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.

Those just coming up will never experience what the internet was like in the late 90’s and early aughts.



I tell this to my daughter all the time.

Similarly, every time she asks what it was like being a kid in the 80s and 90s, I tell her "better." We didn't default to the internet. We were ...

I rarely, if ever, "drop the octave," as so many community players are want to do to show off low range. All that really does is cause mud, and deprives blending with the rest of the band, especially the low brass and low woodwinds. But on one occasion, a chorale piece in a large concert hall at ...

I think I first got to the old BBS in around 1999 when I was just entering high school. I thought the whole thing was great. Learned a ton about the then-modern culture, the history, the major players. I was able to figure out what I needed to listen to. For a kid, it was a way to get to know who ...

First of all, pitch issues are one of the things I consider least when buying a tuba. I have to learn them eventually, and my pedagogical concept is the pitch generates from my head. Some of the most in tune horns to some are some of the worst in tune horns I have played, due to my inability ...

I find that living with the tubas is easy.

It's living with their cases that's the problem, given how much space they take up.

Follow-up: I looked at my shelf today, and I'm used to seeing all black mouthpieces on it (some I haven't used in 30 years; others 15). I had a row of shiny silver there instead. It was jarring.

I honestly didn’t think this would work, but I had all the ingredients and was pleasantly surprised.

We have a silver vase that was very tarnished. I didn’t like the polish I used last time, so I figured try anything once.

I saw that mixing baking soda, salt, and boiling water in a bowl lined with ...