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As one who has ventured back into playing the tuba after a 25 year hiatus, I have discovered all sorts of promising looking resources to help me return to, and hopefully surpass, where I left off as a player.

My question is, when it comes to a daily warm-up routine (something I don't recall ever really having), which of these resources have you found valuable, and why? Or have you found something else that you prefer?

1. William Bell, Tuba Warm-ups and Daily Routine (Colin)
2. Michael Davis, 20-Minute Warm-Up Routine (Hip-Bone Music)
3. Wesley Jacobs, Daily Routine and Warm-Up Studies for Tuba (Encore)
4. Patrick Sheridan and Sam Pilafian, The Brass Gym (Focus on Music)
5. David Vining, Daily Routines for Tuba (Mountain Peak Music)

Thanks for your input, which is not only for my benefit (and those reading these forums), but I am now encouraging my son as a young player.

If I had the money, I would buy all of them. If I could only buy one, I would buy the Brass Gym. My second purchase would be the 20-Minute Warm-Up (atleast in part just to hear Gene Pokorny do the low register excercises).

Has Roger Bobo ever published his warm-up routines?

If you had to own only one resource/warm up book....

I'd choose either the Arban's or Brass Gym.

The Arban's is full of mid range lip slurs and lots of long tones, PLUS you get the rest of the book (which it wouldn't hurt to have exposure to at a young age).

The Brass Gym is a complete resource. More of a workout than a warm-up, it is a very valuable tool.

The thing about the Bell that gets to me is that it gets a little too technical, high, fast, a little too soon. The multiple key concept is nice, but I'd like something relaxing and very tone oriented to begin my playing.

In a similar playing situation to yours (27 years off, just about exactly 1 year back on), I have found #3, the Jacobs routine, to be useful. I get better at it every week. The Brass Gym was way more than I was seriously able or willing to do. I practice a lot for someone in my situation, never less than an hour a day unless I'm traveling, and rarely less than two. But even at that rate, the Brass Gym was way, way too much. Even doing selections, it leaves little time for etudes and ensemble preparation. I sold it on here. I haven't tried the others. Very content with the Jacobs. It's helping me move forward.

Hi Dave

I went back to playing after over twenty years and I've found that my warm up/chop building routine has changed and evolved dramatically over the last three years. I haven't followed anyone's routine, rather I've made up my own to suit what I needed at the time.

For me, what I'm thinking about while I'm playing is probably more important than what I'm playing. Recording myself and listening back has been very valuable.

For a long time I had to do long tones to get my air movement established but that stiffened up my jaw and embouchure. I then had to something that moved around more and then I was ready to play.
This was very limiting and frustrating as I couldn't just pick the thing up and play a tune. I've now got things stable and developed enough to start warming up with something that moves around more and do the long note stuff later. As a result of this I'm much better at being immediately productive when I first pick the instrument up. (Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

At the moment everything seems to work better if I stop trying to "play" the instrument and just working on moving air through my body and towards the other side of the room and just put the tuba up so that it gets in the way. I do stuff like blowing through a fairly open mouth while mentally playing through a tune in my head. (No tuba or mouthpiece - just mental practice combined with exhaling air).

Someone will probably post the Tubenet mantra here - find a teacher - but failing that do a search for old posts on things like "how to play louder", "how to improve my sound" etc.
Read as many different peoples thoughts as possible and you should find a few mental image things that click with you.

Enjoy your tuba playing and keep at it.

Regards

Gerard

I have the 20 minute warm up and it feels more like a workout to me. I can't say anything about the rest though. I normally just play some long tones and maybe a couple of exercises out of the 20 min. Usually I only play the whole book when I'm short on time and need a good solid workout. One day maybe it'll be easy. Best of luck!

GC wrote:Has Roger Bobo ever published his warm-up routines?

yes - in C treble clef.

