# A question about tuba tunings **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 22, 2007, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-tuba-tunings/397020 "2007-03-22T14:51:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-tuba-tunings/397020/21 "2007-03-23T16:37:05Z")
[QUOTE=TubaDiva] I do take my method of expression seriously, perhaps too seriously for some. And I get really frustrated when people poke at it, make light of it. It comes from other musicians too sometimes, and that is the worst of all. [/QUOTE] Well, it’s not like you’re a violist! ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-tuba-tunings/397020/22 "2007-03-23T17:01:15Z")
[QUOTE=Muffin] Japanese war tubas… [/QUOTE] I’ll be awfully disappointed if that doesn’t become a SDMB meme. The mental imagery alone… ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2007, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-tuba-tunings/397020/23 "2007-03-24T00:05:48Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] Ah, so the sound goes the _other_ way! Still, I bet it’d be fun to stick a mouthpiece in the ear end and sound it. And I never realized that the shoulder-cannon model was considered a different instrument from the tuba. I’ve seen several with swappable necks of different shapes, so they could be played either on the shoulder or in the lap. [/QUOTE] There are convertible tubas that operate that way. In my day Corps bugles were definitely different animals. As **TubaDiva** pointed out however G Keyed instruments are no longer mandatory. I’m getting all misty and nostalgic now… Nothing on earth like standing in the middle of a corps horn line circled up and doing a music only runthrough of their show. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2007, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-tuba-tunings/397020/24 "2007-03-24T00:08:37Z")
[QUOTE=TubaDiva] There’s an excellent reason you have to be under 21 to march DCI, I think it would kill an older person. [/quote] As someone who survived it for 3 years, I agree. On several occasions members chose not to march again due to joining the millitary. It was said “s/he wimped out and joined the Marines” > [@](#): > > (who really loved The Phantom Regiment last season) “I’m marching phantom cause I like 4th place” sung to the tune of the 1812 overture. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2007, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-tuba-tunings/397020/25 "2007-03-24T00:21:58Z")
Norton has raised a flag concerning this page: “Suspicious Web page detected.” This is the first time it has ever raised a flag for me. Perhaps there is something more to Japanese war tubas than meets the eye? * * * But after editing, the warning is gone. This is weird. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2007, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-tuba-tunings/397020/26 "2007-03-24T18:24:01Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] Ah, so the sound goes the _other_ way! Still, I bet it’d be fun to stick a mouthpiece in the ear end and sound it. And I never realized that the shoulder-cannon model was considered a different instrument from the tuba. I’ve seen several with swappable necks of different shapes, so they could be played either on the shoulder or in the lap. [/QUOTE] Talking of “shoulder cannon”, didja know that the word “bazooka” was originally a reference to somebody or other’s trombone, and only later applied to an anti-AFV rocket gun? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-tuba-tunings/397020/27 "2007-03-25T00:04:51Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] Talking of “shoulder cannon”, didja know that the word “bazooka” was originally a reference to somebody or other’s trombone, and only later applied to an anti-AFV rocket gun? [/QUOTE] [small hijack] It actually goes back to a homemade invention from about 1918. “Two gas pipes and a funnel” was the description. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-tuba-tunings/397020/28 "2007-03-25T00:16:47Z")
[QUOTE=samclem] [small hijack] It actually goes back to a homemade invention from about 1918. “Two gas pipes and a funnel” was the description. [/hijack] [/QUOTE] Specifically credited to comedian [Bob Burns](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Burns). > [@](#): > > The bazooka spans the musical gap between trombone and slide whistle. It’s made from two nested lengths of gas pipe and a whiskey funnel. In the hands of a master it can poot across a range of about six notes. From [http://users.aristotle.net/~russjohn/burns.html](http://users.aristotle.net/~russjohn/burns.html) , which has a picture of one. > [@](#): > > It is one of hundreds built by entertainer Bob Burns, and possibly the only one still intact, for Bob was finishing his act by destroying his instrument before any of the members of The Who were born. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-tuba-tunings/397020/29 "2007-03-25T00:53:19Z")
[QUOTE=yabob] Specifically credited to comedian [Bob Burns](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Burns). From [http://users.aristotle.net/~russjohn/burns.html](http://users.aristotle.net/~russjohn/burns.html) , which has a picture of one. [/QUOTE] Except I just found a cite from a 1918 newspaper that describes the invention exactly. I posted it as an antedating over at [The American Dialect Society](http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0703D&L=ADS-L&P=R3610&I=-3). But, to give credit, I do lots of my searches because of things I read on the Dope. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2007, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-tuba-tunings/397020/30 "2007-03-25T01:04:53Z")
Some of the accounts on Burns suggest that he introduced into his act in the 30’s and 40’s after having come up with it 20 years earlier. Burns could have easily invented it before 1918, since he was born in 1890. The link I provided said he invented it at age 16. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-tuba-tunings/397020.md?page=1)