I have now played the Cool Wind Euphonium for about 6 months, taken lessons with a teacher whom I find perfect for what I want to learn, and am playing in a delightful band of amateurs, pros, music teachers, high school students, and some very pleasant folks who have not spoken much about why they’re there, but seem to enjoy it, as I certainly do.
My original intention was to get to tuba via starting on euphonium, but I find that reasons for continuing on euphonium are unexpectedly emerging, and habitually reading here has been an education about brass, especially low brass, that I didn’t even know I had missed until now.
After nearly buying an Eb tuba but realizing that learning a second set of fingerings would be a major frustration, I began to consider what I could continue to do with euphonium that would be musically satisfying to me without having to deal with the complications of finding a really good sounding tuba that I could also lift and transport. Having played almost all of the best of the wind ensemble repertoire that was available until I stopped playing bass clarinet seriously in 1970, this isn’t as easy as it might sound.
So a question here- I know and love the Miraphone sound, and I know it is a heavy weight instrument. Are there any other “hefty” euphoniums that will bridge my love of low gutsy sounds with the color and tone of the euphonium I’ve always admired? Something between euphonium/tenor tuba in the same instrument? Or something else I haven’t thought of at all? Hoping to find something that can last me for the rest of my musical life.
My original intention was to get to tuba via starting on euphonium, but I find that reasons for continuing on euphonium are unexpectedly emerging, and habitually reading here has been an education about brass, especially low brass, that I didn’t even know I had missed until now.
After nearly buying an Eb tuba but realizing that learning a second set of fingerings would be a major frustration, I began to consider what I could continue to do with euphonium that would be musically satisfying to me without having to deal with the complications of finding a really good sounding tuba that I could also lift and transport. Having played almost all of the best of the wind ensemble repertoire that was available until I stopped playing bass clarinet seriously in 1970, this isn’t as easy as it might sound.
So a question here- I know and love the Miraphone sound, and I know it is a heavy weight instrument. Are there any other “hefty” euphoniums that will bridge my love of low gutsy sounds with the color and tone of the euphonium I’ve always admired? Something between euphonium/tenor tuba in the same instrument? Or something else I haven’t thought of at all? Hoping to find something that can last me for the rest of my musical life.
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