Posted by Sean Chisham on March 26, 1999 at 13:58:35:
In Reply to: 3 or 4 valve 3/4 BBb for an 11 yr. old daughter? posted by Oscar on March 26, 1999 at 10:30:48:
Wow! 11 yrs old and playing the tuba?!!! Go get'em!
As far as a tuba goes, I would think that at her age and size, just about any instrument would work. When she transfers schools, they will most likely have a satisfactory tuba for Jr. High students. Then again, I was in high school before I had been playing for 3 years and needed a 4 valve instrument, which not all schools have.
A good place for horns like this is Dillon Music. They are linked off of the "Music Shops" section of TubeNet. They get in used horns all the time, and they also make sure they are in good playing condition before they resell them. They can offer some great advice on some good deals. Yamaha has some decent prices on 4 valve BBb's. The Yamaha's are also VERY durable instruments, i.e. they will withstand the abuses of future jr. high students. Miraphone 185's or 186's could also be looked at, but they are a bit larger.
When I was in jr. high, I played on a big Conn 3 valve BBb which was held up entirelly by a tuba stand. I am not talking about a small DEG type stand. I am speaking of a stand which you fit the instrument into and clamp it down. That Conn was a monster, but the stand made it possible to both play the instrument AND it helped to prevent damage to the horn itself. You didn't have to pack and unpack the horn everytime it was played or set it on it's bell somewhere. The horn stayed in the stand all the time. I can only imagine what that horn would have looked like if it had been handled by pre-teens for all those years.
This may or may not work well for your daughter, because it sounds like she actually totes the horn back and forth to school on a regular basis.
You should make a sound file of her playing something and put it up on a web page. It would be neat to hear an 11yr old tubist who has already been playing for 3 years.
sean