Posted by Steve Marcus on September 06, 2001 at 00:09:33:
In Reply to: What'd you used to play posted by Steve Dedman on September 05, 2001 at 20:54:55:
Although I dreamed of playing tuba from a very young age, I started on piano at age 5. I didn't play tuba until many years later because:
1. My parents wouldn't let me join the band because they felt that chorus and piano lessons were enough involvement with music; any more musical activity would compromise my school work and my piano lessons (my parents were NOT musicians--no surprise there).
2. As the shortest guy in class, I feared being laughed at for playing the largest instrument.
Thinking that it would be my last fling with music (my parents were dead set against my being a music major - "You can't make a living in music"), my parents finally allowed me to teach myself tuba in the summer before my senior year of high school, and I did play tuba in band that year.
BTW, after one miserable semester at college as a pre-med major, I transferred to another college as a music major.
I still play piano professionally, but tuba is definitely my favorite instrument.