ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 3, 1995 TAG: 9512030009
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
EVER BEEN IN THE MOOD to get the lead, er, brass out? For a $500 top prize and musical appreciation to boot, these students were willing to sling away.
Sure, The Who's Pete Townshend could smash a guitar with the best of them.
But if you are looking for a truly musically destructive experience, there's nothing like the solid, satisfying "whump" of a hurled tuba.
It's big, it's brassy and it isn't too aerodynamic. But watching this deep-bass instrument get thrown around is darn entertaining, as spectators found out Saturday when five groups of high school and middle school tuba players competed in a "Tuba Toss" at North Cross School.
The kids had come together to rehearse before playing in Roanoke's second annual all-Tuba Christmas concert at Tanglewood Mall. The team that threw the bulky instrument farthest took home a $500 donation for its band from Leed's Music.
Actually, it wasn't really a tuba they were tossing; it was a sousaphone. But "sousaphone toss" doesn't sound as snappy.
"Tuba Toss just rhymed better," said Robert Chernault, a sales manager at Leed's and a part-time tuba teacher.
"I guess we could have called it a sousaphone sling, but the name just doesn't roll off your tongue the same way."
Besides, Chernault said, most people don't know the difference. A sousaphone is basically an upright tuba that can be held while marching.
The average tuba weighs about 20 to 25 pounds, and its carrying case weighs about 20 pounds on top of that. So there wasn't any doubt about these kids' lifting abilities.
But how many kids had actually thrown one before?
"I wouldn't throw mine. It's still nice and shiny," said 12-year-old Brian Bytnar, a sixth-grader at Lylburn Downing Middle School in Lexington.
That's probably best, since brand-new instruments can cost upward of $3,000.
At least one player got some pitching practice in, though.
"I've thrown my little brother. He's about the same weight," said Emanuel Mullins, 14, a sousaphone-playing ninth-grader at Magna Vista High School in Henry County.
As the teams lined up to toss the battered and tarnished old high school band relic, Chernault read the rules: Keep your feet together; behind the line; overhand tossing only; no slinging from the side.
You could almost hear David Letterman saying, "Remember, folks, no wagering."
The kids, ages 12 to 17, took turns throwing the monstrous musical instrument into a mulch pit. It wobbled in flight and landed with a sound not unlike a car hitting a row of garbage cans.
Seventeen-year-old Nate Harstine of Roanoke County made Cave Spring High an early contender. His mighty toss landed 16 feet, 1 inch away.
Band boosters raised signs: 9.5, 9.0, 9.5.
In between throws, representatives of Valley Repair Service, an instrument repair shop, donned surgical masks and took the ill-fated horn off the field on a stretcher, hammering out its dented bell and - proving that duct tape fixes anything - reattaching its sagging valves.
Hundreds of yards away, a jokester planted a music stand, proclaiming it the spot where the World Record Tuba Toss landed.
Eventually though, one team had to take the gold ... er, brass.
While most of the players averaged 10-foot throws, the threesome from Magna Vista High won with two 15-foot throws and a Herculean 19-foot toss by 17-year-old senior Randall Gibbs.
What do they feed those kids out in Henry County, anyway?
"Pizza, mostly," Gibbs said. "That's our everyday menu at Magna Vista. And sometimes cheeseburgers."
"Or french fries," added 10th-grade sousaphonist Brad Hairston, 15.
All in all, the kids said, they had a lot of fun tossing around their chosen instrument. But there was an ulterior motive at work, too.
"It's a gimmick to attract kids," said Chernault, who also performs in the quintet BRASS 5. "One of our big focuses is educating kids, and if nothing else, this tuba toss attracts kids and shows them you can have a great time playing this instrument."
As the tuba players gathered to rehearse, they proved that the instrument not only makes a great clanging sound when thrown, but also makes surprisingly beautiful, albeit loud, music. Even though the floor of the rehearsal hall vibrated with every "oompah" of the group's rendition of "O Come, All Ye Faithful," it was enough to make any heart fill with the holiday season.
"It's rare to get this many brass players together," said Barbara Duke of Christiansburg. A euphonium (tenor tuba) player, she performed in the concert with her 13-year-old son, J. Christian Duke III, who plays the tuba at Christiansburg Middle School.
"Having fun events like this today is the kind of thing that keeps kids practicing," she said. "They go back home energized."
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART/Staff. Randall Gibbs of Magna Vista Highby CNBheaved the battered instrument 19 feet, the longest throw in
Saturday's Tuba Toss. color.