Posted by Chris Horsch on January 11, 2000 at 15:15:01:
In Reply to: Re: Why not start new players on CC or F ? posted by Rob Perelli-Minetti on January 11, 2000 at 08:35:43:
I really enjoyed the historical perspective you brought to this question, in part because it is consistent with my own experience. I started on an Eflat tuba in the fifth grade, 1952. It was small and so was I. I switched to a BBflat sousaphone two years later. It is what the school provided through high school for marching band, concert band and orchestra. I spent two high school summers at Interlochen, 1956 and 1957. In those two summers, the only tuba player I can recall who did not play a BBflat provided by Interlochen was Roger Bobo in 1956. He played his own CC. He, of course, was on a different planet from the rest of us. In 1957, I bought a new tuba and never considered anything other than a BBflat. I have never played professionally and did not play in college. My father advised, undoubtedly correctly, that I was destined to starve as a professional musician. I still play the BBflat, regularly with a local group that plays for itself, simply for the sake of playing.
The youth today seem to have increased opportunities, expectations, demands, affluence and seriousness concerning their playing and musical careers. With that, I can appreciate some lack of patience in progressing through the old pattern, particularly if the prospect of starvation has been realistically ruled out, as it seems to be for a much greater portion of the youth today than 40 years ago. Instant gratification can be expensive, however.