Shortly after Christmas I came across a couple of youtube videos of euphonium performances and instantly fell in love with the instrument. Prior to that I had not even known of its existence.
Well, I just checked the calendar and as it turns out, I have been owning a euphonium and practicing on it for exactly two weeks, now.
The wealth of information on this forum is helping a lot. Where I live there does not seem to be much of a tradition, when it comes to the euphonium. When I read through the discussions here and compared what the local online stores had on offer, I was still not fully convinced, the whole thing was a good idea. Although I have a musical background, there is not much experience with wind instruments to speak of, and picking up a new instrument in your mid-thirties may not be as easy as one would like. I do not know of any local euphonium teachers. On top of that my, current housing situation (apartment building, thin walls) seemed to make practice at home almost unfeasible.
In the end, I found a good offer for a used euphonium, I just could not let pass. I ordered the instrument, a practice mute and a tutor book. I regret nothing.
What can you achieve in two weeks? At this point I am playing simple tunes within about an octave and a half worth of tones from sheet music (please don’t ask about tone quality...).
Practice time is sort of self-limiting due to muscle fatigue. I try to practice in the morning, so that I might do some more in the evening, but sometimes my lips just say ‘nope’.
Things I am a bit worried about include the possibility of picking up a whole zoo of bad habits, because I do not have a teacher to correct me. After the first week I signed up for a course of instructional videos, online, and that is definitely something I would recommend for someone under similar circumstances. It already helped me to correct quite a few things about how I approach the instrument.
Another thing is the practice mute. One could argue that I am not really learning to play the euphonium but rather the euphonium-with-a-practice-mute-in-it. Unfortunately that is something I cannot do much about, right now. I am looking forward to warmer weather and will try to get into the habit of practicing outdoors, on a regular base. Hopefully the euphonium-with-a-practice-mute-in-it skills will transfer to euphonium skills…
Thanks for the forum! I will post an update later this year, if anyone is interested.