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Anyone Here Ever Pick Up Sousaphone?

E

eJake

May 22, 2011
1,222
2,759
New Orleans
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#1
Hey Talkbass!

I live in New Orleans making a living as a bass player. I have always been jealous of folks playing instruments in the parades. I have thought about bass drum as well but I love playing the bass and I think it'd be really fun to play tuba too!

Anyone have experience transitioning to tuba? I have some choir backround and sing/rap on gigs so I have a decent understanding of breath control and low diaphragm breathing.

I have been asking around town as well but I thought I'd check in here for some TBers thoughts.

Thanks!!
 
#2
Tall order, imho. I've always felt like I should be able to pick up any instrument and play it at least well enough to make some nice notes. Recently bought a trumpet for hahas (my first brass) and nope, I need substantial help just to get started. Sousaphone has to be way tougher, unless you've played brass before.
 
#4
So Anyway, I played in a zydeco band that was always busy during Mardi Gras. Our BL played accordion, trumpet trombone and tuba (the kind you wear), and to start some gigs we'd march in second line style. He always played the tuba....and the crowd always loved it.

You could probably rent one, but in NOLA, it shouldn't be too hard to find a used one and a teacher. I'd imagine there's lots of opportunities to play.

The one thing my BL told me was that brass instruments take constant rehearsal to keep your lip in shape. Embouchure?
 
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#5
I played brass as a kid. For me trombone and tuba were way easier than trumpet and French horn. You’re not gonna know until you try.

move thought of going back to tuba myself now that I’m in my 50s.
 
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#6
I played Sousaphone all thru Jr High and high school, along with upright bass in the school orchestra. The notation is the same, which is why the band dir had me on both instruments...one for the football season and the other for the concert season.
If you take up Sousaphone be sure to get a fiberglass one...they're much lighter in weight.
Form there, the fingerings and notation are easy to learn, but the quality of your tone is all in the embouchure, which takes time to develop.
 
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#8
Biggbass said:
I played Sousaphone all thru Jr High and high school, along with upright bass in the school orchestra. The notation is the same, which is why the band dir had me on both instruments...one for the football season and the other for the concert season.
If you take up Sousaphone be sure to get a fiberglass one...they're much lighter in weight.
Form there, the fingerings and notation are easy to learn, but the quality of your tone is all in the embouchure, which takes time to develop.
Click to expand...
Thanks!! I was told to get a mouthpiece for now and buzz on it? Do you know how much a mouthpiece costs?
 
#9
eJake said:
Hey Talkbass!

Anyone have experience transitioning to tuba?

Thanks!!
Click to expand...

bholder said:
Tall order, imho. . . Recently bought a trumpet for hahas (my first brass) . . . Sousaphone has to be way tougher, unless you've played brass before.
Click to expand...

I say go for it!

In my limited experience I think sousaphone (tuba) is way easier than trumpet. For trumpet, because of the small mouthpiece and the pressure on the mouthpiece required to get a tone, you really need to build up your chops - there's no short cut to building up your embouchure muscles. For baritone horn and tuba, the bigger mouthpiece is much easier on your mouth. There's more of a sense of buzzing your lips inside the mouthpiece rather than a lot of pressure on the mouthpiece.

IMHO baritone horn is the easiest brass instrument to play (albeit badly unless you practice more than I ever did). I never played much tuba but I think it just requires more blowing, not much more challenge regarding your embouchure.

The fingerings (same as tuba, and as trumpet with a transposition) are relatively simple to learn and it wasn't too hard for me to learn to play an octave or more which should get you started in a jazz parade.

I know some tuba player will take issue with my comments, but these are simply opinions from the point of view of a non-brass player, like the OP. I have first and always been a flute and sax player, and more recently a bass player, but majoring in music ed in college meant taking (short) classes in all the instruments. I ended up choosing to play baritone horn in marching band and brass choirs for Christmas caroling - no situations where my performance was being scrutinized, and I had a lot of fun doing it!
 
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#10
eJake said:
Thanks!! I was told to get a mouthpiece for now and buzz on it? Do you know how much a mouthpiece costs?
Click to expand...

That's actually great advice. When I first started playing Sousaphone I already had a year on upright bass and at the end of the school year the band/orch director gave me a mouthpiece and a beginner instruction book for Sousaphone that had the fingerings for the valves and some scale excercises. He told me to spend the summer break learning the fingerings and to work on blowing a chromatic scale on the mouthpiece, which would develop the mouth muscles. By fall I was ready for a horn.
As for mouthpiece costs,
Tuba Brass Mouthpieces | Sweetwater
Of find a music shop that specializes in band and orchestra instruments...they'll have some. They do come in different sizes so you may want to do some research.
 
Last edited:
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#11
Biggbass said:
That's actually great advice. When I first started playing Sousaphone I already had a year on upright bass and at the end of the school year the band/orch director gave me a mouthpiece and a beginner instruction book for Sousaphone that had the fingerings for the valves and some scale excercises. He told me to spend the summer break learning the fingerings and to work on blowing a chromatic scale on the mouthpiece, which would develop the mouth muscles. By fall I was ready for a horn.
As for mouthpiece costs,
Tuba Brass Mouthpieces | Sweetwater
Of find a music shop that specializes in band and orchestra instruments...they'll have some. They do come in different sizes so you may want to do some research.
Click to expand...
Thanks!!!
 
#12
I had a bass professor in college tell me that in the Navy *all* bass players are required to double on tuba or sousaphone…something about not being able to fit an upright bass on a submarine :)
 
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