TubeNet

Took delivery of a small bore Eb tuba this morning, am very excited. Bought the Rubank methods to freshen up on the fingerings and am surprised at how quickly it all came back to me (10 years away from the tuba), especially never having owned an Eb. Skimming through the books had me thinking "wow, I really haven't lost much, I can jump right into an ensemble asap!" Putting the horn on my face was a humbling experience, to say the least.

So- I know I need to practice my long tones, and built my embouchure back up, I'm curious though if anybody has any creative suggestions for balancing the work that my lips need to do with the playing that my fingers want to do?

Beyond that, any Eb tuba related resources, embouchure tips, and gentle guidance is greatly appreciated. cheers!

I think your lips will just have to wait to "catch up" with your fingers. It's like riding a bike again after years off from it. Don't rush things; you have been off the tuba for a decade. I think you will probably get your chops back within a few months of constant, gentle practice

After college, I took a 3-year hiatus from playing to go to law school. Had my horn with me; just never had a chance to play, since I was in an apartment building. When I got my first job after law school, though, I moved and rented a (very) small house to myself and began playing again.

I decided it would be a great time to try to relearn how to play without some of the annoying habits I had such a hard time getting over in college.

I experienced the same thing you did - fingers were there (mostly), but not lips. I took the first couple weeks back and did a lot of long tones and lips slurs. At that point, it was mesmerizing just to be making a sound again, so I found it quite pleasant.

To get my fingers back going, I got out my Tyrell etude book and started from page 1, and started under tempo. I forced myself to be able to play it note perfect at 50%-75% tempo and actually focus on the articulation, tonal consistency, and tone. Then I let myself speed it up. Once I got it where I could do it 100% tempo with only a couple chips, I moved on to #2. And so on and so forth. The book is written so that if you do it that way and do one etude every 2 or 3 days, you get into some pretty satisfying technique pretty quickly. It's not Carnival of Venice, but it gets your fingers moving.

I hope you find coming back to the horn as satisfying as I did!

Great advice above. After a nearly 40 year(!) hiatus I returned to playing euphonium. As you probably know, the Remington warm-ups are invaluable. (Read down an octave when necessary.) I was surprised how many college instructors generously put pdfs of their warm-ups and exercises on the internet, so don't forget to look there. I found that my midrange came quickly, but the upper and lower ranges are a work in progress even after 2 years.

Thanks for the encouragement and advice. I got in a solid 3 and a half hours this afternoon with a short break every 30-40 minutes, and they went far better than my preliminary encounter with the horn. Spent the first session just finding the partials and relearning octave slurs, then I jumped into the Rubank beginner book and worked through the first 10 lessons. Was interesting to hear [not good] things happening with my tone and *not* instinctively knowing how to fix it, but there were a lot of issues that I was able to fix and I felt like there was noticeable improvement each time I came back from a break and revisited the previous exercise(s). Wife and kid had never seen or heard a tuba before- both were tolerant and mildly amused.

My plan is to work straight through all 3 Rubanks and work in this book of melody exercises I found on Amazon as soon as I feel ready for it. http://www.amazon.com/Well-Tempered-Ins ... 991169840/ Sure is neat that in 2015 I can press a few buttons on my phone and have an instant metronome!

You might see if you can get a copy of the Jacobs Flow Studies to use as a warm up. You can get them off the ITEA website if you are a member.
ScottM

The best way I know to get the "lips" back in shape is to play simple tunes on the mouthpiece alone. It will connect the brain and the lips. All the fingers do is to change the length of the tube so it will resonate the pitch being buzzed in the cup of the mouthpiece. Once the lips are working, you will just need to refine the coordination between the lips and fingers.

Thanks for the continued advice! Had the afternoon off yesterday and put in several more hours, honestly my lips are coming along much more quickly than I expected- I feel like I'm at the level of a pretty good middle-school tuba player right now It's not yet 2nd nature, but I'm able to achieve a good tone and clear articulations. Upper register is a little shaky still, but considering the YEARS it took me to play above F in the staff the first time around I think I'm doing alright so far.

Warm ups and maintenance by Don Harry. AKA warm ups from he!!

When I come back from a holiday or so, I start up with lots of breathing excercises. Somehow it also loosens my lip muscles.
Low register playing will also help, it does it for me. To controll that register, your lips will have to work.

To get back in shape you could try etudes from:

Arban
Rochut
Vasiliev
Grigoriev

LG

You are in good company! Like other posters (above) I had a 45 year hiatus after college until I retired and also bought an Eb tuba. And like you, the lips were a problem area. I joined a local town band to give me an incentive to practice, and after a month or so, the lips became an embouchure!

45 years, wow! How long since you came back to the tuba? I am having so much fun! I broke out the Gabrielli Ricercar yesterday and moved through it very slowly, and while I'm no where near the skill level I was 10 years ago, I could hit all of the pitches and most of the runs fairly decently. Eb fingerings trip me up once in a while, but I think the 10 year hiatus was actually helpful in that regard. The slurs on the 2nd page are a bit out of my league right now(especially at tempo), but this gives me an achievable goal to work toward. My copy even has notes written on it by my teacher some 12 or 13 years ago.