Tuba

The tuba is considered to be the lowest pitched and as well as the largest brass instrument. In order to make the tuba sound, one would have to buzz the lips onto a mouthpiece; very much similar to how one would make a trumpet sound.

Considering the massive size of a tuba, your child would have to be physically capable of managing it while playing it thus; a tuba may not be right for a female child or one who is relatively thin. Preferably, your child should have experience in lighter brass instruments such as the trombone or the trumpet before moving on to playing a tuba.

Seeking Advice

When making this big investment in buying a tuba, you of course want to get the most of your money's worth from this purchase. That means that your son should get the most that he or she can have out of the tuba however, unless you are a professional tuba player, you have slim chances of ending up with the perfect tuba for your child if you do not seek for advise.

Since that is so, you should seek advice from a trusted expert such as your child's instructor or a local professional tuba player that you could trust. Salespeople from music stores are very knowledgeable when it comes to these instruments however, they tend to sell more rather than help you end up with the instrument that would best fit your child.

Choosing a Tuba

For a novice player, it would be best that your child would start with a 4/4 size CC or BBb tuba with either four or five valves. This is because a tuba with these specs could be fit even for beginners and at the same time, it could be used immediately in a marching school band or in an orchestra. Typically, around $3,000 dollars or even less would already be good enough to give your child a great tuba.

If your child would show exemplary and noticeable talent as well as deep interest in playing the instrument, he or she might have to move further into more advanced models or types of tubas as dictated by the instructor. If this is so, your child can try other models and makes.

For a professional tuba career, typically, one would require one large tuba and one small tuba.

Sound as a Criteria for Judgment

When purchasing a tuba, the sound is something that you should take heavily. If you are not careful, you might end up buying a tuba with poor sound quality at a very expensive price. Before buying one, make sure that you have the instrument played by your child or by an expert to the point that the full capacities of the tuba can be seen. Practically, this is done by playing chromatics throughout the tuba's entire range.

With this, make sure that the notes are smooth from the lowest to the highest notes. None of the notes must be muted or stuffy; all of the notes should be loud and clear.

Playability of the Instrument

Buying a tuba for your child would be a very big investment so you would have to be sure to get the most of your money's worth for this purchase.

Aside from sound, playability of the instrument is also very important. First of all, the tuba must have the right dimensions that would make your child comfortable; this means that the tuba must not be too big for your child to manage or too small to limit your child's playing capacities. For you to be able to identify this, it would be best to consult your child's instructor.

Final Tips

Also, the fingering for the instrument must be smooth and equal for all notes. This is one of the most common problems for tubas since this problem can affect all types, makes, and sizes of tubas. Your child must be able to exert the same amount of effort in hitting all the notes of a tuba.

Another ailment that you should be mindful of is bad intonation of the instrument. This means that the tuba, although your child may have his fingers and his mouth where they should be, would still be playing the bad notes.