TubeNet

What is your opinion on multiphonics, should you learn how to do it, or is it not necessary?

You mean "hum while you play," right?

I think it can be very effective in a piece; it has gotten my attention a couple of times during a performance. I don't see any reason not to learn how to do it, at least on an elementary level. Any new stuff you learn will be useful at some time or other.

It can be really interesting to try to hum a note that is outside of the harmonic series of the note you are buzzing...the instrument "fights back" very noticibly, and you learn a bit about the fact that it "likes" to resonate within the harmonic series.

MA

tubadude08 wrote:What is your opinion on multiphonics, should you learn how to do it, or is it not necessary?

If the music you want to play calls for it, then you'll have to learn how to do it or forever avoid that music.

I've heard it done well and poorly; more often the latter. If you do learn it, learn to do it well before subjecting an audience to it, heh, heh.

Rick "who thinks most tuba players can live their lives without playing pieces that require multiphonics" Denney

My opinion about multiphonics is that I generally do not like them. However, as a musician you should learn how to use multiphonics in case you are called on to do so. Your job is to make whatever is put in front of you as musical as you can regardless of your personel opinion.

good luck,
Mark

I am not aware of any ensemble literature that requires multiphonics in the tuba part. I hope anyone will correct me if they know of any.

So, it probably isn't a skill you need "in your bag" to be able to call upon on the spur of the moment in a gig.

Assuming I'm right that it appears only in solo literature - it's up to each player whether they will be in a situation that calls for it, so the decision of whether to develop the skill seems to depend entirely on whether you plan to use it in solo instances.

Of course, you could use it in jazz solos, too.

Bloke is right; true multiphonics generate additional tones. There are others (resultant tones) as well as just the triad, but that's the easiest one. It's a lot more than just humming while you buzz. I've only ever seen it written in solo works. I think that it's something a good tuba player ought to have in his bag of tricks, like many things, if you need to learn it for a piece you've already started too late. In addition, if nothing else, it helps to develop your ear.

If it's in your bag of tricks and you can do it well, you can really shock the audience. Oystein Baadsvik performing "Pflug" or Nat McIntosh's solo on the YBB tune "Brooklyn" are two examples. If you can't really drill your intervals, though, well.... best you avoid it.

If nothing else, you can get at least good enough to use it as a practice tool to hear what properly-tuned intervals should sound like. It's not the best method, but it'll work in a pinch, like if you're by yourself and don't have a piano.

Go for it. It's pretty cool to do and some pieces require it. Some say it's just a trick but to me it's just another technique to learn. So to sum up: worth it...






Ralph

I found "humming while you play" (not necessarily to produce multiphonics) quite useful to play walking bass in brass quintet. It added a neat sound effect, resembling a string bass.
In that case you want to hum roughly the same (or octave parallel) note you play. That one makes bends more convincing, too.

Brian Bowman is God wrote:Multiphonics are awesome.....I like doing it with other people around who don't know what multiphonics is, and have them ask me, "How are you playing 2 notes at once?". But after I tell them that all I'm doing is playing one note and humming another, most of the time they're all like, "Oh, that's cheap", and then they lose interest .

Ask them to try it on their trumpet, and try not to laugh too loud at the result...

Another effect I discovered is not humming, but rolling your tongue back to front to back while playing a long tone, and listening to the "phase shift" in the sound. It is also a good exercise to find the best tongue position/mouth resonance for just regular playing if you can adopt the new position if you find a better one.

If you want to hear someone change the timbre of a note really well by changing tongue position, get a recording of a good dijeridoo player. Other than the circular breathing, I found dij playing pretty similar to tuba playing, with of course the addition of the tongue rolling.

MA