I have an overbite (by genetics) and that leads me into producing a less full, airy note and i know that cuz i tried pushing my jaw foward and the notes i was playing were much fuller, it's uncomfortable tho so i can't play like this, can anyone give me any advice

I found an old Helicon with a small 3 letter engraving. I have seen this before but I cannot find anything on it anymore. Does anyone know more about it?

Hi! I'm a trombone player currently looking to expand my low brass horizons. I mainly play bass trombone in jazz settings at the moment but again hoping to do the full low brass thing.

Currently I have trombones and a euph but I'm not sure what kind of tuba I should pick up.

From what I've seen Eb and CC seem to be the most widely used in North America (though I saw all sorts of conflicting things online and I'm not all that sure) I'd mostly be picking up tuba to learn and maybe perform with some small groups in like a kind of chamber orchestra setting.

Main thing I'm kind of wondering does anybody know if there's one somebody might benefit from learning on more (bass vs contrabass) or what's usually preferred in a small ensemble setting.

I'm currently leaning towards the Eb but I'm wonder if holding out and saving up a little more for the CC would benefit me more. Then again I might be completely off and something else might be the entirely.

Any advice is appreciated - Thanks tuba players 😁

hello everyone im currently marching trumpet and am planning on switching to marching tuba next season so does anyone have any tips to get better at the tuba?

In your opinion, what should an instrument with these measurements be?

4th Valve: Ø 13.40 mm Bell: Ø 280 mm Height: 670 mm Weight. 8 kg

So I am currently working on the hindemith tuba sonata for college auditions and I was wondering if anybody has any tips on practicing this piece. I am mainly having trouble going from pitch to pitch in the high range. Thanks!

After a year of not playing this tuba due to my health and a sticky valve, I finally got round to cleaning it and unsticking the valve.

Edit: I found the Facebook group for coordinators (thank you for the suggestion)! I threw an absolute toddler temper tantrum in that forum of strangers and... now the contact email doesn't have a "1" vs an "L" in the contact email? It's still not the actual event email, still wrong registration/rehearsal time, still no registration link, but I'll take what I can get. At least people can get ahold of me now.

Thomas also reached out directly to say my buttons are shipping finally. What a wild 24 hours lol. Thank you all for the help!

********

Curious if anyone knows someone at the Harvey Phillips Foundation besides Thomas who can help me? Our event in San Francisco is coming up and the main website has the wrong rehearsal time, wrong rehearsal location, wrong cost and wrong contact email. It's so bad, the listed contact email (which is wrong) replaced an "L" with a "1". Was my button order recorded and acknowledged? (Lord knows!!) How can I know we'll get buttons? I've flagged this multiple times over the last month with no response.

Especially coming off the PBS year, I'm super sad about this. Mariah Carey emerges in 3 days and we get a lot of students who rely on the website to learn about us. I am literally addicted to the mellow, dulcet tones that emerge from that first downbeat every year. I've traveled 4x for the sole purpose of playing Tuba Christmas in other cities. I did Tuba Christmas in a park with 4 people in 2020 with social distancing so we would be ok. I cannot sit here and not have a San Francisco Tuba Christmas - I will not accept defeat. I am in an ensemble with the guy mentioned in the PBS bit "that traveled all the way in from South Dakota". All I want is tuba sound across our city!!!

But I'll be gosh darned if I don't take measures like printing my own buttons, etc to be sure the experience is great for our musicians. I will not fail for my people because I was failed.

Ok, rant over, thank you for listening.

For those who care - the South Dakota guy is 93 years old and slept in his truck bed because he was/if afraid of big city crime - it meant that much to him. He's a 60+ year veteran of his local volunteer fire department, a great dude all around. I will not provide more details so I don't dox him, but rest assured he's a legendary guy.

Hey guys! I'm a student at Tarleton State University, and I'm wanting to share some pieces published by a couple students here! These pieces were both performed at TMEA in 2024 by the Tarleton tuba/euphonium ensemble. The first is Valiant Victory by Zachary Moore, and the second is an arrangement of Shenandoah by Zachary Carothers.

