Blogging the Hymnal

I am a long time Tuba player and was looking forward to the new hymnal, I love all of the new hymns and praise and worship songs. Our church recently bought the new hymnal and we were given our parts to look over, and I hate to say it, but I am very disappointed with the Tuba/Bass parts. We used some of the songs for the first time this past Sunday and in two of the songs I had a grand total of 8 and 16 notes respectivally. 8 and 16 notes, this is not acceptable in a Church where the Tuba part is the entire bottom end of the music. I know at this point there is probably nothing that can be done, I am just wandering if I will even remain in the Orchestra at all. I feel that it is a waste of my time to go to rehearse and play only 8 to 16 notes in a 5 to 6 minute long song.

Joe, the tuba parts vary from arrangement to arrangement... and there are 973 more that your music minister can choose from! You're right that we can't change the tuba part after the fact, but... if you are the sum total of bass sounds in your church, you might see if your church has the bass guitar part to play from - that could potentially give you more notes, and you might mix and match the two depending on the song and the style.