A Band Director's Guide to Everything Tuba: A Collection of Interviews with the Experts

What better way to improve your teaching than through interviews with the world's foremost players and teachers on a variety of topics specifically tailored towards your needs as a band director?

Here is what Chip de Stefano, band director at McCracken Middle School in Skokie, IL and member of the Board of Directors of the National Band Association, had to say about the tuba volume from the Band Director's Guide Series:

"Andrew Hitz’s Band Director’s Guide to Everything Tuba is a must read for band directors of all experience levels working with every age of student. Even the most experienced educators will find the text pedagogically groundbreaking…challenging some of our most basic assumptions and forcing us to approach our teaching in ways different than the way we were taught. This valuable resource demystifies the tuba in a way that no instrumental methods course could hope to approach and I look forward to reading future volumes in this outstanding series."

Each expert talks about their field of expertise geared specifically to help band directors improve their tuba sections and their band programs as a whole. Interviews included in this book:

• Pat Sheridan on breathing, anatomy, marketing, and pedagogy
  
• Sam Pilafian on improvising, the importance of chamber music, arranging and mouthpieces
  
• Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser on turning your tuba players into leaders while keeping them engaged and challenged
  
• Dave Porter, retired US Air Force Band, on his 30 years as a private teacher and starting students on the tuba
  
• Greg Biba, reitred middle school band director of over 30 years, on preventative maintenance and all things tuba repair
  
• Andy Bove, freelance New York City tubist and recording engineer, on recording equipment and techniques
  
• Tom Holtz, retired President’s Own Marine Band, on playing and teaching the sousaphone
  
• Steve Dillon, owner of Dillon Music, on his decades of selling tubas and accessories to band programs
  
• Kelly Thomas, the late tuba/euphonium professor at the University of Tennessee, on tubas, mouthpieces, and literature as well as switching kids to the tuba from other instruments