Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Homemade contrabass marching tuba


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Posted by Tim Cary on July 27, 1999 at 08:51:37:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Homemade contrabass marching tuba posted by Leland on July 23, 1999 at 16:58:46:

They were silver Yamaha's, 3/4 size, silver plated. You're right about projection abilities, the 3/4's just don't cut it, even with 10 or 12 in the section. For parade marching and marching to the stadium, we had three carry positions: attention position, holding the horn straight up with both hands with the bell pointing down; low carry, which is carrying the horn down at the side with the bell facing backwards, like drum corps do; and high carry, which the horn was tucked under the right arm at belt level and pointed forward. For playing we placed the horn on the left shoulder (like in corps), which provides for the left arm to support and the right arm and wrist available for comfortable playing. For some odd reason, most bands who use these things place them on the right shoulder, making fingering the horn most uncomfortable. The Yamahas can be placed on either shoulder with the way the lead pipe is configured.

On a positive note, Yamaha now makes a convertible version of the YBB-201, but it has to be one real muscle job to carry around. These are decent for schools that can't afford both concert and marching horns, but I still think (and recommend) that sousaphones do a better job of being "two-way" horns than do convertible tubas. The only problem is that there are some festival judges who are woodwind players by trade and think sousaphones are gross. In my humble opinion, the only convertibles that anyone should buy is something that was made in Detroit before 1970 and gets less than 10 MPG!



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