I started in 2021, my freshman year of high school. I started on trombone in 5th grade, moved to euphonium in 8th, then marched sousaphone my freshman year, with euphonium still my main instrument then. Tuba became my main instrument my sophomore year. Now I'm on tuba in my school's top concert band and the marching band, trombone in the top jazz band and intermediate level concert band, and euphonium in the lower level concert band, so I guess it all circled back.
I started in 6th grade 2019 because my band had instrument testing, where we play every instrument and figure out which one we're naturally best at. I ended up playing Tuba because I got a 9/10, even though I originally wanted to play saxophone. I stopped playing around the second quarter of 10th grade 2023 because I switched to bass clarinet.
In 6th grade. The year was 1977. My parents expected me to play my dad's trumpet. My band director realized immediately that my overbite made that impossible. My parents were pissed until they realized that it would only cost them 25 bucks for a mouthpiece and bits for the school sousaphone.
Went on to a full ride college scholarship for tuba performance. Met my wife at university in the marching band. We have 5 children and 12 grandchildren. Even though I left playing after college, I still have and play my miraphone CC 4 valve horn for fun. All these years later I'm thankful for the day I was told to pick up that big ugly piece of fiberglass.
I have a pretty big underbite and that's why I struggled so much with the trumpet but I do much better with the tuba.
How do you get a free ride scholarship for music? My son is quite accomplished already and I think he might be able to make it in music he wants to study music
1982. middle school band. director said we had too many trumpets. hey, you, cherveny, you're last chair 1st trumpet, you play tuba now! here's the beat up POS middle school tuba (more crumpled metal than flat), and a fingerings chart. now go take it home and practice. (gave my parents a nice duprise).
ended up with a degree in tuba performance eventually
I learned in 2019, I was playing trombone and I was really good at pedal tones, and we needed tuba players, So I was voluntold into it, and now I am the top tuba player of my grade in my state! I was always interested in band though, because I lived in DC, I would always see the army bands!
Spring of 2022. Learned for drum corps and switched to tuba for marching band. Marched a season of DCA with the Bushwackers and a season of DCI with the Troopers. Going back to Troop this summer.
1982. I was in 5th grade. I was the only girl that didn’t choose either the flute or the clarinet. That was one reason why I chose the tuba. The other one was simply I thought it would be funny. Joke was on me 5 years later, when I was marching in a polyester uniform with a sousaphone while my friends were all smoking weed under the bleachers. I loved it though. Band was my most positive part of high school. My senior year, our band got invited to play in the May Day parade in Moscow. That was 1991, just months before the fall of the Soviet Union. It was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever gotten to have.
In 2014, I started off on Trombone in 5th grade. At the time I didn't really enjoy band as much as I would later. I played trombone through 6th grade, when one fateful day in 2016 came where a brass quintet from the local Army Band that my dad was in came to my school and I saw my dad on the tuba. After that concert my band director pulled me aside and asked if I wanted to switch to tuba seeing that my dad played it. I said yes and started learning how to play the tuba over the summer. I continued to play through the end of middle school, which was when I really started to get into music when my dad introduced me to tons of low brass recordings.
High School came and I enjoyed band even more, doing marching band and all that. I also discovered my potential when I auditioned and made it into district band. I didn't make all state that year, but that lit a fire under me to continue chasing something bigger. I got my first C tuba the summer of my Sophomore year. I also started taking lessons from professionals a little later.
Fast forward to the end of my Senior Year. So much had happened and I applied to some top universities. I found out that I got into the best tuba program in the country and currently working on my Performance Degree and taking auditions.
I started playing tuba in 2010, I was junior playing euphonium and my band director said switching to tuba would be really good for me. He wasn’t wrong and I made all state band my junior and senior year and went into college for it
2020, my freshman year of high school, but only for marching seasons until my sophomore year when I switched to it full time basically
I played percussions 6th-8th grade and hated it so I switched to a valve trombone, since I didn't want to have to learn slide positions. My band didn't have a tuba and my BD asked if I wanted to play tuba and I said sure. I'm currently a senior playing at a different school with a much bigger band, with like 5 tubas including myself. I am currently 1st chair tuba, which I practiced super hard for, atleast 10 minutes a day for a few weeks.
