TubaChristmas

I had a new musical-social experience last week. TubaChristmas 2004. I was encouraged into it by a friend, who wouldn't let me use the excuse that I am not good enough, joking that nobody would know if I was off or not, among 200 other tubas! About 5 months ago, I got a used Baritone horn, or euphonium, which is sort of a baby tuba. I thought I could learn the fingerings fairly quickly, and it is in the same range and uses about the same mouthpiece and music as my trombone. It turned out to be tougher than I thought, and I got through the beginner stage fine, but really have a tough time when things get faster or more advanced. But I had gotten to the point that I can play the basic stuff, and I thought, "How hard can Christmas carols be?" Well they kept me jumping, that's for sure.

TubaChristmas is a national thing, occurring in more cities every year, organized locally, usually one per state in December, and promoted as a free public concert. I know there was one in Rockefeller Center, NY the day after ours in Essex Connecticut,because I met someone who was in it. The participants all play some size or shape of the tuba family, from giant double basses, to Sousaphones, to baritones and more rare configurations like double-bell euphoniums (euphonia?) . Four part harmony starts at low and goes down. What a great sound, though. Well, it turned out there were only ~100 Tubas, but still a feast for the brass lover's ear.

Did I mention it was held in an unheated old railroad warehouse in the restored train complex in Essex? People who had come to ride the old trains heard the music and wandered in.
=======================================