Tuba

The Tuba (チューバ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. A person who plays the tuba is known as a tubaist or tubist.

Variants
The tuba comes in two forms of valves:
 * Piston Valves
 * Rotary Valves - This tuba is what Kitauji's band members use, with the exception of Mirei Suzuki.

Sousaphone
The sousaphone is an instrument similar to a tuba designed to make holding it easier. It is most commonly used in marching bands. It wraps around the player's waist, making it easier to carry while marching. It typically has three piston valves, but there are also models with four valves to increase range.

Contrabass Bugle
The contrabass bugle, much like the sousaphone, is also an instrument similar to a tuba designed to make playing and holding it easier. It replaces the sousaphone in drum & bugle corps, along with some marching bands. It rests on the shoulder of the player while being played and is held in front or by the side when at horns down position. And also like the sousaphone, it usually has three piston valves, sometimes four.

Ophicleide
The predecessor of the tuba, the ophicleide is actually a kind of keyed bugle, the lowest pitched instrument of its kind. The instrument is only related to the tuba in terms of register and the mouthpiece- the instruments actually uses a sort of woodwind style keywork with keys and pads. Today, it is not used anymore, unless the orchestra wants to be authentic with their instruments in pieces such as Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

Euphonium
The tuba and the euphonium are similar in shape but the tuba is larger than the euphonium and produces lower-pitched notes.

Performance
Like all other brass instruments, sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece.

Scoring
The tuba hierarchy functions in the opposite of most sections. In most sections, the higher-ranking players play the higher-pitched parts, but in the tuba section, the higher-ranking tubaist plays the lower-pitched parts, which are considered more important to the band than the higher parts.

As portrayed in Sound! Euphonium
There are three students that play tuba in Kitauji High School Concert Band: In Sound! Euphonium: The Movie - Our Promise: A Brand New Day, two new tuba players join the ensemble:
 * Takuya Gotou - Principal Tuba
 * Riko Nagase
 * Hazuki Katou
 * Satsuki Suzuki
 * Mirei Suzuki

Trivia

 * Tuba-kun is a mascot character based on a tuba, one of the so-called “Instrument-kun” series.
 * Hazuki Katou's and Satsuki Suzuki's tuba is based on Yamaha YBB-641II model.
 * Mirei Suzuki's tuba is based on Yamaha YBB-632 model.