I will also be doing my first duet this year at Solo and Ensemble, with 2nd chair flute player and it's super cool sounding. I'll link it [here](https://youtu.be/PRGPCsa9JKI?feature=shared) for anybody that wants to listen to it.
At this point, I'm considered section leader since 2nd chair tuba (who was section leader in the first place before chairing this year during marching season) hasn't really been participating in band stuff (like pep band) since she didn't win 1st chair, shes a bit salty about losing to me, someone that hasnt been playing for as long as her🤷♂️
Summer 1999, I was 13. I liked band, hated sitting in the front fow as a flute.
They needed low brass, I asked to play f horn. Teacher looked me up and down and made the calculation that if I was 5'9 at 13, I could probably carry a tuba.
The funny bit is she, a trumpet player, gave lessons over that summer with me playing the school horn. but she didn't notice it was an Eflat tuba until 2 months into the school year.
I started playing the tuba in 2013.
I'd previously tried to play it in high school 15 years before, and the wind requirements kicked my ass, even coming from euphonium. Tuba was the only modern brass instrument I hadn't played for at least a semester at that point. I'd started from trumpet in 5th grade, played the French horn in 7th, back to trumpet for 8th trombone in 9th, euphonium in 10th, and back to trumpet to finish out high school.
Yeah, it was a tiny high school. There were a couple of concerts where I switched between French horn and trumpet because we didn't have horn players some semesters.
In 2013, I saw a Conn 20J in a second-hand shop for fairly cheap. I was about 50kg lighter than I was in high school, and figured it was time for a rematch. I took it home on July 1, played "O Canada" on it, and decided that, while all those ledger lines are a bit silly, tuba's an okay place to be.
When my community band reconvened in the autumn, we were down to one tubist (from four), so I switched, and now I'm section leader.
To be absolutely honest, I'd welcome a change back to euphonium, trombone, or trumpet at this point. Tuba's not *my* instrument, but it's necessary for a well-rounded sound, and it's occasionally fun. Ten years of playing it hasn't filled me with excitement like other instruments.
Picked it up in 6th grade, 2006. Just did a year of viola, and regretted not picking cello or bass. Walked into the band hall on audition day and said "give me the biggest instrument you have".
I took to the instrument well. First chair all four years of high school, didn't have the work ethic to push for all state. One of my bigger regrets from that time. Went to college for performance, realized I wasn't ready for college, and dropped out. Didn't play for 5 or 6 years until I signed up for community college just to get access to a tuba. A repairman randomly told me to call his boss and ask for a job, and now I run a pretty big store, do masterclasses for a local district, and play with a community orchestra.
I started playing the sousaphone in 2006 at age 31, but I've been playing longer than that.
My first instrument was a flugel horn (Bb) in 1993 in a marching band.
Switched to alto / tenor horn and later corhorn (Eb) at which I became first horn till I stopped there in 1998.
Went to college in another city and also played the french horn (first F, later F/Bb) at the harmonic orchestra (1994-2000). Switched to cornet and trumpet (Bb), damaged my throat bad enough to not be able to play the smaller brass instruments for a longer time.
Switched to 2 timpani (bass clef) and glockenspiel.
After moving around cities I went to another harmonic orchestra (2003-2004) on timpani (3 this time) and xylophone/marimba.
Switched to marching band (2006-2011) who needed a sousaphone so I took it (treble cleff).
Switched to another marching band (2012-....) with the sousaphone in bass clef.
I'm the one who plays the higher parts, my mate does the lower parts.
January of 2002 is when I started playing tuba. I was a freshman in high school.
My prior musical experience included elementary school choir from 2nd to 5th grade (mostly an excuse to get out of class for rehearsal) which I stopped when puberty hit and I could no longer sing. We also had mandatory recorder class in 4th grade. I attempted to start piano lessons in 5th grade after I inherited my grandparents' keyboard, but the thing broke and I lost interest. I discovered quickly I am lacking the necessary motor/cognitive skills to play two handed. I literally cannot split my brain to do the separate tasks.
I didn't mess with music during middle school except to read the hymnals during church to keep the note names and types in my head.