Just curious if I am the only one out there who never warms up? I kinda of feel if you are mentally ready, you probably won't have any issues as long as you have put in the practice time in the past so I just start the day off running. Maybe do some maintenance later in the practice session if needed.

Play through whatever you can find - mix, match, and ADD. Coming back after 25 years, I think you want to play through an entire Method book (I lean towards Rubank - but any one will do). Depending on where you are, you may want to select a few numbers from the method book - as your abilities progress, your choices may change as well. There's an infinite amount of material out there - pick something - but only after playing through everything.

For a "warm-up", I think your selections should be commited to memory. Not by "memorizing" them - but as the natural effect of repetition.

Note that every method book includes "melodic material". Play that, of course - but even better is to make up your own. Pick a tune that you can hum (better yet, one you found yourself humming earlier in the day) and play it. In several keys.

Always combine a few elements that you play EVERY TIME, with a few that are new. The ones that you play every time let you know how you are doing on that day. The new ones stretch you out a bit.

I really like: Michael Davis, 20-Minute Warm-Up Routine (Hip-Bone Music)

The 20 minute minute warm up is a fine product, no question. The Bell warm-ups are still #1 for me. I also worked through "The Art of Trombone Playing" by Mr. Kleinhammer, and it is just as worthwhile as the Bell. If you can play the Bell, you can play. Play good and loud, and the music will fall right into place.

First, I find it interesting the number of people who have picked up the horn again after 15 to 25 years. I too have just done that. My excuse was to play in a church brass quintet. They really needed a tuba. I had not played for 20 years, but I had a horn and the time. My warm up so far has been to play lessons in the method books. Usually that takes 20 to 30 minutes. The rest of the time is spent on performance music. An hour a day at least seems to work for me. I guess I should be pushing for two hours. This thread has been very helpful for me.

Wolfgang Guggenberger's Basics Plus (Rundel)

It includes a variety of the basic warm-ups including all the "popular" VCs, Stamp, Colin, Arban's and Clarke studies. Plus (pun intended), Guggenberger created duet counterparts to all the studies so that one can work on ear-training, balance and blend while working with a teacher or partner.

For tuba you'd be using the trombone BC version.

It's pretty much all I use now but I do the enjoy the occasional excursion into Bobo's Mastering the Tuba or my own exercises.

Raul Rodriguez

Dave Detwiler wrote:As one who has ventured back into playing the tuba after a 25 year hiatus, I have discovered all sorts of promising looking resources to help me return to, and hopefully surpass, where I left off as a player.

My question is, when it comes to a daily warm-up routine (something I don't recall ever really having), which of these resources have you found valuable, and why? Or have you found something else that you prefer?

1. William Bell, Tuba Warm-ups and Daily Routine (Colin)
2. Michael Davis, 20-Minute Warm-Up Routine (Hip-Bone Music)
3. Wesley Jacobs, Daily Routine and Warm-Up Studies for Tuba (Encore)
4. Patrick Sheridan and Sam Pilafian, The Brass Gym (Focus on Music)
5. David Vining, Daily Routines for Tuba (Mountain Peak Music)

Thanks for your input, which is not only for my benefit (and those reading these forums), but I am now encouraging my son as a young player.

When I resumed tuba playing 8 years ago after a 35 year hiatus I used the Wes Jacobs daily warm-up routine faithfully and the pages of the book began to fray and tear where I turned them. Then 4 years ago I found and tried the Michael Davis 20-Minute Warm-Up Routine. I have since stuck with it because it helps me review most of the principles of playing that I tend to lose by not playing for a while. I ALWAYS warm up with it if I haven't played in 12-18 hrs. I do them without the book for the most part because they come from muscle memory. I think they have contributed immensely to my still-puny tuba playing skills. To effectively perform the exercises I MUST keep in mind Roger Lewis' (and others, I'm sure, but he's the one who finally made me understand it) advice about airflow and direction as related to range/pitch, i.e. direct the air downward as the pitch rises and vice versa as it lowers. I think these exercises are impossible to perform without a good understanding of the fundamentals, which they perforce reinforce. A bonus for me is that I no longer feel compelled to practice daily just to maintain. The Michael Davis Routine gives me the confidence to rest for a few days. Just my $.02, and YMMV.

