beyond everything else. I absolutely loved it, and it was the epitome of solving the problem of working too hard to make a big sound when you wanted it.

That was my number one complaint about the 188 that I had. Working too hard to get to the top levels of sound output.

Sounds like a really fun concert. Did you record it?

Side note, am I the only one who brings a recording device and sticks it on my stand for every single concert?

I honestly never have spent much time with the Bordogni book written in the tuba range with the substandard printing quality (typical Robert King) and only 43 of the vocalises.

I've been going through it over the past few days (spending more fairly serious time with my smaller of the two B-flat tubas, enjoying a couple of playing quality improvements I just affected).
Honestly, I never realized that there are some things in there from the (Rochut) trombone book 2 as well as possibly (not sure) book 3.
Truth be told, I only grabbed it and started playing out of it because it was on the top of a stack, and I could reach it without setting my tuba down.

(A significant portion of my library is here as a result of me buying used tubas over the years. When sellers included bags - particularly pawnbrokers, who don't divide anything up, these were things that were in the side pockets or in the bottoms of the bags.)

Yesterday I played horn for two and a half hours at a rehearsal an hour north of here (8 am to 1pm total time.)
It is non-dystoning some of the time, and i have no idea why but will gratefully accept. I *was* a very good horn player.

Then I played, again as the ONLY FREAKING TUBA, in a concert band two hour rehearsal for concerts July 4th and 5th, at a venue 40 minutes from here, mit wagon; wagon is SO much easier transport from a mall parking lot. Mall has a very large high-ceilinged space that groups can rent to rehearse in.

I was "a bit" tired last night. I am amazed I was able to do that.

Interesting though, is that the conductor is a tuba player, and I actually got kudos for a solo spot. (!!!) On my way out he again mentioned something nice, I nodded to the NStar in the wagon, said what it is and it's an Eb, and he said "That's an Eb?!?" -- the NStar really can hold its own. Of course, all the niceties might be because they are afraid I'll quit, me not liking to be the only tuba, and then they would have no tubas at all. One does wonder sometimes.

I am going to be 77 next Thursday. Yikes.

Our outdoor Bridge City Brass Band performance was held on Sunday, June 14th at a very nice park as part of an "Arts Festival". The afternoon was very nice and our playing was great in front of a large and appreciative audience. My two favourites were "Tico-Tico" and a terrific arrangement of Joni Mitchell"s "Both Sides Now". Our Saskatoon Concert Band outdoor performance was to be held last night next to the South Saskatchewan River at an outdoor amphitheatre. The weather had been variable all day and after a very late afternoon downpour, the concert was cancelled. Of course, twenty minutes after the deluge stopped, the sun came out and it was a gorgeous evening. Perhaps next year. To answer the above question, I will be playing absolutely nothing. The tubas are either packed away now or going to be cleaned. I need a break from 10 months of 3 rehearsals a week in 3 different bands as well as rehearsals, concerts and my own practicing. My stand partner in the Concert Band said years ago, "At the point it starts to feel like a job..."

Well, actually, last Sunday for Flag Day:
https://www.ky3.com/2026/06/15/patrioti ... cas-250th/

Yesterday, I covered band again on the last day of school, so other than hauling down and inspecting the souzy and King in other threads, I spent some time with the Trashcan.

I was thinking in my head about one of bloke's sayings that per given model, a BBb should be more resonant than a CC. I didn't have my CC, but was keeping an objective mind.

Between the two 186s, they feel about the same, even though the CC is a small-belled one, which IMHO is so easy to center on pitches. Nothing the matter with the BBb, though except the leadipe is very high on the horn, and I'm 6' tall...

186CCs are pretty ergonomic.