Posted by Dan on August 11, 2000 at 11:43:10:
I'm sure this has been brought up in the past, but I'm curious about the implications. As a tuba player, I am confronted with a huge variety of instruments, a cornocopia of available music (from flute solos to violin or voice), and a wide variety of acceptable playing styles. This makes for wonderful music, but what I'm curious about (prompted by a discussion further down the list) is the pursuit of new toys.
I played a single horn through my formative years of playing, and was really satisfied in all aspects of performance. I play a mirafone 188 CC, so it's not a small horn by any stretch of the imagination. Some would say it was too big for quintet work (initially it was) but after hard work and perpetual harping by the quintet coach it did just fine. On the other hand when I sat down in professional orchestra settings I had no problem making the bass trombonist smile. My instructor through college made it clear that this is how it SHOULD be; only after you have reached this level should you move to specialized instruments.
My concern is that in search of "the easy way" or "the fast way" a lot of instructors and students have resorted to pouring money into specialized equipment; 5/4 or 6/4 CC, F, 3/4CC, Eb... Granted, practice is still a heavy issue these days, but have we come to practice the wrong things? Is the art of making music a casualty to the pressure of playing tuba? Or is this an evolution of a new class of tuba (contrabass and bass)? Or is it merely the evolution of the player to meet the demands of literature and audition panel?
Just some thoughts
Dan