Lakewood Ranch, Braden River high schools offer brass tactics

EAST COUNTY — At times, Braden River High School sophomore Austin Hare might feel he is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulder.

Nah. It's just a tuba.

Hare, a member of the Braden River marching band, switched from the trumpet, which he had played for three years at Carlos E. Haile Middle, because he wanted to try a new instrument at his new school.

His first choice, the trombone, already had a full section.

So he went in a different direction, and today he's the only tuba player in the school's marching band.

He has some calluses to prove his hard work.

"Calluses form on your shoulder or knee where you hold the tuba," Hare said. "That makes it easier to play. You get used to holding it, because the tuba is important. If the band was a house, the tuba would be the concrete that holds it all together. It's the base that keeps us grounded."

The tuba is the heaviest, biggest and deepest-pitched instrument in a marching band. It can be bulky and uncomfortable to carry, but it is important.

"The tuba is absolutely the most important instrument in the marching band," Lakewood Ranch Band Director Ron Lambert said.

Lambert said his marching band utilizes B-flat contrabass tubas, which weigh approximately 25 to 30 pounds. He said he stresses conditioning in his program and noted that "it's not all that hard" to carry one in competition.

He was asked if he ever had a tuba player keel over during a competition from fatigue.

"We've had more flute players (have difficulties) than tubas," he said. "It takes more air to play a flute."

Lambert said "the tuba guys are pretty tough."

One of those tough guys is Austin Parrish, a junior at Lakewood Ranch High School, which Nov. 14 was named Grand Champions of the Florida Marching Band Coalition regional competition held at Braden River High.

"You have to have a passion for the tuba to play it," Parrish said. "It kills your shoulder after a while. Sometimes my shoulder would just go numb and then it didn't matter. It gets pretty heavy."

Parrish knows, though, that the tuba plays a critical role in the band.

With band season underway, the other instruments form their pitch using the tuba as the base.

Parrish, who has been playing the tuba since he was a sixth-grader at R. Dan Nolan Middle School, has always had a soft spot for the band's gentle giant.

He became interested in the tuba's range of pitch and the catchy rhythm of the tuba's role in songs he played.

"I thought about playing percussion at first," Parrish said. "But I had a natural talent for tuba and it's fun to play. It's hard work to play, but it's fun."

There's an art to playing tuba.

All musicians need natural and acquired skills, and strong lungs to pump air through an instrument. 

"I'd say there's about 100 feet of tubing on a tuba, compared to 10 feet on a trumpet," Parrish said, laughing. "That means more air."

Being able to exhale your breath for longer than you inhaled is a key element in playing the tuba properly.

Both the Lakewood Ranch and Braden River band classes offer breathing exercises to help boost lung capacity and "power breathing."

"You want to be able to go without taking a breath for 20 counts," Parrish said.

Hare said he had to retrain his face to be able to appropriately blow air through the large mouthpiece, which was much bigger than the piece on his trumpet.

The tuba's sound is generated by the vibrations of a person's lips against it.

Tubas require setting lips wider and holding longer vibrations, comparable to blowing bubbles underwater, Hare explained.

"You purse your lips tighter when playing the trumpet, letting less air our," Hare said. "If you use too little air for the tuba, the sound is off. Too much air creates a forced sound and too much air sounds breathy. If your breathing isn't right, you'll have to stop and take a breath.

"If there are four people in your section, like we have here, then you'll notice that the tubas sound quieter, and it's noticeable when you come back in."