The Perfect Tuba book

[RenoDoc]

has anyone read this yet- I just ordered it from my local bookstore:
https://calirb.com/the-perfect-tuba-for ... -quinones/

[Mark]

I'm about two-thirds through the book. It's an easy and fun read. There are a few errors that I have noticed; but overall it's okay.

[bloke]

I'm about two-thirds through the book. It's an easy and fun read. There are a few errors that I have noticed; but overall it's okay.

imperfect?

[FrankBKS]

I found it an excellent book and well worth reading. Yes, a few factual errors. But the author is a compelling storyteller who filled in a couple of gaps for me re: tuba history. The most inspiring part was the his detailing how public school band programs in south Texas changed the lives of so many poor young people. The work these band directors did was heroic, sacrificial, and transformative to many and I was happy to learn those stories.

[tubanh84]

I found it an excellent book and well worth reading. Yes, a few factual errors. But the author is a compelling storyteller who filled in a couple of gaps for me re: tuba history. The most inspiring part was the his detailing how public school band programs in south Texas changed the lives of so many poor young people. The work these band directors did was heroic, sacrificial, and transformative to many and I was happy to learn those stories.

I'm in the middle of this now. I agree that he's best when he's writing about the south Texas bands. Given his background, I'm not surprised at that. He's writing about a way out of the tragedies that he has written about for the majority of his career. Which is exactly why he said he wrote the book.

What I appreciate most is that it is now a way for a lot of people who were and are brilliant in our little corner of the world to be memorialized to a wider audience. Just the idea that people who have never really considered the tuba have now read the names Bob Tucci and Don Little and R. Winston Morris and everyone else name dropped in the book.

[gwwilk]

I purchased the Kindle edition of this book Friday, started reading it on my iPad yesterday afternoon, and I couldn't put it down!
This is a tale of many of the luminaries in American tuba history, but it's much more than that. It's a paean to everyone who ever took up the challenge of teaching music. The book delves into the nitty-gritty of some didactic techniques that work amazingly well. The end product of teaching how to make music isn't just a musician but often also an independent, confident, contributing member of our society. The book also details the tragedy that can befall those who fail to take full advantage of their talent and opportunities.
Highly recommended as a valuable addition to anyone's library!

[bloke]

I shouldn't say much in this thread, because I haven't read the book yet, but it took me nearly until my '60s to realize that my job was to put a spotlight on and enhance (sort of like these photographic effects that we can click on and do things to make digital pictures pop) the other musicians.

It's my job to make the trombone section sound as good as it can.

It's my job to make the full orchestra sound as good (and full) as it can.

It's my job to trace and enhance the phrasing of the soloist(s) when my line supports the soloist(s).


It might even be my job to subconsciously (not me subconsciously, but others subconsciously) suggest phrasing - by the way I'm playing my bass lines - to other solo musicians who might not be doing as much as they could be doing with their solo lines or counter melodies.

It's my job to make all the other musicians smile (all of them, including those such as the second bassoonist...) when they see that I'm on the gig, because they know that everything's going to be okay.

All that said, it's NOT my job to have the audience become the least bit aware of what I'm doing up there.

Recently - at an under-rehearsed quintet gig (not a church gig, but a semi-casual quintet recital which was a mixture of pops and light classics per a typical quintet recital), a youngish trumpet player who recently received his doctorate in performance and continues to search for more answers and devices in regards to how to play more musically) said something to me when we're heading out the door. "bloke, you really know how to sell those tunes."
... That was really nice. That's what I'm always trying to do.

[gocsick]

It's my job to ...

All that said, it's NOT my job to have the audience become the least bit aware of what I'm doing up there.

Forwarded to my son and a few other young aspiring tuba players.

[Tubeast]

Bloke put it very on-the-spot. Thanks.
Tip for the PERFECT tuba book:
Have it spiral-bound, so you can read it on a music-stand hands free without it turnig itself to other pages.

Same goes with Real Book, bass clef edition, and all those etude collections.

[bloke]

This stuff sounds like bragging, but I'm offering it up as examples for OTHERS to consider...

I doubt that I'll ever be hired to play the "Chicago" Broadway show again, because I really believe they've sort of worn the show out... at least until I've likely passed away, and everything old becomes new again...

...but over the years, I've played the Broadway show "Chicago" three times with the tour. Memphis is the size town whereby they were able to sell tickets for a week's worth of shows, including two on Saturday and a Sunday matinee.

For those who don't know, the small band is on stage in the back and elevated - perhaps 12 ft up in the air on a very cramped little platform with music stands that are bolted into place and not allowed to be raised nor lowered. Mutes (regardless of the color they are painted by the manufacturers) have to be painted solid black, etc.

The tuba parts on the tunes are not difficult, but they're tremendously important, and drive all the tunes.

The first time I ever played it, I realized immediately that - with all those women up front wearing very little - I would need to concentrate on the music and keep my eyes off their rear ends, or else I would be missing entrances... Okay. I got through that hurdle, and concentrating on the music not only kept me from missing entrances, but I also ended up playing it better. (These shows only involve one read through of the entire show as a rehearsal, along with about a 30 minute sound check before the first show... That's it. More recently - as fewer working musicians these days seem to be expert sight readers - the music is sent in advance, but - back then - it was not.)

