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So the term "long tones" is thrown around quite a bit, but there seems to be some inconsistency in execution. Originally I was taught that longs tones were simply tones held as long, softly and steadily as possible. Then later I was taught that long tones were synonymous with Remington exercises, even referred to as Remington long tones. As a result, I've always practiced long tones, sometimes one or the other way or even a hybrid of the two methods.


How do execute long tones? What do you feel is gained by practicing them?

As a bass bone player playing tuba when I think of long tones now I think of Phil Teele's Advanced Embouchure studies that have really helped me on tuba. His straight forward exercises are amazing.

A typical Phil Teele style workout might look like this:

Take big breath, play note as long as possible, repeat 20 times. Do this twice more.

Now go down a half step (supposed to keep same chop set as for above) and repeat.

Do this until wife gets mad or three hours, whichever comes first. Some have found themselves wifeless after a week or so.

timothy42b wrote:Some have found themselves wifeless after a week or so.

What a patient wife! Not sure mine would last even that long...

Now you tell me...

If I had known getting rid of her was so easy, I would have started months ago!!

Whatever you practice, regardless of speed, should be considered a tone study because you always want to create your finest quality of tone, regardless of the length of each individual note. The Remington studies, however, are generally be classified as flexibility studies, not long tones. When working on tone quality, Arnold Jacobs recommended holding a note at least four seconds, and six to eight seconds was even better. His idea was to not be too concerned at first with the beginning of the note, as long as it sounded great the longer you held it. Then, you can work on making it sound great sooner, until it sounds great from the beginning.

He also felt that this was a great way to develop your high register. Pick one or two notes that are near the beginning of your high range. Don't play them a few times, but play them 20-30 or 50 times, making sure the middle of each note sounded great. After a week or so of doing this, move up a half step or so and repeat. After a few months, your high register will be greatly improved without killing your chops due to over use. This is a basic tenet of Mr. Jacobs, "Bad sounds can be made into good sounds, silence can't." If the note does not sound good at the beginning, never stop and start over. Instead, hold it 4-8 seconds and make sure it keeps sounding better the longer you hold it. Otherwise, you are just teaching yourself to play a bad note.

Mr. Jacobs was also an advocate of the kind of exercise Bloke mentioned, where you do a lot of crescendo and diminuendo, maintaining your best sound while increasing or decreasing volume. He said it was analogous to turning the volume of a stereo up or down, more or less sound, but NOT altered sound.

He also spoke often of something his teacher, Philip Donatelli, told him when he was at Curtis. Donatelli said that long tones made him sound good, but made his lips stiff. Flexibility studies made his lips feel good, but didn't sound good. Doing both was important to one's overall health as a musician.

In the mix of all the long tone exercises is an important factor that I like to work on a bit each day. For the lack of a better word I will refer to the "optimal embouchure." That being that very tiny piece of real estate at the center of the embouchure. Finding that embouchure inside the overall embouchure helps you realize the center of the sound, and also when playing it PPP how to control the pitch. The extreme soft dynamic emphasizes or exxagerates all the problems of wavering pitch, air flow and pressure on the mp. Exercising on long tones while focused on this extremely soft aspect has helped me very much is developing an embouchure that relies less on pressure. Much of the sound thus emanating from the center of things, whether pedal C or high C, maintaining that focus becomes the goal. Applying this by holding the notes as long as you can, and sometimes focusing on one pitch for about 20 or 30 minutes. One might be sureprised at the results.

I demand that my students do the "Remington" version of long tones for 5 minutes every day (followed by a little more practice, of course...
Since my students never seem to have the same concept of "long" that I do, I make them hold the first note out for 10 seconds, starting at pianissimo and getting up to a mezzo-forte (no sense getting rough right away!) and then playing the half-step for another 10 seconds. Invariably, my freshmen go through an extended period of near-fainting and not making the length. Too bad... try again. Eventually the lower brain stem gets the message and they start using more of their diaphragm and less of their clavicle (or they kill enough brain cells to become drummers instead.)

bloke wrote:Mentally, aspiring musicians should grow accustomed to jumping right in and being 'on'. There is no 'warm-up' for 'Symphonie Fantastique'. ALL of that must be played 'cold'. The vast majority of auditions for (real) jobs involve sitting quietly for c. 1/2 hour prior to playing on stage.

One of the most valuable things my teacher passed on to me.

I've tried a number of long tone exercises, and found them to be quite useful, as well as great exercise. They help a ton with breath control.

I often mix them up with a nice exercise I picked up at a master class, which is to not tongue the beginning of a note, and start out just blowing air through the embouchure. Then start the lips vibrating, with the smoothest transition into the quietest possible note. Then let it fade again to just air. Really helps with the soft playing, IMHO, especially when coming off a cold start.

Pick up tuba; breathe in and play a note: "looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong". Take a break; look at your smart phone; take a drink of water, then pick out another note (preferably one not too far way): "loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong".

Continue doing this until you can't stand it any further and you THINK you sound better.

After that, you can tell others how much better you are because you religiously do your long tones

My definition of the duration of a "long tone" infinitely approaches 0 as the lower limit, but never reaches zero (lower limit), and has an upper limit of infinity. The duration can be any number between these limits.