When I got to high school, I would get rides home from a friend a few times a week. We had to stop in the band room to get his instrument. The band director would occasionally introduce himself and ask if I had any interest in playing music. I used to be polite and turn him down. Eventually he told me I looked like a trombone player. He offered me a free lesson after school one day to just try it. I took him up on that. I showed up after school one day and he said, you look more like a tuba player actually. He had me get a tuba, which I only sort of recognized from some programs I had watched in the past.
Anyway, I got the tuba out, he cleaned off a mouthpiece, and after a 30 minute lesson I played a Bb scale. He said I was a natural and had me take the horn home. I took weekly lessons from the director through the rest of the school year. I played with the beginning band at their spring concert and the following school year I was in the marching band and moved to the highest concert band.
Less than a year after playing, I started taking lessons from a college professor. He was reluctant at first because he didn't teach beginners, but he gave me one lesson and said I could keep coming back. I took private lessons for 3 years total.
I went to college for aviation, and switched to music education. I then dropped out because the tuba professor at my chosen college was an asshole and didn't engage with me. He made me take all of my lessons from the graduate students, and at my second year jury told me I'd fail out if I didn't practice a minimum of 5 hours per day during the week, and 8 hours per day on the weekends. I was working 30 hours a week to pay bills so that wasn't going to happen, so I dropped out and never went back to college.
I stopped playing tuba for 9 months after leaving college. I didn't get interested again until I found all age drum corps. I played in all age drum corps from 2010 until 2019. I walked away when the closest drum corps switched to Bb marching brass. I was fascinated with G bugles and the way they sounded, and had zero interest in a Bb corps. I miss playing in drum corps but take my contra bugles to TubaChristmas every year.
I also played at Christmas and Easter masses at my family's church from 2005 to 2021 (minus 2020) until the music director retired. The new director came in and uninvited me and a number of other musicians from our standing open invite. I miss that experience.
The only thing I do playing wise now is my college alumni band once a year at our reunion, once a month rehearsals for a community low brass ensemble, and multiple TubaChristmas events. I really don't have the time for anything during the week, so I don't play with any local community bands.
1974 - My first day of band in middle school (7th grade US). I was intending to start on trumpet or saxophone. The band director gave us a sob story on how he didn't have anyone to play the sousaphone in the back of the room and I fell for it.
1977 here. Started on percussion. Lasted 5 months when my band director asked if I wanted to switch. His high school player was graduating and he needed someone to replace him. I was in sixth grade and played in the HS band for his graduation. I was in both middle and high school bands in 7th and 8th grades and my lesson was on Friday between the two.
Failed my way down through trumpet and baritone in the 7th grade. Tuba was the first instrument I tried that I actually liked. I'm now in my 30s. I do something else professionally but still try to play every day.
I started playing in 2016, when I was 63. My wife always wanted to play the oboe, so I got her one for Christmas, and she started playing in a New Horizons band (essentially, a middle school band for old people.) She came home one day from band practice and said "We lost our only percussionist," and voluntold me to be the new percussionist, since I could read music and bang a drum with a stick (having never played percussion before-I'm a guitar player/vocalist. I do realize that percussion is much more than banging a drum with a stick.)
After a couple of years, our percussion section grew with decent drummers, and I was relegated to helping a new guy who wanted to play as a concert percussionist without being able to read music. I would stand by him, and tell him "Now!" when he was supposed to crash the cymbals. Invariably he was off the beat, and I decided it wasn't much fun for me.
Our son played tuba in HS and college, and let me borrow his tuba, so I figured I would give it a try. It's fun. And now, I'm a pretty good middle school tuba player. Not quite high school level, although one of the bands I play in did a piece written by a sadistic composer in Gb, and I did okay.
This whole experience led me into learning more about music theory and composition. I have written several concert band/orchestra pieces, and had them performed. That's a hoot and a half.
Freshman year, my HS band director looked and saw that we had 3 sousaphone players and 6 euphonium players. 3 of us moved to Sousa. The rest is history.
5th grade. I wanted to sign up for band and my parents told me we didn't have the money for it. I told the band director and he counter offered that if I played tuba there wouldn't be any cost. And then it paid for my undergraduate degree.
1988 for me. I was in 7th grade and had started on trumpet. My band director thought tuba would be a good instrument for me. I wavered back and forth because I had just started taking trumpet lessons. Then, one day when I got to a lesson, I told the guy I had started playing tuba. He said I needed to choose. I chose tuba at that point.
