Most of the time in the concert band setting, the string bass part is just a duplicate of the tuba part but written an octave above where it sounds. However, every now and then one or other of the instruments carries on while the other one gets a rest. Tonight the Charnwood Concert Band was rehearsing an arrangement of Miss Saigon and the conductor spotted one such example, where I was enjoying a few bars of rest and, if we presently had a regular tuba player, they would be adding some movement underneath flowing chords from other instruments.

Phil didn’t have a tuba part available so I took a photo of his score and quickly jotted down what I could onto my part. Unfortunately my photo only covered the first half of what was needed so I had to busk the rest by ear! Keeping my ear-based skills up proved valuable and I was able to carry on for the next few bars in a way that fitted.

It turns out I do have a scan of the tuba part from when it came out a while ago with the Charnwood Symphonic Wind Orchestra so my homework will be to write in all the proper notes more neatly but, having recently been able to observe how well my sight reading has come on through working with those bands, it was pleasing to also affirm that I’ve got some other playing approaches at my disposal and at a level which also fits in those contexts.