Thanks to you all if you check out the pieces!

https://www.jwpepper.com/11561418.item#viewer-tab

https://www.jwpepper.com/11561345.item#viewer-tab

My highschool is extremely low on funding and I am a junior in highschool wanting to try out for allstate, getting to the point we have no functional concert tubas so I'm looking for my own. Does anyone know of any Bb concert tubas that are resourceful and can still provide a nice sound?

What are all the open notes for the tuba?

I know B flat , F , B flat , D , F.

But I don't know after that.

Can somebody help me?

So my school has minor scales as a part of our chair placement audition process and I was wondering if F and G are still sharps on the way back down for A melodic minor even though they aren’t marked that way on the paper pictured. Thanks for any help

Hi all,

I'm new here. I am actually a guitarist, but I have always had a strange affection for low frequencies... I've been wanting to have a tuba for a long time, and now that I saw this Amati listed on a local online flea market for 150 euros, I grabbed it immediately.

So, it's a Bb tuba with four rotary valves. It has "Amati Kraslice" etched on the bell and "MADE IN CZECHO-SLOVAKIA" stamped on the leadpipe. The only other markings I can find are a letter "T" stamped on the lever bridge, followed by a "73" about ten centimeters apart. The same "73" is also stamped on the cap of one of the valve housings (sorry if I don't know the correct names of the parts).
Is anyone able to tell me anything more about this tuba based on these markings and the photo?

As far as I can understand, the tuba is in fairly good condition. It has a few little dents but nothing dramatic. My wife plays the trumpet, so she knows how to maintain brass instruments, and now that everything is cleaned and lubricated, the valves seem to work very well and the tuning slides move nicely.
The only little thing is that the leadpipe position has been changed to make the instrument fit for a shorter player. The height is actually quite fine for me when I play holding the tuba on my lap. So this modification is technically OK for me, and it seems to be well made too, but there is now this somewhat ugly stripe where the leadpipe used to be.

Anyway, what do you think, was this an OK purchase as the first tuba for a beginner?

https://preview.redd.it/xt708tczncxd1.jpg?width=1070&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=604e35027c1febb2bac9d751d8e4662453657579

What’s the difference in these robert tucci shank sizes. I know small is american size and large is euro but what is regular? Since small has been sold out for months will regular shank fit in a Yamaha YBB-201m?

Question for tuba teachers. (Maybe someone with trombone experience)

I’ve been teaching private trombone/euphonium lessons for 30 years. I majored in bass trombone and can play tuba reasonably well. I’ve taken on a few tuba students, and I’m hoping to get some advice on a good progression from intermediate to advanced method books.

In the trombone world, I use Remington for warm-ups. (Just like everyone else.) I use Bordogni/Rochut for lyrical etudes, and Voxman or Kopprasch for technical etudes, and a few others sprinkled in.

I’ve got beginners covered pretty well, but when they get into High School, I get a bit lost. The only method book I’m very familiar with is Blazhevich, but that seems more like a late high-school/early college book.

What are some other method books I should be using? Are there books like the Remington or Bordogni/Rochut that every tuba player should be using?

Hey so my band director gave me a piece on tuba and it had 16th notes. I’ve never had to play them on tuba and it’s a pretty fast tempo. All marked staccato. How do I tounge faster?

So I've been playing tuba for 3 years at school, (started in 6th grade, now in 9th.) and I've been learning the piano on my own for a month, I'm seeing a bunch of progress, but there's ANOTHER issue. I want to learn Bass guitar on the side aswell. Am I overloading myself or no? and is it possible to learn these instruments before I just ultimately "burn" myself out? (edit, I put this as a meme flair but pretend this is a discussion thing)

I am looking into purchasing a King System Blue mouthpiece for marching band next year, does anyone that has used it have any negative and or positive experiences with it?

Any other recommendations for good marching mouthpieces would be great to hear!