I really enjoy the Bobo books in treble. I read it in the key of whatever horn I'm playing; no awkward transposition or compromising of the harmonic/valve series ideas.

The Davis 20 Minute book is good, and I love the Brass Gym when I want to really get a work out. I just bought the Basics Plus warmup/duet book mentioned a week or two ago and am looking forward to playing them with others.

Yeah, I agree it's a blurry line between what is a warm up and what is a routine.

I personally start dirt simple.

Always at least 2 minutes of the Spit Valve Drill - establish the difference between the fuel and the motor.

Then I work on single note attack drills - where I pick any one note and attack that note exactly the same 20 times in a row. It has to be the same pitch, attack style, sound, timbre, dynamic and duration each time and I'm highly critical.

Then I mopve to working on warming up and focusing on tuning with The Tune Up System, again being highly critical of everything that comes out of the bell.

Next into the Remington Warm-Ups - the little 9 page Acura Music version to loosen up a bit and some Clarke Technical Studies to get the fingers moving and valve/attack synchronization. Some Rochut down two octaves to get the low register centering and I'm ready to go.

I don't have a truly set routine and I use a number of different method books in the process. I love the Guggenberg, The Arbans Book, Kopprasch, Blahzevch - darn! There are so many good things to use and I'm a little too OCD to be able to stay focused on any one. Based on what wasn't working exactly right the day before, I will work to incorporate something into the next day to focus on that aspect of my playing.

Fundamentally my belief is that performing on a brass instrument, where you can only "see" one aspect of what is creating the sound, is like flying a jet plane. The pilots never take off until they go through a very complex and highly refined pre-flight checklist. They check every minute detail and every light on the "dash board" to make sure that the possibility of something going wrong is minimized as much as is possible. Surgeons are now using checklists in the operating rooms in hospitals. I guess it's time for me to draft a tuba player's "pre-honk checklist".

Just my $0.02.

Roger

You could use the Remington warm ups . I was in high school in the late 60's early 70's and everyone in the Fairport/ Rochester, NY area was using these as their warm ups for brass. Eastman was a strong influence in my school band at Fairport High School, NY.

BVD Press wrote:Just curious if I am the only one out there who never warms up? I kinda of feel if you are mentally ready, you probably won't have any issues as long as you have put in the practice time in the past so I just start the day off running. Maybe do some maintenance later in the practice session if needed.

No, you're not. I never could wrap my mind around the concept, so I simply took the approach of just playing the way I want to play from the time the mouthpiece touches my lips. It's never let me down.

Dave Detwiler wrote: . . . Or have you found something else that you prefer? . . .

. . . not only for my benefit (and those reading these forums), but I am now encouraging my son as a young player.

Hal Leonard's Advanced Band Method for Basses (Tuba) by Harold W. Rusch with Special Studies by Arnold Jacobs, ISBN 0 7399 13500 8 and Hal Leonard HL06613500 is a bargain (at about $6). It includes some short etudes and accompaniments for those etudes that can be played by a second tubist or Dad himself.

Reginald H. Fink's Studies in Legato for Bass Trombone and Tuba, ISBN 7-98408-00937-3 and Carl Fischer 04768, $13.50, is full of good verbal guidance and some nice, melodic vocal studies by Concone, Marchesi and Panofka. I spent many hours with this book the year I decided to get serious about my doubling on tuba.

For scales and Arban's arpeggios with accompanying audio CD, and explanations and practice in just intonation rather than equal temperament, my own Breakfast, Intonation Practice for Trombonists is worthwhile. Item 49516, $13.95, at Hickey's Music Center or at my own website.

David