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Advanced Studies for Bb Bass
H.W. Tyrrell

Yes, it's true.
I came across one of my old etude books that has worked surprisingly well on F tuba. Almost every exercise spends some time in the "funky" register - low D, C, B; but most also go up through the top of the staff. GREAT exercises for getting your F tuba chops locked in without killing your high register (how many times can you practice Bydlo in one day?) Just start at the beginning and work your way through, slowly and methodically. No whacked out tonalities, so you can really drill intonation (not that you would ever have to on an F tuba.)

Not too expensive, readily available.

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/40- ... ba/4097573
http://www.halleonard.com/product/viewp ... bsiteid=6&
http://www.musicforte.com/sheet_music/p ... bBassTuba/

Yes, these are good, but not surprising. Even though they are labeled Bb Tuba, they are English, and clearly written for the Eb tuba.

However, if you want a real workout, look at the Lew Gillis 20 Etudes for Bass Trombone. Beautiful and catchy (Lew was a Dallas jingles writer), they range from pedal D to high Bb. They are also a challenge for bass trombone.

Yes, I agree this is good advice.

When I came to Lausanne, Switzerland to study with Roger Bobo I could only bring one horn and Roger was more interested in hearing the F Tuba.

So part of my daily routine was playing Blazhevich on a B&S Symphonie F.

I'll second the Gillis. It's a hoot to play and works you all over the horn. They are musically sound as well. In fact a buddy of mine did a couple of these as a suite on his senior recital back in the dark ages. It is still available from Southern Music for $12.50, although mine only cost me $2.25. There are advantages to being old as dirt.

I guess one of the reasons I like the Tyrrell, is that it is great for "breaking in" a new F tuba player. There is enough time in the funk range, but most of it sits in the comfortable registers on that horn to focus intonation and consistency, while avoiding chop busting extremes that will quickly tire someone new to F. Virtually all the exercises are also playable on a 4 valve F, for those on their "starter F".

I played the Tyrrell exercises for many years on both Eb and BBb. They are very nice, very melodic and some really surprisingly good études. But, the Bb Bass book has the upper register truncated. The Eb Tyrrell book undoes the truncating of the upper register (it may be that the Eb book was first and the Bb was altered). Dan Oberloh used to sell the Eb book and probably still has them for sale.

btw, looking up Tyrrell in a search engine gives some interesting results, like the only match to the name is to an aide to Disraeli. I would be fascinated if it is the same person. Anyone know?

tuben wrote:Other good ones are intermediate studies for cello and/or bass (where written).....

RC

the bach cello suites are quite a challenge on euphonium, would be a nice thing to do on the F tuba too.
Wim