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How does one go about developing a quicker and more efficient response in the low register (clear attacks on the notes, true staccato, less wasted air)? Assuming decent gear, appropriate mouthpiece, trouble-free embouchure and air production, is there a solid way to approach it? Are there studies that help to develop this? What are some of the guideposts for clearing the mud out of excerpts like the Ride, Fountains, and Hindemith's Metamorphosis?

Thanks.

P.S. - Yes I know "practice" is part of the answer.

Actually, practice is most of the answer. Appropriate is most of the rest, and equipment the remainder.

Appropriate, meaning using a recording device to hear what is happening, truly hearing the resulting sound, then knowing what adjustments to make to improve.

No one said it would be easy. If they did, they lied as they sold you a mouthpiece.

2 things:

1) Take your mouthpiece and sit at a piano. Start with C below the bass clef staff. Play the note on the piano, attack the note on the mouthpiece. Work your way down chromatically. Work so that your attack on the mouthpiece is immediate and exactly on the pitch.

2) On the tuba work your way down in the same fashion. Figure out what configuration your chops and oral cavity need to be in to produce the note and try and have your chops and mouth in that position before you play the note. One way to do this is to play a long tone low note (for example 'F' 4 ledger lines down). Start the note and find the sweet spot in terms of pitch and tone. Then stop the note but hold your chops/mouth in that sweet spot position and then try and start the note again with your chops already in that position.

Good luck!

Not that I can do it all cleanly myself... but make volume one of the last things you work on. Focus on articulation and rhythm (and of course the right notes). Once you have that down, you can start worrying about how loudly you are playing. Especially for the big section moments, a clean and clear low brass section at 70% volume will sound MUCH better than a rag-tag section at 90% volume.

Big, slow, hot air; tongue as close as you can to the vibration (not "tah" but "thpo")

Practice very, very short notes.

Practice very, very long, steady notes (with a decibel meter to prove they are steady).

Boch/Bixby/Bobo etudes... plus the low register etudes of Gourlay.

Do not neglect your high range (some will "hate on me" for that...)

Listen and record yourself.

Repeat as necessary.

I am a self-taught amateur who only returned to tuba a few years ago after a decades long hiatus following high school. My shortcoming is that I don't do nearly enough buzzing, but these are what work for me:

I have a mustache and beard, but I have begun shaving around my lips for better loose skin contact with the mouthpiece.

Practice in the high register, even if only chromatic scales.

Work on Phil Snedecor's "Low Etudes for Tuba."

A monster mouthpiece is not necessary. I use a popularly recommended, but not that big or heavy, Roger Bobo MP and get pedal C on my Yamaha 822 F.

I experiment during band and orchestra rehearsals by playing down an octave. That way I learn what works and what does not.

Keep a full tank of air with lots of breaths in anticipation of low passages.

Enjoy some live performances by pro tuba players. I have heard the best examples of low register work at the Washington (DC) National Opera and low brass ensembles of the United States Marine Band with Tom Holtz (retired) and his companions. Keep the sounds of their attacks and tonal expression in your head.
http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/ ... rce_type=B" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

The key is slow and soft then build it up slowly.

Here are the first in a series of videos I am going to compile on how to approach excerpts and how to practice them.

Ride:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vomo2XJQ ... B&index=10" target="_blank

Fountains:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhLkaCll ... EB&index=8" target="_blank

Gershwin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwpD5ZLW ... EB&index=9" target="_blank

More to come as time permits, any recommendations on what you would like to hear next will be approached as I plan on doing to the top twenty or twenty five audition excerpts like this.

Good luck

Tom

Ok, my .02

I have always had a good melodic low range, but I struggled with quick placement and volume for a long time until I took a lesson where I was informed to take the Wes Jacobs Low Register studies at half note=60, two half notes per breath, at FFFF....

I know, this sounded like suicide of the chops to me as well. Bottom line, it worked. I've used it with my students and it seems to work with most of them as well.

Don't look at ranges / registers as extremes. Get out of your head that playing anything way down low (or way up high) is any more difficult than playing something in the middle.

Take a simple melody and play it in every octave / register you can. Strive for 3 octaves, then 4, maybe even 5. Do your best to take the physicality out of the equation and make them sound as musically similar as possible. Let the music dictate the technique.


I really got into this when I had a young child and would play my tuba for her. I'd play "Twinkle Twinkle" or "Mary Had a Little Lamb" etc... I'd play it in every key, transfer it to minor, play it in every octave.. etc etc.

And then, in the end, it's an odds game. The registers you play most in are the ones you will sound best in.

tubajoe wrote:Don't look at ranges / registers as extremes. Get out of your head that playing anything way down low (or way up high) is any more difficult than playing something in the middle.

Take a simple melody and play it in every octave / register you can. Strive for 3 octaves, then 4, maybe even 5. Do your best to take the physicality out of the equation and make them sound as musically similar as possible. Let the music dictate the technique.


I really got into this when I had a young child and would play my tuba for her. I'd play "Twinkle Twinkle" or "Mary Had a Little Lamb" etc... I'd play it in every key, transfer it to minor, play it in every octave.. etc etc.

And then, in the end, it's an odds game. The registers you play most in are the ones you will sound best in.

I like this advice. I have found that when playing by ear, whether it just being for fun or Christmas songs for bell ringing for the Salvation Army, anytime you adlib, I find that I am much cleaner on the extreem ranges of my ability as I am thinking about the note and have the sound in my head. When I am not intimidated by the black note on the page, it is much easier. My biggest problem with low register notes is I run out of air too quickly.

Steve

Practice in that register EVERY DAY.

Buzz in that register EVERY DAY.

REPEAT.

Mike Milnarik

1. Use waaaaay less pressure than you are almost certainly using because you think you need to "get hold of" those low notes to belt them out. (Seriously...WAY less pressure. Trust me!)

2. Plan way, waaaaaaay more breaths than you would need for the same phrase if it were written up an octave or two. You simply will NOT be able to play phrases in the low register as long as you would be able to in a higher register.

3. Keep the corners of your mouth firm. Yes, even on tuba.

4. THINK of and HEAR in your mind the perfect, resonant, wonderful, low sound of the phrase you want to play BEFORE you try to play it. The only REAL music maker you have is your MIND. The horn is just an amplifier that projects the vibrations of the lips, which use the air from your lungs as fuel. Without the music from your MIND behind it, that big hunk of metal you are holding will always sound like crap.

Have fun!