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I just heard a euphonium player that made his horn sound almost the same as a cello. At times with my eyes closed I would have thought it was a cello. His attack and articulation mimicked the bow against the strings.

This got me thinking what is he doing to get this sound? Is it a certain articulation or note double stop or ...

Any ideas...

Sounds cool , and can be really entertaining for some audiences.

However, I would rather sound as a tuba than a cello

Okay, I'll take the bait.

Q: How to sound like a cello?

A: Play a cello.

Okay I appreciate the responses and opinions received so far. But back to my original question what intonation have people found sounds like a cello.

Mark wrote:Okay, I'll take the bait.

Q: How to sound like a cello?

Play sharp rather than out of tune...

Where did you hear this? Live or recording? If a recording, what is it?

Was it a cello piece, like a Bach cello suite, so that the player was purposefully trying to mimic a cello to match the piece?

Whlie there are general thoughts on embouchure and articulation that most all players can use, when it comes to subtleties, it can depend on the individual. You just have to listen closely to a cello then try experimenting and recording yourself to see if you are getting there. What you need to do might be pretty different from what that performer does.

I know of a trumpet player who puts a small metal washer in his mouthpiece to help him get a raspy jazz sound that other players can produce without any “help” like that.

bloke wrote:reminder:

Millions of Americans can name at least one professional cellist.
Hundreds of Americans can name at least one professional euphonium player.

cello.png

Cue the "how a tuba player sees himself, how everyone else sees him/how a euph player sees himself, how everyone else sees him" comic!

It was a live performance of Bach’s Cello suite.

perhaps it was the use of vibrato? string players tend to use more vibrato than brass players (although English players, especially in brass bands do use a wider vibrato that us Americans)..
Listen to a cellist's vibrato and try to imitate it...

kk

I haven’t listened to the cello suites recently and have only worked on trying to play an arrangement of the first one.

I don’t recall much strong articulation in these. The notes are just there, especially large jumps that a stringed instrument can execute so efficiently. When the suites go down to the lower notes, I seem to remember the cellist really leaning into those, making the string kind of growl, and lingering slightly longer on them. Low notes longer and full, higher notes light.

You won’t find any aggressively short notes in The Bach cello suites. There are light, dance-y notes and full bodied notes. This is also just part of how a cello is; how the strings behave by nature.

I would say try to avoid any harsh articulation - your notes are just “there”. Think about low notes as being a long, resonant string and higher notes as a lighter string.

Think about the cello and how its build makes it behave the way it does. Try to make your instrument behave with those limiting parameters in mind. Become the cello, I guess ... (geesh).

All of this is probably worth only the paper it is written on ...

Just like sounding like a string bass.... the secret is to develop the attack and the decay.

I'm pretty good at it. But why?

If I really wanted to sound like a stringed instrument... I should play a stringed instrument.

Here's an actual answer!

There is a technique to get a fuzzy, airy, reedy sound on brass. You might hear it on trumpet, and I learned it from a famous trumpeter, Bobby Shew, on ballads. Chet Baker, too? I use it on trombone, on a solo like Body and Soul. Sax players do this, check out Lester Young.

Basically, listen a ton to Cellists! playing this music and stop listening to brass players for a while. I think brass players in general need to reprogram their concept of piece, like Bach suites. Then,...

• 1. Lessen the volume of air you're moving by giving less support from diaphragm and elasticity of your lungs. To me, this feels a bit like blowing a warm "Huuuuh" instead of "Hooooo". Yes, this will make you go flat a little...
  2. And you might feel like you widen your lip aperture...a bit. Okay...
  3. But tense the supporting muscles just a bit to lip the note back into pitch. Use a tuner.
  4. I think good advice above about adjusting the articulation to be softer. No real "T". More soft "da", like a trombone player does on almost all legato notes, or even imagine a "thuh" tonguing, especially on the cello down bow, like first beat of each phrase at the start of a Bach cello suite.
  thuh da di da di da, thuh da di da di da". And good advice on paying attention to the decay of notes.
  5. Analyze the music in terms of bowing. You'll have down bows and up bows at starts of phrases, shifting strings (which is starting a new string to vibrate), and sequences of notes slurred on the same string with the bow traveling in one direction, and detache where the bow changes direction on each note sometimes or the bow stops but moves in the same direction sometimes. If the bow changes directions or string, you articulate for sure, and I'd guess you might lightly articulate a lot more notes than the slurs in the music would indicate

I would do this on long tones first, without any articulation, with a breath attack (no tongue), then simple exercises on repeated notes, for example, to experiment with attacks and releases and decay.
I would always end a practice session with playing normal high quality, well supported tone to teach the brain/body how to return to normal playing after using this technique. So it because a tool in your arsenal, not a new habit.

If you'd want to try mutes, I'd try a cup mute or bucket mute (New York trombone players use a beret hat, easier to carry), rather than a straight mute, but I think that's not the right direction, practically. That's a solution if you're covering a cello part in a pit orchestra or something.

• This euph player is approaching a Bach piece like a brass player: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh1W931Lciw
  This cellist is approaching it like a...well, a cellist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGQLXRTl3Z0
  Freddie Hubbard uses this technique on trumpet on a jazz ballad might give you some idea, not cello like, but this is the direction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnx174OFo6M
  This trumpeter refers to it as "sub-tone", which is apt in my opinion, and voice like. Here's a good explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_usxGOZGUGM

Good luck, and maybe post your results!

Thanks for the thorough answer. I will give it a try.

Cobra1502 wrote:I just heard a euphonium player that made his horn sound almost the same as a cello. At times with my eyes closed I would have thought it was a cello. His attack and articulation mimicked the bow against the strings.

This got me thinking what is he doing to get this sound? Is it a certain articulation or note double stop or ...

Any ideas...

Your sound is determined by a variety of things. Often overlooked is your concept of sound. When you look at euphonium music, what do you hear? That's likely what you sound like.

You can cultivate a new sound by spending time listening to a sound you want to copy and actively imagining that sound in your head. No, it won't happen by magic, it won't happen fast but your sound will change. This is a basic principle that Arnold Jacobs' students all heard many times.