Posted by Greg Crider on September 06, 2001 at 00:44:19:
In Reply to: What'd you used to play posted by Steve Dedman on September 05, 2001 at 20:54:55:
I started out on tuba last 10 weeks of my 9th grade year; there was no beginning band at my elementary school until that year, and I missed the band call at the beginning of my first year of high school because of ear problems. I learned trumpet fingerings as I was learning tuba fingerings, so I used to sit behind the 1st trumpets and play their parts when we had time off, which taught me to be dissatisfied with the lack of challenge of tuba parts. I learned to play trombone and baritone as a 10th grader just for the heck of it. The local symphony orchestra sent me to Transylvania music camp in Brevard, N.C., where I studied with John Taylor, who totally turned my playing around. I believe that he was studying with Arnold Jacobs at the time, and he passed along a lot of great information to me in a very short time.
In college, majored in Math and Music Ed. I picked up bass guitar and bought a MW 25. I sold the tuba a couple of years after graduation and have played bass in a general business band for 27 years. I have played rock, blues, shows, church music, jazz, etc. on the side on bass. Occasionally I would pick up a community band or Civil War Band re-enactment gig on the side on tuba using borrowed horns. I got the bug to play tuba again last winter, bought a Cerveny 601 4V CC, and have been enjoying it thoroughly. My heart and fingering skills still belong to BBb, though, so I'll be probably switching back within the next year.