TubaForum.net

What did I play today? I "played" carpenter/upholsterer.

One of the fancy end chairs of my dining room set broke last year. I thought it would be covered under the warranty, but it was beyond the time frame. So it sat in the garage. Last week I looked at what broke and realized it was repairable. I am not a carpenter, woodworker, upholsterer or craftsman, but I can solve problems. So, yesterday morning it was time to fix the chair.

Sadly I don't really have a "before" picture. Basically, the front 2 legs were sticking straight out forward as a result of leaning to pick something up and putting all of my weight on 1 corner.


First I put Gorilla Wood glue on the mortise and tenon where it came apart. Then I muscled the legs back into position. With a pair of $9 Harbor Freight clamps it was finally looking like a chair.


There were wooden braces that helped strengthen the chair, but they pulled out. Honestly, they weren't very sturdy. I decided to go with a pair of steel L brackets from Lowes. I did have to change the angle of them to match the non-90 degree angle of the 2 pieces Much better!


Then I put a large bolt through the 2 pieces that failed, that I had glued together earlier. I needed a physical connection. This was much better than the silly screw that was there before.


Now I had to deal with this mess on both sides.


Ideally, I would have recovered the top and made it perfect. I wasn't going for a perfect repair, but rather fully functional and decent looking repair. Fortunately I know how to sew. I reused the decorative nails. Yeah...don't do that. They wouldn't go back in straight. I don't have a picture of the nail repair.....for a reason. I'll get a new set and replace these.


The chair is now back in service, instead of awkwardly missing at the head of the table.

First Street festival of the season was rained out so no gig this weekend ... Boo

Today was commencement at the University.. had a Ph.D. to hood so I had to be there. 13,000 students in the processional so our poor orchestra and wind ensemble had to play Pomp and Circumstance for 50 minutes on repeat while everyone walked in. I am sure Elgar is rolling in his grave.

Yesterday, I performed:

Itaru Sakai — Fanfare of Wakakusa Hill
Edward Gregson — Festivo
Nubia Jaime Donjuan — Sahuaro
Josef Rheinberger — Abendlied (Evening Song)
arranged by Shelley Hanson
John Philip Sousa — Sesquicentennial Exposition March
Derek Bourgeois — Serenade
H. Owen Reed — La Fiesta Mexicana

Mark wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 5:50 pm Yesterday, I performed:

Itaru Sakai — Fanfare of Wakakusa Hill
Edward Gregson — Festivo
Nubia Jaime Donjuan — Sahuaro
Josef Rheinberger — Abendlied (Evening Song)
arranged by Shelley Hanson
John Philip Sousa — Sesquicentennial Exposition March
Derek Bourgeois — Serenade
H. Owen Reed — La Fiesta Mexicana

My freshman year of high school, I played the Bourgeois Serenade the first and only time, and the melody has been an earworm of mine ever since. That 11/8 has lasting power even 20 years later!

arpthark wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 6:06 pm My freshman year of high school, I played the Bourgeois Serenade the first and only time, and the melody has been an earworm of mine ever since. That 11/8 has lasting power even 20 years later!

Don't forget the 13/8 and the 7/8 and the 12/8 and the 3/8. Still, it was fun.

I pitched the first game, and played 3rd base for the second.

.

Last night I was at a next-to-last rehearsal featuring three (all "big", yet none all that commonly programmed) John Williams things, a Gershwin thing, a set of humorous Sousa pieces from the El Capitan operetta, a Hobbit thing, and a Schindler's List thing...

I was pleased (even though I hadn't looked at any of it since the last rehearsal) that I had apparently drilled all of it enough at home that - well - it "stuck", and I was personally satisfied with my individual competency re: playing those pieces.

Ensemble-wise, most of the pieces aren't where they need to be.
The music director is extremely competent, but (maybe?) a bit too nice...
Maybe (??), the rehearsal-before-the-dress is a bit too late to tell a group of people that they are neither moving along quickly enough nor satisfactorily enough. (Everyone seems capable of doing what needs to be done.)

I could see people spending time with their metronomes/tuners this week, but (well...) that preparedness level should be brought to the first rehearsal (yes?), so that the subsequent three rehearsals involve (not notes, not rhythm/tuning, not ensemble playing, but) phrasing/music.

#1 reading
#2 mostly rehearse first halves of pieces
#3 mostly rehearse last halves of pieces
#4 dress
==========
#5 concert

bloke "Maybe I'm too proud - or too afraid of being publicly embarrassed/shamed, but I always try to show up being able to play the charts, and - in order to avoid sounding frantic - several clicks above customary tempi...oh yeah, and PARTICULARLY since tuba parts are rarely the most complicated...There IS this thing called 'youtube'..."

.

gocsick wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 4:33 pm First Street festival of the season was rained out so no gig this weekend ... Boo

Today was commencement at the University.. had a Ph.D. to hood so I had to be there. 13,000 students in the processional so our poor orchestra and wind ensemble had to play Pomp and Circumstance for 50 minutes on repeat while everyone walked in. I am sure Elgar is rolling in his grave.

I remember how mind numbing playing Pomp & Circumstance over and over was at those things - felt like an eternity. Always thought it would have been great if we could have broken into Alice Coopers “Schools Out” or Todd Rungrens "Bang the Drum All Day”. I think the graduates would have been amused - the administration not so much.