A few years later, I was a little older and a little more experienced as a musician, had played many more early jazz music gigs by then, and realized that - even though all the music was Tin Pan Alley - there are actually different sub-styles within Tin Pan Alley, and I strove to respect all of the different sub-styles that were involved in the show. Of course, this stuff involves types of attacks, lengths of notes, decay, all that sort of stuff.

The third time, I was looking for something (yet again) to concentrate on (as - again - the book itself is not difficult), and I realized that - straight down from my left ear - the percussionist (elaborate drum set plus numerous effects) was positioned on the main floor (at the back of the stage). I decided that EVERY sound I made in that show EVERY night was going to be so synchronized with his sounds, that I would NEVER hear any of his attacks. (For those reading this who have never made the decision to play in this manner consciously, it requires a little bit of courage, and it's the same type of courage that a lead trumpet player has. Many musicians refer to this as "driving the bus".). I accomplished that as well, and I've tried to sustain that skill to this day. (It's something that I always have done playing electric or string bass, but it seems like it's really easy to lag along a little bit behind when playing the tuba. Some people claim that it's because the low frequencies blah blah blah, but that's a bunch of BS. It's simply due to tuba players playing late.). A lot of people say that my tuba sound has a lot of presence, but I actually think that the secret is that my sound is right there with the principal trumpet, the percussionists, the keyboard player, and those sorts of people, and that's why it seems to have presence: because it's there at the beginning - rather than sneaking in late, (again) as with so many tuba players... INCLUDING myself, if I allow myself to stop paying attention.

The third time I played that show with the touring company, was their last stop (ever) for the tour, and it was closing down for good after Memphis. After the last show, I was really eager to get home and I was heading to the stage door pretty quickly. I suddenly realized that the music director was running up behind me. (He hadn't said a word to me all week.) He shook my hand and told me that no one had ever played the show that well on the entire tour. (Wow. That was really nice, particularly considering that - when he wasn't being a Broadway show music director - he was a busy New York City bass trombonist, including being an ON Broadway pit musician himself.)

Again, my point is NOT to brag, but (as those strategies were obviously successful) to encourage those reading this to find SOMETHING on which to concentrate specifically (particularly when it seems as though we're playing an "easy" gig), when all we are presented with is rudimentary bass lines...
... and (maybe because many of us don't additionally play upright bass or electric bass in a jazz, rock, pop, country, or bluegrass combo) we dismiss the importance of what we're doing (a combination of pulse and harmonic foundation, without which the music would not be compelling)...as what we're doing it's just about the most important thing that's going on in the music...though likely not the most immediately noticeable to the patrons.

[Mary Ann]

"The tuba isn’t sexy like the trumpet, and it seems to attract outsiders, misfits, and loners drawn to solitary toil."
I think it draws a group of extremely intelligent and mechanically as well as musically talented players who have the courage to not just be one of the crowd. I like that.

[bowerybum]

"The tuba isn’t sexy like the trumpet, and it seems to attract outsiders, misfits, and loners drawn to solitary toil."
I think it draws a group of extremely intelligent and mechanically as well as musically talented players who have the courage to not just be one of the crowd. I like that.

"Before we leave the brasses let us dwell for a moment upon the lowly and lonely tuba player. There is only one in the entire orchestra and he enjoys a certain amount of prestige-and loneliness. Tuba players never talk. They are silent, morose, uncommunicative, but they sing to themselves. They have no common interests with any of their colleagues and, as a matter of fact, most tuba players feel like they don't even belong in the orchestra. They usually strike up a strong friendship with the stage manager. How does one get to be a tuba player? Most become so by accident; someone willed a tuba to the family, the local town band needed one, etc., etc. Nevertheless, the present-day tuba player in a symphony orchestra is an artist in his craft. The young man recently engaged by the Boston Symphony does the most amazing things on his unwieldy instrument, including playing all the French horn concertos, for which he has not endeared himself to his horn colleagues."
From "Gentlemen, More Dolce Please" by Harry Ellis Dickson, 1969 By the way Harry Ellis Dickson was the father-in-law of Michael Dukakis, former governor of Massachusetts and candidate for president in 1988.

[opus37]

I read the book (completely). I enjoyed it. The perfect tuba, for what? As we all know, some tubas work better in small groups while others work better in larger groups or bands. That isn't the point of the book. It's about striving to be better, working hard and sometimes against large odds, winning a small victory.

The Chicago Yorks are legionary. The quest to recreate them goes on. Zig Kanstul probably came the closest with his Eb and F tubas. Too bad he never got to the C or BBb. Some of the characters in the book are unusual and eccentric. Some are definitely not people persons. That's not the point. It's to play your horn as best as you can and work to be better.

[tubanh84]

All that said, it's NOT my job to have the audience become the least bit aware of what I'm doing up there.

That's a strain of thought throughout this book. The types of people who are willing to work intensely hard at something that they frequently get no accolades for, and the generalized idea of doing something for the love of it. He wanted to highlight in a positive light people that he considered to be the antithesis of drug addiction and trafficking, which is frequently very selfish and self-centered and exploits others for personal enrichment.

(As a 35-ish-year veteran of the tuba and 16-year public defender, I never considered but really do appreciate the juxtaposition)

But it was really nice to read something completely respectful by essentially an outsider who was able to articulate almost exactly what you are saying - that we are a group of idiosyncratic people who have a passion for being supportive and unsung and do it for the love of it.

[Mary Ann]

But but but. I LIKE being the only tuba.