well, I've been playing tuba in the Twelve Bridges Middle School concert band for about a year. and I'm going into the high school marching band, but i have a few questions:

is it difficult to transition from tuba to sousaphone?

is there a difference in tone between the two?

also, down the road,what is a good tuba to buy?

haha. all the sousas r dead. so im using a marching tuba.

Now, I'm not a Tuba player, but I do have some marching band experience. At my school, the tubas are pretty hardcore. They play a sousa and then a 4 valve in concert, not what they played in junior high. They seem to be able to switch around pretty easily though. To me, at least, the sound between the two is quite different, but maybe that's because they're embrochures keep getting stronger.

i head the sousas have poor tone quality.
and the tuba i'm playing is convertible. well kinda...
a piece of tubing is missing. so technically its not. but you get the idea

and thank you for the reply

I played both tuba and Sousa when I was in HS, the tone difference really depends on the sousaphone, a fiberglass horn has a brighter tone and a sharper sounding attack than a brass sousa, after that much depends ion how much the horn has been beaten around, i played almost brand new Sousas that had a VERY bright sound but the school also had a more beaten up brass one that was mellow and sounded much like my 1970's King concert tuba. Most band directors are quite receptive to the slight sound differance if it makes for another tuba in the line.

thanks for the replies. but it looks like im not going to be playing a sousa anyways. the tuba im using is a Jupiter convertible 3 valve. it seems to be working out ok. except it is a pain to march with, almost died in the first parade xP