I'm pretty fortunate that my church seems to enjoy (or at least put up with) a variety of instruments and styles. In the past month I've played for offertory - euphonium in a brass quintet, trumpet in a trumpet trio, and Irish penny whistle in a duet with a young violinist lady, accompanied by guitar and piano. Along with bass guitar every week, of course. Next month I sing with our men's quartet. Then in August I organize our 15-piece mass bluegrass string band, performers from age 10 to 70-something.
I'm hoping it pleases the Lord as much as it seems to please the congregation!
Tim

An hour of long tones against drones with a tuner, and another hour playing the same etude in all 12 keys, all on the Holton 345.

I also installed 8 new felts to the pistons during a break.

too exhausted to practice for the last two or three days, I'm exhausted right now, but after a 30 or 45 minute nap - which is going to start right now, maybe I'll pick up the tuba and see if I can remind myself how to play it.

It's a little game i call "bring your tuba on public transportation after the bars close."

I think i won, but it's hard to tell, as i don't know the rules.
They did get surprisingly far in a rendition "of play me a tune, you're tuba man" and kept coming back to the imperial march. The one i wish i'd gotten more of though, came right at the end: "the only one who could ever reach me, was the son of a tuba man"

Anyway, sleep sounds like a good idea...

I am playing (seriously practicing) oboe and Ehorn. Because I have an offer of a place in a concert band on both instruments next fall if I can get myself into good enough shape. It is a hands problem; for many months the neuropathy was so bad I couldn't feel the keys (but could still whack away at tuba paddles) and finally through B12 injections (YAY!) I got back enough feeling in fingertips to where yikes that is where those keys are! It will be a haul -- but I saw progress in just five days so perhaps I can do this, and, well, it's something to DO other than read a book. I am meeting with the one good reed maker in the entire state in a few hours, because she is down from Phx for some kind of gig rehearsal that happens to be just ten minutes away from here, I am taking both instruments, and we'll try to come up with Cor reeds that work for me. It is so odd, Phx is only about 1000 feet different in altitude (lower) and that makes reeds that work there play like popsicle sticks here. Having good reeds is about 99% of the battle with oboe.

Got to play a street festival for the Children's Hospital Neighborhood Outreach program. They have bounce houses and a petting zoo , free ice cream, and music. We do a couple of these a year in different inner City neighborhoods.

My 17 year old son was able to play with me... as I would have been the lone bass otherwise. He was on the sousa and I took the 20J. He did great considering he was sight reading most of the charts and playing over changes on the others. Weather was horrible, sunny and pleasant temperatures, but stung gusty winds that repeatedly took down stands and blew music down the street.

Unfortunately we had one serious casulailty. One Trombone player's stand took a tumble and while she was trying to catch her iPad she dropped her bone, a relatively new Bach 42B. So there was a smashed screen and an unplayable slide. I hope the slide work costs her less than the iPad screen.

Wind got high enough that it was hard to hear across the band... lots of tearing and tempo problems. We had our second drummer playing today... who is good but gets overly fancy when we sometimes just need a loud steady pulse. I had to ask him to just give give me a beat so I can keep the baseline steady and hopefully reign in the trumpets.

Kids and old folks loved it though. Lots of New Orleans stuff, 80s new wave, and 80s & 90s R&B on the set list today. Definitely feeling my age when the old lady in a wheelchair screamed "That's my jam" to Word Up by Cameo. Also did Take on Me, 99 Red balloons, Bap Bap, Mercy Mercy Mercy, The Chicken, and Sweet Dreams (are made of this).. plus a bunch of Rebirth Brass Band and Trombone Shorty "Standards". 1.5 hour set.

Speaking of Pomp and Circumstance, we played that - among many other typical/standard tunes - earlier today for an academy graduation. Brass quintet; me on tuba. We loop a section of it until they are done doing their thing, then finish it out. Preludes and postludes are part of it -- kinda similar to Easter or Christmas gigs, but with some different music.

I also wanted to practice trumpet later today. Been building my trumpet chops. But my roommate has been driving me nuts, which affects my mood. It's enough that I have to feed and tend to my cat, along with other things needing to be done after I come back.

Mathew78 wrote: Sat May 17, 2025 12:32 pm Hey all,
I've been doing buzzing exercises on my mouthpiece almost daily before I pick up the horn. I usually go for about 10–15 minutes, but lately my lips feel a bit fatigued before I even start playing. Just wondering—how long do most of you buzz, and do you ever skip it altogether? Trying to figure out if I'm overdoing it.

Thanks!

I'm obviously not a pro, but I'm a competent player, and I have never understood why someone would buzz, except for one thing: when I was still trying to conquer the (French) horn I had a huge break in the sound going to the low range. I had a ten minute drive to work, and I took the mouthpiece with me and buzzed over that break, up and down and up and down, on my way to and from work. It took about two months (yup that is a long time) but after that two months the break was gone and I could siren over the whole range smoothly. I don't feel that buzzing is not the same as playing because you don't have the resistance of the instrument, the pitches won't even come out the same (on horn anyway) and so I didn't find any other use for it.

Had a busy weekend. Dress rehearsal Saturday. The concert was Sunday.

We started off with Galop Festivo by Randall Standridge (~3:45)
de Meij's Symphony No 1 "The Lord of the Rings" (~40 min)
And finally some unremarkable patriotic medley with about 2.5 million key changes. Have I mentioned I despise medleys?

Anyway, I think it went pretty well. The band has a nice mix of band directors, music teachers, ex-military musicians, college students, high school players, and hobbyists. The church we played in has really nice acoustics. It was a good time.

'The Bombastic Bombardon' - I played it last year with one of the brass bands. They asked if we can play it again for the summer concert in two weeks. Flattered, but also scrambling to dust it off as I have not played it since :)

Fortunately my partner caught a good part of it last year when we played; . Humbled they let me be a soloist on occasion, it is not something I am used to or comfortable doing.