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I'm very excited about this piece! It was originally written for Doc Severinsen (trumpet) and is a theme and variations based on Paganini's Caprice No. 24. The composer is Frank Proto. I communicated with Mr. Proto and convinced him to re-write the piece in a unique version for euphonium. It is available with piano or orchestra accompaniment. The latter version required the most work, because an orchestra that balances Doc Severinsen will bury a euphonium! It is important to note that Mr. Proto ...

There is a new SymbiosisDuo album called "Playground" and you should run out and get it (virtually speaking)! This one has some nice new ideas, but it retains some of the concepts that were so successful on their first album. There is a risk in producing an album like this, because the main instruments are so far from what might normally be heard on a few of the well-known selections. The same was true with the first album, but the musicians took that chance and the result ...

As discussed in the forum, I recently traded in my 2012 Adams for a 2015 model. The specs are the same:

• .60" metal
• Sterling silver bell
• Brushed finish.
• E1
• I asked them to copy the vertical angle of my original leadpipe. This helps me play with a more normal head position (I have an upstream embouchure).

One incentive to trade was that Adams has made some incremental improvements in performance along the way. The new horn plays even more easily and smoother than my already-impressive ...

As I mentioned in my previous post, it is sometimes hard to imagine what the double-bell euphonium might be used for today if it had remained more popular throughout the the 20th Century. Here is my next experiment, getting a yodel effect. For this, I chose a fairly simple song from The Sound of Music, "The Lonely Goatherd." This also scratches another itch - to do more with Broadway and movie music.

I have my eyes on another more complex example, but it will be while before I get to ...

I often wonder what the original double-bell euphonium artists did in the early 1900's. I read that they used the little bell for echo effects, and one would assume they would alternate between the bells per phrase or even per note. But I think if the instrument had gained mainstream popularity and kept it through the 20th century, new techniques would have evolved.

I'm going to offer a couple different double-bell techniques in this video, plus two rarely-used conventional techniques. ...

Have you ever met musicians who refuse to listen to their own recordings? I have... many times. They literally don't know what they are missing. On the other hand I have met players who are a little too enthralled with their own recordings. They also don't know what they are missing! Do you fit in either of those camps? Either one is actually understandable, but there are more useful ways to listen to your own recordings.

Let me set some conditions before discussing this further. First, ...

This is from my recital in March, 2015, at the University of Iowa. Morning Song was written for tuba virtuoso Roger Bobo and recorded by him a few decades ago. (The original LP has been remade into a CD, so you can hear Bobo play it here: Roger Bobo, tuba, playing Morning Song)

I fell in love with the piece when I first heard it. Later, when I saw the sheet music, I saw that is was right in the prime euphonium range and set very high for the average tubist (it goes a step higher than ...

One one of my favorite movies is "The Glenn Miller Story" starring Jimmy Stewart. First of all, it is an educational view into the life that band players went through in the 1930's and 40's. It was not an easy life! It's also a movie in which the music is very faithful to the original, having been performed mostly by Glenn Miller personnel.

But there is a scene about 2/3 of the way through the movie that will stick in a brass player's memory forever. Miller spent the first part of this ...