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I think that if you limit yourself to books and recordings by/for/about tuba players, you will be very disappointed overall with both the quality and quantity of the available materials. You'll find quite a selection of all kinds of things at jazzbooks.com (Jamey Aebersold). Most of the materials will either have separate bass clef versions, or will have the same thing in all clefs/transpositions in one book. What exactly are you looking for? (fake books, transcriptions, charts, theory?)i

Sam, Are you looking for Dixie, big band, hot, swing, fusion, Latin, ballads, bebop? Which audience?

Some good books:

Scott Reeves: Creative Beginings-book and cd
Reeves (I think): Creative Improvisation
The Charlie Parker Omnibook (there is a bass clef version)
Dan Hearle: The Jazz Language (the best buy)

A few mentioned may have more bop influence, but the end product is the same.

Get the first five Aebersold CDs. Included is some books that have great jazz knowledge. After that, choose some CD's that you want to play along with.

Here's some free advice before you pay a jazz teacher for it:

LISTEN.

The best learning tool in music, and especially jazz, is the ear. Since Jazz was mostly passed on aurally, it seems to make sense to learn it that way. Listen to jazz everywhere. Transcribe the solos, and play them back with the horn.

Another great thing about jazz is you are not limited to your own instrument. I have transcribed a LOAD of Sonny Rollins, and it lays well on my horn. There are tuba guys out there, but not enough recordings to learn enough. The tuba guys that you listen to will most definitely have listened to other instruments.

You don't have to find a jazz tuba teacher to learn jazz. It's all the same language. Let the teacher teach you jazz and you figure out the technique.

If you want to groove, check out bass. Paul Chambers, Ray Brown, Charlie Mingus, etc. Learn the basslines and solos. If you do that and can learn to be the bottom of a combo, there's a good chance you will get some gigs in time.

Good luck and keep practicing!

Nick

A bass clef edition of the Real Book should serve you nicely. Hal Leonard bought the rights to the old(illegal) Real Book and is now offering it LEGALLY for the ridiculously low price of $25.

If you learn to read treble clef, a huge written musical world opens up for you. There is much more material in that clef, including piano music, songbooks, etc. Also, fake books are always available in treble clef editions; only some of them are available in bass clef editions.

Allen Walker

Allen wrote:If you learn to read treble clef, a huge written musical world opens up for you. There is much more material in that clef, including piano music, songbooks, etc. Also, fake books are always available in treble clef editions; only some of them are available in bass clef editions.

Allen Walker

Yes, but which way to you play treble clef? If you are playing treble clef baritone (euphonium) parts in band music or British Brass Band treble clef parts, you are transposing so that you are playing a Bb instead of a C. Isn't most of the treble clef stuff to which you refer written in concert pitch, and therefore shouldn't be played as if reading treble clef band music?

Of course I would think that any professional musician on any instrument should be able to read in most, if not all clefs, in concert pitch.

Most books are written in C for all instruments. If you want to read in Bb, then do it that way. Either way, the harmony remains the same, no matter if you're thinking in transposition or not. Most transposing players have a double challenge: they read in both concert and their transposing pitch. If you get a fake book, it's best to have it in concert pitch. If you are reading an arrangement for an ensemble, it's best to be reading what you're comfortable with. But still, you need to be versatile, because the arranger might still write in the clef he thinks euphonium/tuba read in.

There's not much reason to learn to read charts in transposing keys if you haven't done so already, but I have already had to read lead charts for transposed instruments already. Besides, you should be able to transpose to a different key on the spot if you are playing with a musician that wants the tune in a different key.

Enough of my rambling.

Nick

Sam wrote:i was looking for big band and swing

I work for a publisher and distributor of big band sheet music, and I can tell you that very few tuba parts cross my path. There are some for sure, but they are about as common in that genre as *gasp* french horn parts. A lot of the older music seems to use tuba more often than the new stuff.

If you don't already have a gig lined up, be prepared to double on bass or bass bone, at least to get your foot in the door.

Just a little unsolicited, and possibly unwelcomed advice.

-Zack Zeman