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Tuba Chord Progression

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 1:21 am
by GCB50
I've just finished working with a few local schools as a tuba tech, and I'm already looking ahead to next season. One thing I'm wanting to introduce are chord progressions within the section, for the benefit of them hearing what "in-tune" should sound like, as well as to have a "show-off" warm up moment. My questions is this: Have any of you had experience with tuning chord progressions with JUST a tuba line, and not a full ensemble? And if so, what progression do you suggest? I'm not even sure if this will work or not.

As always, thanks for any and all advice!

Re: Tuba Chord Progression

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 5:18 pm
by swillafew
It sounds tame, but the most productive thing I have done like that is just to match and blend a unison. At Ann Arbor we used to have one person hold the note and others join, and keep doing it until we couldn't get it any better. A diatonic scale was the normal method of building up a routine. The band director would spend time in the rehearsals doing it, and I think that provoked a lot of sectional time on it too. It seemed worth the trouble at the time.