TubaBass Studio

[SousaWarrior9]

Hi y'all, I wanted to take a second just to share my personal experiences being in the TubaBass studio for the past few years in case any of it may be of interest to anyone here.

If you're on Facebook, some of you may already by familiar with the community group there: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tubabas ... tid=NSMWBT
But I wanted to share a little bit about the studio itself and what it's been like for me so far. For those that don't know already the studio was started as a way to help tuba players become more competent in skillsets outside the typical concert band or orchestra environment, focusing on rhythm, a sense of groove, and generally everything that comes with playing lines that may have been originally intended for bass.

I ended up joining as a new years resolution two years ago just because I'd gotten out of shape with my playing. Back in my college days I could play for an hour plus and be fine, but in the winter if 2023 I found myself in a new city, with no tuba gigs to speak of and I was getting tired after only 15 minutes or so of playing.

Fast forward to now, and I'm regularly playing with three different bands here in Chicago, I'm planning to start my own brass band, my chops are in the best shape that they've ever been in, and I feel much more confident in my theory knowledge and ability to fill out changes on a gig and improvise than ever before, and I owe a lot of that to the skills I picked up on, and the support of everyone in class.

So what exactly have we been working on? Well, every class has a group warmup and fundamentals workout, generally followed by a rhythm or ear training exercise (something different every class which is nice to keep things fresh) and then we'll spend the back half of class doing a deep dive on a particular topic. Just an in-depth conversation ranging from anything from theory, technique, gear, gigs/networking, and whatever else comes up. Information aside, it's always a fun hang and I look forward to seeing the same folks every week because I just get to nerd out with my friends and have a good time. We also spend time reviewing gig or practice clips and give each other pointers and advise. And since we all have different playing backgrounds and are at different skill levels it's been super insightful for me because someone always catches something I would've never picked up on and were able to learn a lot from one another.

One of my other big takeaways has been practice accountability.
We have regular transcription assignments and it's been a great way to keep myself working on new skills ever when I don't have a gig coming up. It feels a lot more motivating to practice when I know I've got the support of everyone else in class working on the same thing and that we'll all be able to learn something from one another when we all get together to play and talk about it.

Outside of playing, I've gotten tons of good advice on the networking side of music as well. It's one thing to know how to play but it's another to go out there, get to shows, meet people and get the gig. I've always thought of myself as a pretty socially awkward person and putting myself out there in a musical context has always been very intimidating for me, but I feel much more equipped to do it now, and as the connections I make continue to grow, I've watched my opportunities to play rise steadily each year.

If any of that seems if interest, feel free to reply here or send me a PM and I'd be happy to elaborate or any of my experiences, plus the Facebook community is free to join and there's always some good discussions buzzing over there.

Peace

[Renodoc]

I'll chime in as well. I started working with Tuba Bass Studio about a year ago. Up until then, I couldn't really play anything unless I had a page of music in front of me. While I haven't been able to make as many sessions as I had hoped to, my ability to play by ear and work in every scale has increased dramatically. I'm the western-most of all of the players, and the ONLY downside to the group is that I wish I were more in the Midwest/East Coast so I could hang out with some of the other musicians in the group in person!!!! I just need to find some other musicians to start playing with to start using some of these new skills!