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My economic stimulus program, phase II

Originally posted on TubeNet, forums.chisham.com. Edited here for context.

I helped out Custom Music International's little inventory clearance sale, and a new silver plated B & S, PT-20 (rotary) Tuba arrived at my door Friday June 11th . They have one waiting for you!

With the encouragement and advice of a certain "RAW" (www.rawtuba.com) tubist (a great guy if I do say so), and from some pretty good write ups about the horn, I decided I'd give it a shot. I'm getting back into low brass, after being away since high school. I did major in music (UC Davis '94, generalized BA), but voice was my performance concentration. This major, today, mainly manifests itself mainly as an avid weekend composer using midi gadgets galore and loving it. I did sing with a local Symphony Choir for a while, but really didn't like it. I'm sort of digging more intimate stuff right now.

The years of playing euphonium from 4th - 11th grade, and finally tuba in 12th have stuck with me, and it was not all forgotten as it turns out ...

The economic stimulus part:

I'm in the very fortunate position here at 40 y/o, to fulfill the life long desire to get my own horns. But, uhm, I think I'm done with the buying expensive things for a while.

Tracey is right: I have lost my mind. But to my surprise, she really liked the sound of the euphonium having never really known of one (though she did play valve trombone in elementary school). At least my lips have already been in shape enough to get her to like it. She thought if I got the tuba, I'd abandon the euphonium. Hardly. They're both gorgeous, but they do different things. Still, tubas can sing and sound pretty too.

Can't report a whole lot about the PT-20 yet of course. But with the tuner out, I'm already amazed at where I'm hitting notes and generally getting around. RAW and then Neal at Custom thought it would be good horn that would naturally slot and be somewhat more forgiving in that sense, and a good horn for my immediate needs (re-learning, some solo recording stuff on my own for a while.) Perhaps they're right.

After playing the horn for the weekend and some last night (Monday), I love it! May even love it more than the euphonium. I think I'm a natural tubist more than anything else. I can hit solidly all notes easily, however, the pedal tones are a little rough on this horn. A bigger horn, and perhaps using a less shallow mouth piece and getting used to it, would help for those notes way down below C below the bass clef staff. Also reading music down there seems to be coming pretty natural. MUCH better than if I was playing a Bflat horn.

It's also the first C horn I've ever played. AND that's kind cool for me, as I've been most proficient on treble clef euphonium parts. In my mind, I'm only transposing down a couple octaves (as if the parts were on the grand staff)... makes it easier for me to think of it that way w.o. entirely new fingerings for the same notes (ie, playing a written C is open in both instruments, etc. in that context.)