Practicing band/orchestral music

[Hank74]

I wanted to ask any of you who play tuba in a band and/or orchestra like to practice on your own or prefer to play with the rest of the ensemble to see how you sound.

Hank74

[XtremeEuph]

My low value reply: In Highschool band (I play Euphonium), practice time on your own is always nice because you dont have much time in class. But to answer your question, I prefer practicing with the ensemble because you can hear where you fit in and sometimes its difficult to get unison (sp?) rhythms down pat without the rest of them there.

[iiipopes]

Both. I practice at home to get the technical aspects down (let's be blunt: learn the notes and the tricky parts) and the general idea of the dynamics, and interpretation, then go to rehearsal to get the fine tuning to the overall interpretation and any specific direction. To do less is to be less than a musician. I see people who I know just do not have time to practice due to work, family or other commitments (of course that's why they're in a community band or orchestra, and I understand, since my day job is not music related either), but I must confess to me it does get a tad wearisome at times when the director has to teach them their part in rehearsal. Of course, I'm not perfect and have had my less than optimal weeks to practice, but that does not excuse me from doing my best between rehearsals anyway, and occasionally have to take my turn eating the "come on now..." comments, justly so.