Tuba!

[iiipopes]

Tuba! Yes, I "triple": bass guitar, double bass and tuba. Tuba is the natural "double" for gigs, not guitars or keys. Where I live, albeit a lot of the gigs are amateur/community, but with good musicianship, I could literally play every night if I wanted to, although my wife and son would not approve. So I actually have to limit the number of gigs and ensembles I play for fun.

I recommend anyone who wants to seriously gig for pick-up bands, jazz/dance bands, the occasional brass band gig, etc., play tuba as well.

[essexbasscat]

I used to play Tuba in the school brass band. The Eb being smaller, was the easiest to blow to a reasonable performance volume, while the larger Bb took a fair amount of practice to develop the lung power.

I'd recommend playing the Tuba for any normally healthy person that wants to develop increased lung capacity. If you're a bit on the older side - have a health check first ! You can blow out a lot of carbon dioxide getting a Tuba going (and end up feeling quite light - headed).

Fun instruments Tubas

[D.I. Joe]

I used to play in a brass band!

Euphonium was my main instrument though I spent most of my time there on Trombone (tenor, unfortunately!). I also dabbled in the dark arts of Eb Tuba but I always struggled to get on with the bigger mouthpiece.

It's a shame that I never owned my own Trombone though, I could pick up loads more gigs if I owned one - shame I don't have the funds to make the investment

[Ancient Mariner]

Used to play tuba too. Started at school - wanted to play French horn, but made a mistake with the name when they asked what we'd like to learn

Started on Eb, moved quickly to Bb with a Boys Brigade silver band and used to play a double Bb occasionally when we did carols - that was like blowing all the air in your lungs straight out of your open mouth! I started learning guitar at 16, and would work out the guitar parts from music by playing them first on the tuba and then transferring note-for-note to guitar. By the time I was 19 I was very happy to stop playing brass and concentrate solely on guitar work.