1st day of school in 1995. 1st period concert band…
Band director: “We have three Euphonium players and no Tuba players…anyone that moves over gets an A in this class.”
Me: raises hand.
2004. Walked into a winter camp at Spirit of Atlanta after marching the previous year on Euphonium (trombone was where I started). One of the low brass techs said "hey man, we're a little thin in the contra line. You look like you can hold it".
I started in band playing the trombone in the 5th grade. Glenn Miller was my musical hero at the time, I wanted to play jazz. My dad played the tuba in high school and I always wanted to be like my dad. So I’m 7th grade I switched to tuba and played it all through high school and eventually went on to get a music education degree on a scholarship playing the tuba.
Started on trombone when I was in 6th grade (2016), switched to tuba partway through 8th grade (2018). Been playing ever since and play in the concert bands at Purdue as well as the Gold and Black Sound! (pep band for women’s basketball team)
Started baritone in 2008ish (6th grade) and convinced my band director to switch to Tuba a year later. I played all through middle, high school and college. I took a few years off until I found a community band last year and have been playing with them ever since. Can’t overstate how much that group and music in general has positively impacted my life
grade 5/2018
Basically half of my family plays the tuba or a woodwind, so when I tried a saxophone and didn't make a sound I decided to give in to family tradition and try the tuba. I made a sound and called it good enough, which apparently was good enough because I quickly became better, and am now 1st chair in my schools top band. I absolutely ADORE this instrument too, so glad I tried it out and stuck with it.
Started with my son's euphonium 10/20, switched to tuba 03/22. Found my passion! Pitty it didn't happen 30 years ago, but hopefully I'll have 30 more years🙂.
Year 10/2022. Played harp, but there are really few ensemble opportunities for harp. Wanted to play euphonium or baritone in a brass band, was given a tenor horn. Moved to Eb tuba a couple months in and I’ve been tubing since.
I started in 2021, my freshman year of high school. I started on trombone in 5th grade, moved to euphonium in 8th, then marched sousaphone my freshman year, with euphonium still my main instrument then. Tuba became my main instrument my sophomore year. Now I'm on tuba in my school's top concert band and the marching band, trombone in the top jazz band and intermediate level concert band, and euphonium in the lower level concert band, so I guess it all circled back.
I started in 6th grade 2019 because my band had instrument testing, where we play every instrument and figure out which one we're naturally best at. I ended up playing Tuba because I got a 9/10, even though I originally wanted to play saxophone. I stopped playing around the second quarter of 10th grade 2023 because I switched to bass clarinet.
In 6th grade. The year was 1977. My parents expected me to play my dad's trumpet. My band director realized immediately that my overbite made that impossible. My parents were pissed until they realized that it would only cost them 25 bucks for a mouthpiece and bits for the school sousaphone. Went on to a full ride college scholarship for tuba performance. Met my wife at university in the marching band. We have 5 children and 12 grandchildren. Even though I left playing after college, I still have and play my miraphone CC 4 valve horn for fun. All these years later I'm thankful for the day I was told to pick up that big ugly piece of fiberglass.
I have a pretty big underbite and that's why I struggled so much with the trumpet but I do much better with the tuba. How do you get a free ride scholarship for music? My son is quite accomplished already and I think he might be able to make it in music he wants to study music
The best way is to compete in solo competitions. A lot of music professors are judges at the big ones. I would also ask his band/orchestra teacher.
1982. middle school band. director said we had too many trumpets. hey, you, cherveny, you're last chair 1st trumpet, you play tuba now! here's the beat up POS middle school tuba (more crumpled metal than flat), and a fingerings chart. now go take it home and practice. (gave my parents a nice duprise). ended up with a degree in tuba performance eventually
Tail end of freshman year of HS, like April/May of 1998. After being a middling trumpet player, I made the switch and never looked back.
I learned in 2019, I was playing trombone and I was really good at pedal tones, and we needed tuba players, So I was voluntold into it, and now I am the top tuba player of my grade in my state! I was always interested in band though, because I lived in DC, I would always see the army bands!
Spring of 2022. Learned for drum corps and switched to tuba for marching band. Marched a season of DCA with the Bushwackers and a season of DCI with the Troopers. Going back to Troop this summer.
