I chose to write about Roger Bannister and the Four Minute Mile. This post is form the blog of Roger Bobo one of the greatest Tuba players of all time. HE has been a personal hero of mine since I was 16 years old. You may not know but I am a tuba player. I have been one since 1973 and continue to play today. I am not a great player maybe not even a good on but I play with Joy!
The tuba playing community is unique among musical instruments. There is the International Tuba Euphonium Association formerly known as the Tubist Universal Brother Association (TUBA) and Tuba Christmas to name just a few of the Tuba organizations.
This blog's title is about the running of the first 4 minute mile by Roger Bannister. A strange topic for a tuba player blog. In the blog Bobo is responding to a posting from a young tuba player who sets his ambition to be the best tuba player in the world. Bobo tells the story of how no one had ever been able to run a 4 minute mile and many thought it was impossible. Bobo was convinced it was and then did it. Since then many have done it but no one has run it much faster than 4 minutes. He compared it to progress in tuba playing in the last 30 years in light of the fact that the quality of the playing of the other instruments (Violin, trumpet, sax) have not undergone the same improvement. (The tuba is one of the most recent inventions in musical instruments) He pondered how could it could get.
This may not be interesting to any one else but to us tuba players it is fascinating.
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