P.s. Yes, I know that 90% of tone and such is up to the player not the mouthpiece, so you don’t have to lecture me over it 😁

I’m in intermediate band and we’re playing this for a concert, I feel like it should be relatively easy but as soon as measure 8 passes i’m lost, i know it might be hard to explain but can anyways please suggest any tips i have rehearsal in like 30 mins and my band director is gonna beat me 😣😣

Has anyone played this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK5KaYXJsrg

Says it's written for bass tuba, but the register in the music shown in the video seems outside the BB flat range. Am I off base here (or off bass, har har har)? I've got a friend who is a good piano player and would be fun to try to get together to play this but want something doable.

Open to other recs if you all have any. Thanks as always!

https://youtube.com/shorts/MjDk_zHoYRU?si=fqreuvVkYzZzEJD8

I’m a current Junior and have been looking at Northwestern for a potential college audition. The requirements they have in their website are; Please choose 6 excerpts from standard solo literature that display the following aspects of your playing. Selections can include orchestral, band, or chamber music repertoire or études.

1. Lyrical playing
2. Technical playing
3. Loud dynamic
4. Soft dynamic
5. High register
6. Low register

This is what I have right now; Technical -Fountains or blazhevich 50 Lyrical

• Hindemith cadenza

High

• Movement 6 if Six pack for tuba or RVW cadenza

Low

• Fountains or Snedecor 4

Loud

• Ride

Soft

• Mahler 1 or or American in Paris

The only one I’m really set on is the Hindemith for lyrical, other than that I’m really open to suggestions for other stuff to play. Thanks in advance

I played the tuba for my middle school but there will be a new student in the band he also want to play the tuba but there’s not enough tubas so I need to be replace but if I have my own tuba or sousaphone I can still be in the section so hopefully there will be one that is cheap nearly new sousaphone near Thai if anyone know a place plz tell!

Hey all. I was a tuba player all the way through college. Halfway through my music degree, I ended up adding a double major in engineering cause I wanted that as a career instead (had to be a double major with music, long story). So I finished all of my lesson and ensemble requirements and ended up not playing my horn often cause of my other degree, so I sold it to someone in the studio who needed horn more than I did.

It's been a few years since then, and I've graduated and have been working full time for a bit, so I want to buy another horn to have to play at home and possibly community band.

What I'm looking for: I'm not trying to get a full professional horn. The cheaper the better, but I do want to end up with something that is decent to play on. I'd say my budget maxes at like $3000.

I've been eyeing the used market place spots (Facebook, craigslist, ebay, tubenet), but am also considering buy a cheap new horn.

I knew someone who had a Mack Brass horn and it seemed to work for him. I also played on a Wessex once and I think it was good as well. Is that still the case with these brands? And are there any other brands that have decent quality for the price?

Thanks in advance!

edit: BBb tuba preferred

Today we were finishing up practice and I asked to play the sousaphone (I play trombone and tuba) but after the first few notes I felt my feet starting to go numb shortly after that everything below my mid stomach went numb. Does anyone know what could cause this? I have also only been playing for about a month and most of it was on a concert tuba I’m also 13 and 5’7 if that could help

Hi everyone, I'm an Italian tuba player. I'm searching for some of the best tuba teachers in Europe to study with. If someone has some info would be very much appreciated☺️.

Hi, I'm trying to track down replacement solo parts for the following music:
Happy Thoughts J. H. baseler 1891
Tempesta by John H Harris 1896.
My copies of the solo parts were water damaged and i'm trying to replace them.
There's reference to both of these pieces of music in the following tubenet post, but i'm not sure if this ever officially got published:
http://forums.chisham.com/viewtopic.php?t=19163

Ever since I was in middle school, I started playing tuba. During my 7th grade year, I switched to a full sized (previously using a 3/4) and I got a much clearer tone. One day, I tried the 3/4 and I tried to play and it was like I was blaring even though I was just playing normally. Now, in high school, I play Sousa for the marching band. Still having a amazing tone on full size but I’m having the same problem with Sousa as I try and use the same air. I’m dropping my jaw when I crescendo and just trying to control my air. But it keeps growling at me and ripping. How would I fix that with keeping the same air/ volume or do I just have to apply less air? Thanks