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Hello everyone. I am currently a senior in high school and I wish to attend college and major in Music Education. For the past 5 years or so, I have been playing tuba with quite the competitive mindset. I've been fairly successful (not as successful as I have always hoped (but who is?)), but I mostly ascribe that to general musicality. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I have never been a consistent in my practicing. Most of it consists of playing excepts of whatever is challenging me over and over until I get frustrated and stop. I don't often get much time to practice with how busy my current schedule is either.

I am asking for just some general tips on how to make my practice time as efficient and effective as possible. I have problems with staying focused and I often get frustrated when I am unable to play something right away.

My question is, how can I combat some of these issues with my practicing? Also, what does your practice consist of and for how long do you work on specific things. I know effective practice may be different for everyone, but it's nice to get some concrete feedback (I've never had a consistent private lesson teacher that actually plays tuba, so these things are somewhat lost on me).

I do exactly what Bloke does. As part of "whatever else I want to do" I try to play something that's mostly just for fun.

In the case of tuba, this often amounts to just playing through a bunch of the songs in Arban's or playing something like some Blazhevich exercises or diddling around with the Canadian Brass "play along" CD . Or maybe some of the Graham "Concert Music for Tuba" or the Sear "Advanced Duets" (but just one of the parts by myself).

In the case of euphonium, this generally ends up being Rochut, or working on one or two things that may wife can provide piano accompaniment for.

I feel that the MOST important thing is what Bloke mentioned first: tuning and tone production. Without that, you've got noise instead of music.

When you start the music education program, the better your ability to hear pitches is, the better off you will be. Studies of expanding intervals, done with a tuner, would be an example of something to spend some time on every day. You will be surprised at how much more important pitch becomes when you are no longer a high school student.

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Hey Briman! Welcome to Tubenet!

I’m coming back to playing after taking about a decade off (I do NOT ever want to do that again!). Practicing was one thing I almost never did when I was learning how to play back then. Now however, it is a must. I’m fortunate to have a very good private teacher who has helped me with exactly the question you asked. Working a full time job and still finding time to practice means I have to make the most of what little time I have (a practice mute helps to avoid pissing off the neighbors and gives me some more flexibility in finding more time). What we have come up with (for me) seems to work well. I needed my teacher’s help identifying some issues and figuring out how to correct them.

Routine:
1) Warm-up routine.
2) Etudes that focus on areas for improvement identified in the warm-up.
3) Practice/wood-shedding.
4) Warm-down.

1) I start with a warm-up routine that starts with long tones (for tuning and tone production) going up and down as many octaves as I can play on a scale (major and/or minor) and progressing through the scales using the same interval (between the root of each scale) I pick for the day and subdividing the notes one more time for each scale over the same four counts for each note in the scale. Once I’ve subdivided far enough to use multiple tongue-ing, I then switch to octave slurs and jumps (continuing through the scales) as fast as I can cleanly accomplish them. At the end of each of the octave jump scales I play the arpeggio twice, slurring once, and then tonguing. It really does not take as long as it sounds like. Maybe around 15-20 mins. This has helped me re-familiarize myself with the scales, work on tone and articulations, flexibility, hearing intervals, and get the juices flowing all at the same time.

2) Right now I’m working on my lower register, so I have the 2nd book of practical studies for tuba and play an etude or two in the written octave then up and octave then in the lowest octave I can reach; they’re pretty short. (Again, this is what I’M currently working on. YOU would insert whatever YOU’RE working on here.)

3) I never practiced well before I came back to my tuba, so this step was all-new to me. My teacher has shared what he does to prepare challenging parts. He said to take the trouble section and break it down into manageable chunks (i.e. the notes between where you would take breaths or a single phrase of the passage). Take the first chunk and play it as slow as needed to play it perfectly. If needed, play it in a comfortable octave first. If I’m having trouble hearing pitches, I’ll tap it out on the piano (or the app on my phone  ) then (try to) sing the line, then buzz the line. Once I have the pitches down then I play it on the horn. Once I can play through the chunk slowly but correctly, then I’ll move back to the written octave if needed and begin picking up the tempo until I’m at the correct one. This is also the approach taken to work up the etudes to a playable level in step number two above. This also helps to keep from getting frustrated and gives incremental and measureable improvement.

4) Lastly I use a short warm-down to basically relax my face, kinda like stretching after a workout. I usually play a simple low etude at a moderate volume. Then, I play a few descending arpeggios going do lower and lower scales.

That’s that. All-in-all, this can be done in an hour if I’m crunched for time, if needed I’ll stuff a practice mute in for more wood-shedding time as well and stretch everything out for as long as I can stand to play if possible.

Just to be clear, this is what my private teacher and I have determined to be most effective FOR ME and is simply an example of one way things can be done. I hope this is helpful.

Thank you all so much for your help. I'm going to work on making myself an actual schedule to work off of. Now I actually know what to stick on there.

The best thing about breathing exercises is you can do them anywhere, anytime and don't have to have your horn handy. I like using a powerlung driving to and from work.

goodgigs wrote:I would suggest that you go to your local collage.

Brian, did you go to collage

Though his guidance is terse, I agree with Bloke. Intonation and tone production are key when you play only a third of the notes that are played by trumpets and clarinets and flutes and violins. Keeping in mind that lessons are public performances, it's useful to use the parts that you will have to play in public as a diagnostic tool for any lacking fundamentals and to have specific etudes and exercises to develop your lacking fundamentals. If you do not have to play in public, then you should play anything that you want to play and just have fun with it.