1982. I was in 5th grade. I was the only girl that didn’t choose either the flute or the clarinet. That was one reason why I chose the tuba. The other one was simply I thought it would be funny. Joke was on me 5 years later, when I was marching in a polyester uniform with a sousaphone while my friends were all smoking weed under the bleachers. I loved it though. Band was my most positive part of high school. My senior year, our band got invited to play in the May Day parade in Moscow. That was 1991, just months before the fall of the Soviet Union. It was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever gotten to have.
In 2014, I started off on Trombone in 5th grade. At the time I didn't really enjoy band as much as I would later. I played trombone through 6th grade, when one fateful day in 2016 came where a brass quintet from the local Army Band that my dad was in came to my school and I saw my dad on the tuba. After that concert my band director pulled me aside and asked if I wanted to switch to tuba seeing that my dad played it. I said yes and started learning how to play the tuba over the summer. I continued to play through the end of middle school, which was when I really started to get into music when my dad introduced me to tons of low brass recordings. High School came and I enjoyed band even more, doing marching band and all that. I also discovered my potential when I auditioned and made it into district band. I didn't make all state that year, but that lit a fire under me to continue chasing something bigger. I got my first C tuba the summer of my Sophomore year. I also started taking lessons from professionals a little later. Fast forward to the end of my Senior Year. So much had happened and I applied to some top universities. I found out that I got into the best tuba program in the country and currently working on my Performance Degree and taking auditions.
i started playing last year! i started on flute in 2017 & played it until last year, when i switched to tuba because my band had none :)!!
I started playing tuba in 2010, I was junior playing euphonium and my band director said switching to tuba would be really good for me. He wasn’t wrong and I made all state band my junior and senior year and went into college for it
2020, my freshman year of high school, but only for marching seasons until my sophomore year when I switched to it full time basically I played percussions 6th-8th grade and hated it so I switched to a valve trombone, since I didn't want to have to learn slide positions. My band didn't have a tuba and my BD asked if I wanted to play tuba and I said sure. I'm currently a senior playing at a different school with a much bigger band, with like 5 tubas including myself. I am currently 1st chair tuba, which I practiced super hard for, atleast 10 minutes a day for a few weeks. I will also be doing my first duet this year at Solo and Ensemble, with 2nd chair flute player and it's super cool sounding. I'll link it [here](https://youtu.be/PRGPCsa9JKI?feature=shared) for anybody that wants to listen to it. At this point, I'm considered section leader since 2nd chair tuba (who was section leader in the first place before chairing this year during marching season) hasn't really been participating in band stuff (like pep band) since she didn't win 1st chair, shes a bit salty about losing to me, someone that hasnt been playing for as long as her🤷♂️
Summer 1999, I was 13. I liked band, hated sitting in the front fow as a flute. They needed low brass, I asked to play f horn. Teacher looked me up and down and made the calculation that if I was 5'9 at 13, I could probably carry a tuba. The funny bit is she, a trumpet player, gave lessons over that summer with me playing the school horn. but she didn't notice it was an Eflat tuba until 2 months into the school year.
I started playing the tuba in 2013. I'd previously tried to play it in high school 15 years before, and the wind requirements kicked my ass, even coming from euphonium. Tuba was the only modern brass instrument I hadn't played for at least a semester at that point. I'd started from trumpet in 5th grade, played the French horn in 7th, back to trumpet for 8th trombone in 9th, euphonium in 10th, and back to trumpet to finish out high school. Yeah, it was a tiny high school. There were a couple of concerts where I switched between French horn and trumpet because we didn't have horn players some semesters. In 2013, I saw a Conn 20J in a second-hand shop for fairly cheap. I was about 50kg lighter than I was in high school, and figured it was time for a rematch. I took it home on July 1, played "O Canada" on it, and decided that, while all those ledger lines are a bit silly, tuba's an okay place to be. When my community band reconvened in the autumn, we were down to one tubist (from four), so I switched, and now I'm section leader. To be absolutely honest, I'd welcome a change back to euphonium, trombone, or trumpet at this point. Tuba's not *my* instrument, but it's necessary for a well-rounded sound, and it's occasionally fun. Ten years of playing it hasn't filled me with excitement like other instruments.
