tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12580816327709340552009-07-08T19:07:57.491-07:00Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-43397878469740175842009-07-08T18:55:00.000-07:002009-07-08T19:07:57.556-07:00

Its time has come, its emergence into the music education world is inevitable, we have both the audio and video technology to assure that it works. I have enjoyed exploring in this new teaching mode possibility and have been struck by how efficient it is and the possibilities it opens. Setting up the camera and microphone is not difficult and in most cases the microphone in the computer seems

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-30670343512043489752009-06-21T15:38:00.000-07:002009-06-21T17:36:34.655-07:00

I remember life before cell phones and the internet and as I recall things went pretty well without them, but now that the net is here, things go a lot better, are a lot more interesting and a lot more fun. It’s not just that I was never a very good speller, was mildly dyslexic and got painful writer’s cramps after holding a pin more than five minutes; I felt disadvantaged in the skills of

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-43109946301319623622009-06-11T18:53:00.000-07:002009-06-12T06:21:05.001-07:00

Rhythm can be viewed as the friendly structure of a comfortable environment or the rigid bars of incarceration; I prefer the comfortable environment.What are the qualities that make music personal? Probably everybody would agree that it is our individual mix of tone quality, dynamics, manner of articulation, vibrato and our personal treatment of rhythm. Initially, these are skills that are

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-25709817315409607402009-05-05T12:44:00.000-07:002009-05-05T12:46:41.063-07:00

I was fifteen; it would have been 1953, when I made the change from BBb to CC tuba. It seemed like I had been liberated, the response was quicker, the tone was clearer, the low register was actually better and, of course, the high register was much easier; it was simply more fun to play and I never looked back. Around the same time my good friend Tommy Johnson made the same change. We would talk

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-84546797463130638352009-04-21T05:48:00.000-07:002009-04-21T05:55:53.879-07:00

It was 65 years ago, we had finished our first year in kindergarten and were starting our new school year in the 1st grade, it was 1944, and we were 6. I think about her at least once a year, usually in those momentary thresholds between being asleep and awake, those times when it’s difficult to discriminate between thought and dream.Nancy Walker and I were not particularly good friends nor were

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-3975151157972732632009-04-05T07:00:00.000-07:002009-04-06T00:13:27.155-07:00

The March masterclass tour is finished, the remarkably high level of the students I encountered at all the venues, Lahti Finland, Bolzano Italy, Amsterdam, Detmold Germany, and Zurich were inspirational and I’m going home fresh and invigorated. Now in Lausanne, Switzerland I happily start my countdown for a new school year at the Musashino Academy of Music in Tokyo and the Tokyo spring, a

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-13639037798401297502009-03-28T05:51:00.000-07:002009-03-28T06:29:29.373-07:00

Leonardo Da Vinci said, “It is the duty of the student to surpass his teacher”. Da Vinci was very right, I would add that the greatest pleasure a teacher can have is to experience his students realizing that duty. I’ve seen increasingly more students reach that level recently; it’s a wonderful feeling.This Da Vinci quote was really not new a new concept to me. In the years between 1956 and 1960

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-46935581417342756302009-03-16T05:47:00.000-07:002009-03-16T09:56:13.482-07:00

It’s a habit now, a very good habit. It started in 1954 when I was 15 years old and got on a train in Los Angeles, destination the National Music Camp, Interlochen, Michigan; I returned there for the next three years. Almost every year since that time I’ve been involved in some music camp or some masterclass stage somewhere in the world; the venue changed but the habit remained.Many of these

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-91594972269165271742009-03-11T01:38:00.000-07:002009-03-29T00:05:00.835-07:00

“The Tuba is Not a Solo Instrument”Sometimes I regret that frequently in my life I have missed wonderful opportunities to keep my mouth shut! My mother used to tell me: “Roger, You don’t have to say everything you think”; I’m still working on that! There is, however, one vivid moment in my history when I did keep my mouth shut and I’ve been frustrated about it ever since!It was the 1976 First

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-4809475961541557282009-03-05T22:22:00.000-08:002009-03-05T22:24:27.270-08:00

It seems my most successful essays for TubaNews are the ones that have dealt more with specific aspects of our instrumental function rather than broader thoughts regarding the world of music. I hope I can write about both. For issue 3 of TubaNews I wrote an essay, Specters, about some of the interesting people, those who would follow the various orchestras that I had played in through the years

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-82516154984127167622009-02-28T17:21:00.000-08:002009-02-28T17:23:20.048-08:00

Once, a long time ago (maybe it was 1946) a new 1st trombone player joined an orchestra far away; he was by far the best brass player in the orchestra, the other players in the orchestra were what we call now “old school”, and it clearly stayed “old school” for many years after the new 1st trombonist arrived; the horns were primitive, the trumpets were symphonicly ignorant and the trombones and

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-57004889129765868702009-02-19T14:59:00.000-08:002009-02-19T15:03:45.224-08:00

In the places and in the ensembles where I’ve lived and played, there seemed to always be a number of followers, people that were just there, day to day and year to year. It didn’t seem to be important where or what the ensemble was; it was almost as though it was the same people, whether it was Rochester in the 50s, Amsterdam in the 60s, Los Angeles in the late 60s, 70s and 80s or Florence in

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-7810364092791626952009-02-10T20:18:00.000-08:002009-02-10T20:20:54.387-08:00

Are we the way we are because of the instrument we chose or did we choose our instrument because of the way we are? So frequently the tuba plays the role of the heavy, the villain, that we have to wonder if it’s had any effect on us after a long period of time. Or it could be that just because of our inner character, we were attracted to an instrument that could partially release the latent

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-46612887311117116822009-02-06T22:38:00.000-08:002009-02-06T22:41:21.338-08:00

The following is part of a letter, an answer to a question I just sent to a student. I think it may be pertenate to a lot of players today preparing to audition for a position in a symphony orchestra. It gives my openion on one of the most frequent questions I’m asked. “Now, regarding whether we should play the written notes or “help” the orchestration: Please read an article I wrote about a year

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-46640885895160183572009-01-29T04:30:00.000-08:002009-01-29T04:33:43.859-08:00

Dear Mr. Bobo,If you get this, this is the tuba player from North Carolina named Kory Faison. I'm just writing to tell you that my journey is about to begin. I told my brother that I was going to be the best tuba player in the world, hands down, but he doesn't believe me. I'll be auditioning for 5 music schools my senior year in high school, but I'm going to take the time now until then to find

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1258081632770934055.post-89705912014547668282009-01-25T19:03:00.000-08:002009-01-25T19:11:14.570-08:00

Perhaps this is a small step over the threshold into the direction low life humor but this one is too good to let slip by.My apartment in Tokyo is a very fine one; it has two bedrooms, one that has been transformed to a studio with the presence of a Yamaha grand piano. There is a very nice kitchen and a spacious livingroom / diningroom area, a comfortable Japanese style bath and shower and two

Roger Bobohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362215160366262594noreply@blogger.com