I'm not proud, but I've always thought of tubas as obese trumpets you wear. Not for lack of respect, (I played a wind instrument! I actually like polka! Some of my best friends were in marching band!) but they're silly looking. I was fine treating them like a baritone bowl of spaghetti until I stumbled onto the how-it's-made video below, which forced me to admit that they're also cool, and their construction is fascinating. 

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Forgive me, but I'm going to assume you know as much about the tuba as I did, which was nearly nothing past its "definitely an instrument" status. The tuba is a wind instrument in the brass family. It is powered by pushing vibrating air straight from the mouth through its amplifying metal wiggles. Tone is affected by the vibrations of the players' own lips, and articulated by valves that divert air through secondary tubes. These smaller tubes augment the effective length of the tuba, and are meticulously designed to shift the tone's pitch in specific increments.

Like most instruments, tubas vary in size and shape for different styles of play, and to convey different fundamental pitches. The longer the tuba the lower the sound. Put clumsily, the total length of a tuba's central tube determines its pitch, a bit like the amount of remaining beer sets the tone when you blow into the bottle. 

A sousaphone is a type of tuba. Don't fight me on this.

After bouncing around the harmonics chambers, the notes are projected blattlily out of the bell section and into the world. The wide horn affects tone and projection, and ensures even symphonies have comedic members. 

While (like our blessed internet) tubas really are just a series of tubes, they're also (like our blessed internet) created with TON of nuanced precision. This video is the best I've found of the subtle tube transitions and construction, and made me wish I had one to pour over and toot on.

Now you know! 

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