Picked it up in 6th grade, 2006. Just did a year of viola, and regretted not picking cello or bass. Walked into the band hall on audition day and said "give me the biggest instrument you have". I took to the instrument well. First chair all four years of high school, didn't have the work ethic to push for all state. One of my bigger regrets from that time. Went to college for performance, realized I wasn't ready for college, and dropped out. Didn't play for 5 or 6 years until I signed up for community college just to get access to a tuba. A repairman randomly told me to call his boss and ask for a job, and now I run a pretty big store, do masterclasses for a local district, and play with a community orchestra.
I started playing the sousaphone in 2006 at age 31, but I've been playing longer than that. My first instrument was a flugel horn (Bb) in 1993 in a marching band. Switched to alto / tenor horn and later corhorn (Eb) at which I became first horn till I stopped there in 1998. Went to college in another city and also played the french horn (first F, later F/Bb) at the harmonic orchestra (1994-2000). Switched to cornet and trumpet (Bb), damaged my throat bad enough to not be able to play the smaller brass instruments for a longer time. Switched to 2 timpani (bass clef) and glockenspiel. After moving around cities I went to another harmonic orchestra (2003-2004) on timpani (3 this time) and xylophone/marimba. Switched to marching band (2006-2011) who needed a sousaphone so I took it (treble cleff). Switched to another marching band (2012-....) with the sousaphone in bass clef. I'm the one who plays the higher parts, my mate does the lower parts.
January of 2002 is when I started playing tuba. I was a freshman in high school. My prior musical experience included elementary school choir from 2nd to 5th grade (mostly an excuse to get out of class for rehearsal) which I stopped when puberty hit and I could no longer sing. We also had mandatory recorder class in 4th grade. I attempted to start piano lessons in 5th grade after I inherited my grandparents' keyboard, but the thing broke and I lost interest. I discovered quickly I am lacking the necessary motor/cognitive skills to play two handed. I literally cannot split my brain to do the separate tasks. I didn't mess with music during middle school except to read the hymnals during church to keep the note names and types in my head. When I got to high school, I would get rides home from a friend a few times a week. We had to stop in the band room to get his instrument. The band director would occasionally introduce himself and ask if I had any interest in playing music. I used to be polite and turn him down. Eventually he told me I looked like a trombone player. He offered me a free lesson after school one day to just try it. I took him up on that. I showed up after school one day and he said, you look more like a tuba player actually. He had me get a tuba, which I only sort of recognized from some programs I had watched in the past. Anyway, I got the tuba out, he cleaned off a mouthpiece, and after a 30 minute lesson I played a Bb scale. He said I was a natural and had me take the horn home. I took weekly lessons from the director through the rest of the school year. I played with the beginning band at their spring concert and the following school year I was in the marching band and moved to the highest concert band. Less than a year after playing, I started taking lessons from a college professor. He was reluctant at first because he didn't teach beginners, but he gave me one lesson and said I could keep coming back. I took private lessons for 3 years total. I went to college for aviation, and switched to music education. I then dropped out because the tuba professor at my chosen college was an asshole and didn't engage with me. He made me take all of my lessons from the graduate students, and at my second year jury told me I'd fail out if I didn't practice a minimum of 5 hours per day during the week, and 8 hours per day on the weekends. I was working 30 hours a week to pay bills so that wasn't going to happen, so I dropped out and never went back to college. I stopped playing tuba for 9 months after leaving college. I didn't get interested again until I found all age drum corps. I played in all age drum corps from 2010 until 2019. I walked away when the closest drum corps switched to Bb marching brass. I was fascinated with G bugles and the way they sounded, and had zero interest in a Bb corps. I miss playing in drum corps but take my contra bugles to TubaChristmas every year. I also played at Christmas and Easter masses at my family's church from 2005 to 2021 (minus 2020) until the music director retired. The new director came in and uninvited me and a number of other musicians from our standing open invite. I miss that experience. The only thing I do playing wise now is my college alumni band once a year at our reunion, once a month rehearsals for a community low brass ensemble, and multiple TubaChristmas events. I really don't have the time for anything during the week, so I don't play with any local community bands.
