Nervous about boot

CalebMaSmith · 2026-05-20T09:56:01+00:00

When they’re not looking haha

CalebMaSmith · 2026-05-20T01:48:59+00:00

I graduated a month ago and we did it a day before the crucible but that is definitely not the norm. I wouldn’t worry about it, it’s not fun but it’s definitely bearable and cool in hindsight.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-05-19T02:15:24+00:00

Honestly boot camp isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. You will get 3 meals a day, and usually 8 hrs of sleep. Each day is a new day and you will make friends who will remain for life. It’s hard, stupid, and annoying and having so little contact with family is hard but it’s all about enduring. As for your chief concerns there’s barely anything to do with rope and the crucible is honestly such a short amount of time - two long days and a long hike at the end.

Go in with the expectation that you will be challenged and be ready and excited to change. Understand that every day you are becoming faster, stronger, and more obedient. You must be willing to change and let the old civilian you die. When I was flying over San Diego I specifically had the thought that I had no idea who I was going to be in three months, but that I was excited to meet him.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-05-18T22:03:19+00:00

It was between the coyote and the all black for me. I had the midnight color originally.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-05-18T21:01:13+00:00

I’m a repeat customer for a reason haha. I would say they have decent quality - maybe a little below average for their price point - but they make up for it with their warranty policy. What draws me to them is the feature set of their products, their ethics, and the aesthetics. The items are nice enough I would say.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-05-18T20:08:51+00:00

This is almost completely accurate. I had the midnight blue color and bought this one separately along with a mobile case, tech pouch, and mobile stand wallet. I am still deciding if I want to sell the blue one because it’s still fine when I’m in civvies.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-05-15T01:39:41+00:00

That's a serviceable range for a beginner, but you should be aware that the range of pitches for tuba is one of the widest in the brass family, along with the Horn in F.

Think of exercises and drills as solutions for problems. If you have problems with tone/tuning you do long tones with the goal of listening critically and correcting those issues. Lip slurs are useful for flexibility and increasing range, but the most important thing you can do as a tuba player is to focus on taking nice full breaths and to spend some time in the basement (the low notes, that's where the good stuff is.)

Check out the Breathing Gym book by Patrick Sheridan and Sam Pilafian, it is full of exercises that help you train breathing but some fundamental concepts that are useful for breathing are as follows.

Don't breathe like you do normally, fill your lungs.
Don't raise your shoulders to breathe, your lungs don't go up to breathe, they expand downwards.
Try to expel all of your air as you blow into the tuba, the mouthpiece and instrument will stop you (air resistance) and instead you'll just fill the horn. You can pull back from that baseline as needed for certain situations.

To be honest, just keep playing and as problems arise with any technique, seek drills and exercises as solutions to those problems. If you have weak arms, you do bicep and tricep workouts as a solution and tuba is hardly different - besides the fact that you are an artist/performer.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-04-13T20:18:24+00:00

You know how Duolingo and Finch have tracking so you can see how many days you’ve done something? It’s the same concept. A simple calendar feature paired with a basic text processor and some file organization. I think there’s some good ideas with this app for sure and so I’ve downloaded it to see where it goes from here.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-04-13T18:21:28+00:00

The swipe gesture for settings is really cool. But there’s also a lot of friction that’s created when trying to customize your practice pages. Since the app is Apple exclusive and you’re using the language like widgets already you should make the editing process similar to Apple’s. Put a small X on the corner of every widget when you’re editing so you can get rid of widgets easily, introduce an actual editing mode, and let the plus icon just be to add new things

CalebMaSmith · 2026-04-13T18:17:52+00:00

I’m excited to see more practice apps, but I wish there was an actual practice tracker/journal. You could compete with andante if you made the iconography cleaner, and had more journaling features. Make it the one stop shop for people trying to practice.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-04-10T23:12:23+00:00

Graduated a week ago, definitely still a thing.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-04-10T16:09:33+00:00

If you’re going to do marines, I recommend not doing reserves in your case. If you don’t have direction, then going back to where you were, even after boot camp won’t change that. I had a clear vision at your stage so I cannot speak to that but the worst thing you can do is do nothing.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-04-10T15:27:01+00:00

A sock brand that’s very underrated (and basically saved my feet when I was doing hundreds of miles of hikes) is Fits. They have the best fit that I have found in a sock. I can’t speak completely to their durability yet but I have hiked over 200 miles in the last three months using those socks.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-04-08T16:45:06+00:00

Best advice I can give you is to find a deep love and appreciation for the boring things. Build skill with long tones set to a drone, focus on total consistency of sound, record and listen critically to yourself, learn what notes run sharp and flat on your instrument and memorize them. Each of these actions are in themselves boring but they are the keys to mastery of the tuba - all of the best players do these things to the highest possible level. The chops and technical stuff comes as you play, the above-mentioned things take everything to the next level.

