Safety Tips for Tubas

Video Transcript

"People that I think are good players, they get done, they are in a intermission from a show or something, they leave their tuba standing up like this. I find that a very flaky way to deal with your tuba because you got a fair amount of weight shifting over here, it's not going to take a whole lot if someone just comes along and brushes up against that instrument, it's down and you're going to dent that instrument in a very, very bad spot. No matter where you dent it, it isn't good. If somebody comes from that side, you're going to be coming right around the curvature, probably putting a big dent right in the tuning slide there in your second valve which will obviously and definitely effect the instrument, so, while I've seen people do this, I certainly don't advocate it. If you've got to put it down somewhere and you don't have a case, just leave it lying down somewhere like that an you know, if you've got a soft surface, all the better. If I'm practicing, I like practicing here by the couch because when I put the horn down, change the music or whatever, I've got a nice soft surface. But, at any rate, do whatever you can. I know in some high schools they don't have cases for instruments, they have the cages they call them, we can at least put the instrument, but in other words just do whatever you can to keep this instrument safe from that kind of harm and you know, abuse."