Re: A Few Good Tuba Players or Too Many?


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Posted by Rick Denney on October 19, 2001 at 12:27:21:

In Reply to: A Few Good Tuba Players or Too Many? posted by Randy Mac Iver on October 18, 2001 at 18:02:40:

Three players playing too loud can be too much for a 100-piece band.

I apparently have no problems balancing a 40-piece community band all by myself, though the literature we are playing really needs two or three players because of multiple lines and requirements for staggered breathing.

When I was there, the San Antonio Municipal Band had four players all committed to a blended section. We would have been able to work with a band as small as 50 members, but that band had about 75 members. One additional person came on board, without the commitment to the blended sound, and made the section too large for the band.

Some strategies I have followed to reduce the section size without sending people home or expecting them to sit on the bench: I routinely brought an F tuba along with a BBb, so that for those orchestral transcriptions and compositions that used mutliple parts, I could use the smaller horn on the upper parts. The middle voice provided by my small F tuba added character to the sound rather than weight. On those occasions when my current band has been overstaffed in the tuba section, I haven't been able to do that, because the other players at the rehearsals weren't always reliable on the lowest notes (one had a four-valve rotary CC and could get a solid low F out of it), and because I never knew what to expect from week to week.

I have also doubled on an otherwise uncovered bass trombone part using an F tuba, a cupped mouthpiece, and a bass trombone mentality. No, it's not appropriate, but I'd bet nobody in the audience knew it.

At some point, all community bands reach a crossroads where the desire of the conductor and the better musicians to play more challenging literature conflicts with the open invitation to community musicians of all levels. I've seen it tear bands apart, literally. Usually, if the conductor puts the literature out there consistently, then the band's reputation will bring the better musicians and those less interested in improvement and hard work will find other groups to play in that are more socially oriented. Most cities have choices at both extremes. But it doesn't always work, and the only solution in those cases is to base all judgements strictly and clearly on musical objectives. If the section plays too loud, then the conductor can tell them to play softer. If they don't, then the conductor can tell then to go to two or three players. The trick to keeping that from being a drag is to rotate who plays in the smaller group. That takes a section leader who is more interested in keeping everyone satisfied with their musical experience than in hogging the good parts.

Rick "who thinks that when you don't pay, you have to work with people" Denney


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