Nothing new to add, just want to agree with what has already been said. For tenor and bass bone, the Yamaha Silent Brass is really the only thing to use. It fits in the bell in the case, is quiet enough not to annoy people, doesn't wreck intonation and you can use it with electronics to get the real ...

Late to the party again, and I confess, I didn't read all this that people wrote. I can just imagine what folks have to say.

Here's the real scoop. (from a tenor trombone player).

Tuba, and even bass bone, don't use the kind of embouchure that benefits much from buzzing. Buzzing helps you develop ...

Why do we need to fix horns? Music is made on a computer after all.

I have a friend who bought a Willson Eb a couple of years ago and he sounds great on it. Mostly plays in quintet and small orchestras. Really fantastic sound on it. There was a noticeable improvement over his old Eastman tuba.

Someone... recently made the mistake of asking a certain brass forum how to make a brass quintet more palatable to the unwashed. The answer was a resounding "replace them with drums and guitars". On a brass forum.

I'm increasingly of the mind that I'm just gonna play whatever the eff I wanna play ...

I will be releasing some of my other stuff through the fall, but will stop by December as I will be way too busy. In the spring, I plan to arrange a whole bunch of ceremonial music. ALL of the stuff I have played from the quintet rep of this nature is… somewhat lacking…

Included in that will be ...

I grew up back packing and bicycling, so I was always into efficiency and lightweight gear. I heep a K&m very much like the 101 in my bag that goes to gigs. It holds the music I need to play at the moment. I also have a Mahassett and a Peak, but I carry and use the K&m.

I have a number of light and ...

This is one genre my group doesn't have much or any of. You might look through Musescore for stuff you can adapt (fix).

Also, aren't there some small German band books for flexible instrumentation?

As a guy who does a lot of quartets, this would be hard to listen to. Even bone quartets sound bad if there are more than 2 voices below the middle of the bass clef. Maybe add a cimbasso or a viola to brighten the mood.

Have a little talk with jesus
Old time religion
Down to the river to pray
What a friend we have in J
Sweet hour of prayer
What wondrous love is this
Old rugged cross
Rock of ages
When I survey the wondrous cross
In the sweet by and by

If you could branch out to gospel quartet/barbershop/Bluegrass ...

Another of the things I learned late that I think should help people who struggle with sight reading is that the rhythm - the TIME, really - is more important than the notes. If you're going to blow something, get the time right. In a practical sense, this means that if you're having problems ...

b.williams wrote: Sun Aug 02, 2026 7:25 am Since it was part of the process, I worked on sight reading prior to auditioning for a Navy Fleet band in 1982. For the next four years we played mostly the same music.

I joined in 85, 4 years in Norfolk. Where were you?

When I was a young player (say high school), I had a lot of trouble with sight reading. I was in a very small bubble mostly of my own invention, and in that bubble there were a couple of things that didn't matter, such as sight reading, playing or reading rhythms and intonation. Any time I left that ...

Is your drum/set player solid, and does the bass player try to gel with what they are doing? Maybe the keyboard player can play some root/bass notes to help out if they are also solid? Or maybe your bass player just needs to shape up a bit or find a new one. It's not fair to the rest of you if the ...

The bass player is kind of a fixture, and has been for a while. I think a lot of people would like a different bass player, but we just can't do it for some reason. He has no concept of where the beat is, and it's not clear to me that he can really read music. I'd say there's already a bit of ...

I play bass bone in my big band, but I have some tuba parts and some straight up bass parts. Our actual bass player isn't really doing the rhythm section any favors, and people seem to appreciate it when I help establish the beat. I can play everything on bass bone, in some cases the bark is what's ...

Before this devolves into the usual thread chaos/entropy, I've got a semi-serious reply to what may have been just a troll anyway...

It's so easy to fall into the cynicism bucket and start believing that we can't dance about architecture, but we have to have a way to communicate about experience ...

I hold my pencil in the corner of my mouth - like a cigarette, that way I can hold 2 - one red and one black. Please note that California has determined that chemicals found in #2 pencils may cause puberty especially in students.

One minor point that doesn't matter much: the Recording with F-attachment bell is 8.5". The Recording w/o F-attachment bell is 8".I've got the latter. I love all my Olds horns. One tuba, one flugathingy and a Recording bone. Really well made stuff that also plays great. A little heavy, but well made.

@Bassboner I'm glad we picked the weirdest little gas station in Brewster, NY to meet at!


Oh, yeah, that gas station was in an odd little location. Freezing cold weather, we hadn't been out of the car since Virginia. I had my 80 year old father with me and he insisted on driving. His dog barked ...