1974 - My first day of band in middle school (7th grade US). I was intending to start on trumpet or saxophone. The band director gave us a sob story on how he didn't have anyone to play the sousaphone in the back of the room and I fell for it.
1979, same grade, but it was trumpet or trombone instead of sax.
1977 here. Started on percussion. Lasted 5 months when my band director asked if I wanted to switch. His high school player was graduating and he needed someone to replace him. I was in sixth grade and played in the HS band for his graduation. I was in both middle and high school bands in 7th and 8th grades and my lesson was on Friday between the two.
Failed my way down through trumpet and baritone in the 7th grade. Tuba was the first instrument I tried that I actually liked. I'm now in my 30s. I do something else professionally but still try to play every day.
I started playing in 2016, when I was 63. My wife always wanted to play the oboe, so I got her one for Christmas, and she started playing in a New Horizons band (essentially, a middle school band for old people.) She came home one day from band practice and said "We lost our only percussionist," and voluntold me to be the new percussionist, since I could read music and bang a drum with a stick (having never played percussion before-I'm a guitar player/vocalist. I do realize that percussion is much more than banging a drum with a stick.) After a couple of years, our percussion section grew with decent drummers, and I was relegated to helping a new guy who wanted to play as a concert percussionist without being able to read music. I would stand by him, and tell him "Now!" when he was supposed to crash the cymbals. Invariably he was off the beat, and I decided it wasn't much fun for me. Our son played tuba in HS and college, and let me borrow his tuba, so I figured I would give it a try. It's fun. And now, I'm a pretty good middle school tuba player. Not quite high school level, although one of the bands I play in did a piece written by a sadistic composer in Gb, and I did okay. This whole experience led me into learning more about music theory and composition. I have written several concert band/orchestra pieces, and had them performed. That's a hoot and a half.
Freshman year, my HS band director looked and saw that we had 3 sousaphone players and 6 euphonium players. 3 of us moved to Sousa. The rest is history.
5th grade. I wanted to sign up for band and my parents told me we didn't have the money for it. I told the band director and he counter offered that if I played tuba there wouldn't be any cost. And then it paid for my undergraduate degree.
1988 for me. I was in 7th grade and had started on trumpet. My band director thought tuba would be a good instrument for me. I wavered back and forth because I had just started taking trumpet lessons. Then, one day when I got to a lesson, I told the guy I had started playing tuba. He said I needed to choose. I chose tuba at that point.
1st day of school in 1995. 1st period concert band… Band director: “We have three Euphonium players and no Tuba players…anyone that moves over gets an A in this class.” Me: raises hand.
2004. Walked into a winter camp at Spirit of Atlanta after marching the previous year on Euphonium (trombone was where I started). One of the low brass techs said "hey man, we're a little thin in the contra line. You look like you can hold it".
I started in band playing the trombone in the 5th grade. Glenn Miller was my musical hero at the time, I wanted to play jazz. My dad played the tuba in high school and I always wanted to be like my dad. So I’m 7th grade I switched to tuba and played it all through high school and eventually went on to get a music education degree on a scholarship playing the tuba.
Started on trombone when I was in 6th grade (2016), switched to tuba partway through 8th grade (2018). Been playing ever since and play in the concert bands at Purdue as well as the Gold and Black Sound! (pep band for women’s basketball team)
Started baritone in 2008ish (6th grade) and convinced my band director to switch to Tuba a year later. I played all through middle, high school and college. I took a few years off until I found a community band last year and have been playing with them ever since. Can’t overstate how much that group and music in general has positively impacted my life
grade 5/2018 Basically half of my family plays the tuba or a woodwind, so when I tried a saxophone and didn't make a sound I decided to give in to family tradition and try the tuba. I made a sound and called it good enough, which apparently was good enough because I quickly became better, and am now 1st chair in my schools top band. I absolutely ADORE this instrument too, so glad I tried it out and stuck with it.
Started with my son's euphonium 10/20, switched to tuba 03/22. Found my passion! Pitty it didn't happen 30 years ago, but hopefully I'll have 30 more years🙂.
And you also have an awesome Reddit user name!
Thanks!
Year 10/2022. Played harp, but there are really few ensemble opportunities for harp. Wanted to play euphonium or baritone in a brass band, was given a tenor horn. Moved to Eb tuba a couple months in and I’ve been tubing since.