dreadedmonkeygod . net

I spent a lot of time here in my first few years at IU. I never made it as a music student, and to this day I'm a bit embarrassed by some of the mistakes I made there. But it's still fun to go see where I made those mistakes, and learned so much from them.

The "Tuba Basement" is under the ground floor of the IU School of Music, between Merrill Hall and the Music Addition. Countless rising stars have practiced here, and the greats of the music universe have taught here. I love that room because it gives the lie to the notion that you need first-class accomodations to achieve. All you need is a horn, a char, and a stand. And the stand is negotiable.

And I'll always remember passengers' looks of surprise when the elevator doors opened to reveal not the lobby of the music building, but a room full of bellowing tubas.