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Trumpet vs Baritone vs Tuba (vs Mellophone?)


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I'm having somewhat of an internal battle here. My plan is to audition (not 100% sure where yet, likely Boston) next November but I just can't decide what instrument I would want to audition on!

I play the trumpet, baritone/euphonium, and bass trombone. I have the ability to play all brass instruments to some degree, though those are my main instruments. I feel like I would most prefer to march tuba but that's also the most unrealistic option because I don't primarily play tuba and I have no ability whatsoever to practice on an actual marching tuba. Probably second to that, I actually would quite like to march mellophone-- I absolutely love that instrument and it would be possible for me to get ahold of one to practice on. The other side of that, however, is that I have no clue how to read music written for mellophone and, again, it isn't my primary instrument so I'm not as experienced on it.

So this isn't really a very straightforward question, but maybe I could have some insight on what the levels of competition at most corps are for each of these instruments, what level of marching experience might be expected of a tuba player, the possibility of auditioning on multiple instruments, etc.

Thank you for any answers!

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(I haven't marched DCI yet, but I might be able to help).

In my opinion, it somewhat depends on the parts you'd like to play, and the competition.

For example, mellophone parts are best parts in an ensemble (IMO). They get to play some super cool counter melodies (Take for example, Phantom's Canon).

Also, the majority of people playing instruments like trumpet have been playing for a super long time (usually starting in Elementary or Middle School). Mellophone is probably the easiest brass instrument to pick up. What I'm trying to say here is that I believe you can do trumpet, but it'd require more effort on your part to ###### that spot because so many other people are going to audition on trumpet.

Hope I could help in some way

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Since you have not been in a prior DCI corps, if you want the most likely shot at performing in DCI next season, do the following: Pick the instrument which you play best; get your playing and marching chops in order; and audition for the closest 'Open Class' corps to where you reside. As the P.A. Announcer so often said in the show M.A.S.H.... "That is all."

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