The tuba for kids: how it works and what to hear

The tuba is the biggest and lowest instrument in the brass family. It is a wide metal tube coiled into an oval, with a huge bell that points up. The player sits, holds the tuba on the lap, and buzzes into a large mouthpiece. A big tuba has about eighteen feet of tube. Its deep notes hold up the whole brass section.

Quick facts

• Family: brass
• Size: about three and a half feet tall, with about eighteen feet of tube
• Made of: brass
• Sound is made by: the player’s buzzing lips
• In an orchestra: one

How it makes sound

The player buzzes the lips into a deep, cup-shaped mouthpiece. Low notes need a slow, loose buzz and a great deal of air. A tuba player takes big breaths, often.

The fingers press valves that add loops of tube. Tubas have three to six valves. The more valves, the more low notes the player can reach in tune.

The newest of the four

The trumpet, the horn, and the trombone are old. The tuba is young. It was invented in Germany in the 1830s, after valves made it possible to build a low brass instrument that could play every note.

Before the tuba, composers used other low instruments that are now rare. Orchestras took up the tuba fast, because nothing else gave such a firm, round bass.

Its job in the orchestra

The tuba sits at the back, beside the trombones. It plays the lowest line of the brass, often with the double basses. Most of the time, it holds long notes or marks the beat. Now and then, it gets a tune.

There is one tuba in most orchestras. A band may have several.

Tuba relatives

The euphonium is a smaller, higher cousin with a warm, singing tone. It is a star of concert bands and brass bands. Read the euphonium and the baritone horn.

The sousaphone is a tuba built to be carried while marching. It wraps around the player’s body, and its bell faces forward above the head. It is named for John Philip Sousa, the American march composer.

Pieces to hear

“The Ox Cart” from Pictures at an Exhibition, by Mussorgsky. In Ravel’s version for orchestra, the heavy tune of the cart is a solo for the tuba player. See the guide.

Tubby the Tuba, by George Kleinsinger. A story with music from 1945, about a tuba who wants to play a tune.

Tuba Concerto, by Vaughan Williams. Written in 1954, it showed that a tuba can dance and sing.

The trombone and tuba variation in The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, by Britten. See the guide.

Any Sousa march. Listen for the “oom” of the tuba on the strong beats. Try “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

Starting to play

A full-size tuba is too big and heavy for a young child. Children who want to play it often start at about ten or eleven, on a small tuba or on a euphonium, and move up as they grow. Some start on the trumpet or the trombone and switch.

Schools often own the tubas and lend them out, so a family does not have to buy one.

Few students choose the tuba, so bands and orchestras are glad to have one. A band cannot do without its bass.

Things to do together

Oom-pah. Play a march. One person says “oom” on the strong beats, and another says “pah” on the beats between.

Low buzz. Buzz your lips as slow and loose as you can. That is the start of a tuba note.

Big breath. Take the biggest breath you can and let it out in a slow, low “ho.” See who lasts longest.

Find the tuba. In a concert video, look at the back for the biggest bell, pointing at the ceiling.

How long? Measure eighteen feet along a hallway. That is the tube of a tuba, pulled straight.

Print and play

Tick the brass on the instrument families listening chart. For the rest of the family, read brass instruments for kids. To see how a band differs from an orchestra, read band vs orchestra.