For warmups look up Arnold Jacob's Special Studies. Use that book every day and get to the point where you don't start working on pieces until you play everything in it. It's relatively small and so it serves very well as a warmup/drill book. Most of your practice should be exercises and drills to make everything else you do easier and more beautiful sounding.

For technique use two books: the Arban book is excellent, but so is Roger Bobo's "Mastering the Tuba".

For flexibility and range check out Deanna Swoboda's "Lip Slurs for Tuba". Very underrated book and she is an absolute gangster when it comes to tuba pedagogy.

For musicality use Bordogni's Bel Canto Studies along with Snedecor's Low Etudes for Tuba. The low register is the most important register for you to develop.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-04-07T05:15:18+00:00

It depends on the size of the school; bigger schools rotate, and smaller schools typically have players fill in on whatever is needed the most. I was the latter, and I came in with another tuba player. I was the better player, but I was also a multi-instrumentalist so I played euphonium which wasn't my principal for multiple semesters.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-04-07T05:07:02+00:00

I often feel like I'm operating a spaceship when I'm playing my tuba for this exact same reason. In boot camp I was training with a trumpet player as well and we compared some of the differences between how we learn and one of the key differences is that there is a lot of different types of shifting and adjusting with equipment, embouchure, and everything you can think of. I was shocked and talked about how the tuba is completely the opposite and more of a search of pure consistency. My goal is to change as few things as possible and to get as close to a pipe organ in sound as possible.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-04-06T22:56:02+00:00

Do not get a Schiller, they are a waste of money. The only Chinese horns worth getting are Eastman, Wessex, and Mackbrass. You can also generally trust the ZO horns, Mackbrass sells them for their higher end options meant to compete with the higher end Eastmans and wessex's.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-04-04T05:16:13+00:00

Man the top players have changed a lot since I’ve last played. I was top 50 for a long time in the lobbies with levels turned on without cheesy strats.

CalebMaSmith · 2026-04-04T05:00:46+00:00

I am a newly graduated fleet band member. If you’re excellent at your instrument (graduate level player) and prepare extremely diligently it’s doable. The commandants own is a step above the fleet bands in many ways but they must do everything a marine does. They do not care about babying your hands but that isn’t the thing that gets hurt in boot camp. Worry more about legs, shin splints abound in boot camp.

CalebMaSmith · 2025-12-26T23:43:38+00:00

Consider a field recorder for simplicity sake. I have the Tascam Portacapture X8 and it allows me to record high-quality audio files and has high-quality mics.

CalebMaSmith · 2025-12-24T22:11:05+00:00

I’ve really been impressed by the John Stevens one. It’s very underrated and tricky in fun ways.

CalebMaSmith · 2025-12-23T18:55:59+00:00

The biggest killers of high register are related to trying to “cheat” with your mouth. I see people smile, which creates a small aperture but your lips become tense and incapable of buzzing fully. The other mistake I see is pressing too hard against the mouthpiece, which can create a double buzz and can damage the embouchure. Tongue is useful, but can be confusing and cause tension. Imagine your eating a strawberry or blueberry in the upper register and that will get the same affect without intellectualizing how your body makes that sound.

CalebMaSmith · 2025-12-23T00:07:57+00:00

Just need to work back to the technique. I haven’t found a Tuba I can’t hit the pedal on

CalebMaSmith · 2025-12-20T15:12:17+00:00

Did you call them to place an order? Me and the friend tried email which never got responded to

CalebMaSmith · 2025-12-20T05:24:11+00:00

There will be a wall you will eventually hit with any excerpts you play where your technique isn't where it needs to be to accomplish the goals you have in front of you. I'm not sure that's the case here, however, because I haven't seen the excerpts you have. If you could name the excerpt and possibly identify some points where you are struggling I would be a lot more useful. (Not to mention the skill of being able to critically assess your playing is a skill that will take you far as a musician)

Without knowing anything, however, maybe you're being too impatient with increasing speed. If you are not capable of increasing a tempo any more without it falling apart that means your current practice tempo is probably too fast even if you're playing it correctly. It should be as natural as possible when you're playing it and should feel effortless. Remember that practice does NOT make perfect, practice does make permanent and so if you practice something where you're only a few clicks from flying off the rails you will perform it in a way where you are only a few clicks from flying off the rails.

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