I got a new tuba recently, as some of you may know. (previous thread) Then my gigs dried up. So, what’s a guy to do when he’s stuck in the house? Make a video, of course!
In my previous thread, some folks asked if I would make a video of me actually playing it. I wanted to get a few gigs under my belt and get used to the new horn, but that’s not going to happen for a while, so I did this. Funky Tubas, yo.
That was great but your tuba needs to speak up! I thought they were loud.
Nice performance!
Loud tubas are an urban legend. With their conical bore, tubas produce a mellow sound, as does the F horn and the cornet. Trumpets and trombones, with cylindrical bores, are sharper, brighter, more direct.
When I was in the Rude Mechanical Orchestra, Brooklyn radical leftist marching band and dance troupe, it was suggested I leave the tuba, flute, and sax at home and bring the trumpet (which I’m pretty crappy on) because we wanted to be NOISIER.
Absolutely awesome! Thanks!!
This totally fucking rocks!
Way cool!
That was fun! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, guys!
I think I’m going to put the sheet music up on SheetMusicPlus. They have a program where, not only can you sell your own sheet music, they have an agreement with Hal Leonard to allow folks to arrange music that is in copyright still. It’s a limited list, but pretty darn extensive.
There’s a very limited supply of arrangements for four contrabass tubas. Usually, quartets are for two euphoniums and two bass or contrabass tubas.* I think I’m going to try to fill that need. My target is pretty much school tuba sections.
The trick for contrabasses is in the harmonies. You can’t really put such low instruments in close harmony. It gets muddy sounding. Our ears aren’t built for that. So what you have to do is spread the harmonies out a bit** and build in sparseness in the parts and not have too much going on at once. The other problem, especially for less competent players, is range. Very few high school level players can get to a Bb on the top of the staff and it’s very difficult to play quick or complicated parts below a low Bb, so you only have about two octaves to play with.
Next song: Iron Man.
*Euphoniums (or baritone horns) are basically tenor tubas, in the same range as trombones. Contrabass tubas are your typical tuba like you might see high schoolers playing. Bass tubas are Eb or F tubas, pitched half an octave higher than contrabass tubas or half an octave below euphoniums. But you knew that, right?
** For example, in Funkytown, I voiced a Cm7 chord as a low C below the staff, a Bb on the second line and an Eb up in the staff a fourth above that. You don’t need the fifth. Power chords work well. Root, fifth, octave.
Well done!
Brilliant
Great job. You are a fantastic entertainer.
Love this!
you should send tubadiva a link im sure shed appreciate something like that (that’s not us bitching about the board performance)
Very fine performance! Tubby could not have done better. Tubas usually are low and rhythmic, not so much loud. I am speaking from my days in marching band, and as a flutist. The tuba was subtle in its sound, if anything, esp on the marching field with all that entails. Frankly, I was mostly trying to play my own instrument, and keep my eight beats between lines or whatever it was…and the tuba’s thump thump in the background helped with that.
Neat!
Will look forward to “I.M.”
Suggestions for a third:
“Slip It In” - Black Flag (dissonant, speedy challenge)
“Happy Together” - Turtles
“Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me and My Monkey” - Beatles (very busy number - there’s so much going on in this tune that if you managed to capture all of it, that would be quite amazing)
Way cool! I’m an old (ex) brass player… mainly trumpet, but occasionally french horn and trombone. I tried tuba a few times but didn’t have much luck.
Do you mind if I share your link with a group of my old marching band alums?
We were one of the first HS bands to go to a drum corp style show so there are a lot of brass players there who would love it. Came in second in MBA nationals back in 78.
Nah, I don’t mind at all. Bring 'em on.
Wow, requests? Hm. I’ll consider it.
Curious if you can throw in a sousaphone track/square. Or are you now a bassist-cum-tubaist (no idea what the noun for that is - sorry) that dismisses the sousaphone like this former squasher reeeaallllly dissed racquetballers?
More for marching; not as many valves, I guess, but hey the optics.
My final two offerings:
“Take Me to the River” (nice in the pocket bass groove on that one)
“Bohemian Rhapsody”
honorbale mention:
“Flight of the Bumble Bee”
Well, I don’t have a sousaphone. I got the helicon as an alternative to a sousa. I don’t care for the way they sound, they are unbalanced and uncomfortable, helicons play more like a regular tuba and sousas usually don’t have four valves. Sousas have their uses, but they don’t coincide with mine.
Take Me to The River is a nice choice. I’ve been thinking about it already. 
I won’t do BoRhap- it’s been done to death, as has Bumblebee. Thing is, really complex tunes are very problematic for tubas as outlined above. Don’t get me wrong- I appreciate the suggestions.
Oh- it’s Tubist.
I dunno. Needs more bass. 
Great idea and execution. I enjoyed it!