USAB Section Leader Handbook

[MartyNeilan]

The 9' tenor tuba (ie euphonium length) is also known as the basstuba...

For a small wind ensemble, CC tuba provides a clean crisp bass...
CC tuba is not out of place in a large wind band in conjunction with one or more large BBb tubas...

Because of intonation problems the sousaphone should not be used in a concert band...

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[Tubadork]

HA,
Welcome to the wonderful world of Army regulations. No matter what you may have learned in some "high fulutin graduate school" you are never smarter than the regulation. In the Army School of music textbooks there is so much that is just plain not right. They mislabel escape tones and they use terminology that NO major university does (ie. there is no such thing as 2/4, 4/4 you have things like simple duple, compound triple), I learned the stuff for the tests and then data dumped all that crud.

The craziest thing out there however is contained in the Field Santitaion regulation, which explains in great detail the proper front to back technique for wiping your posterior. (I WISH I WERE JOKING).
I'm so happy I am a civilized, uhhh.. I mean a civilian again.


Bill

[jtuba]

Everyone here knows that tubadork is my boy, but I actually teach the course he went through, so here goes...

Is our curricullum the best, no
Is it the worst, no.

I deal everyday with people who say that what we teach isn't done in the real world. You said "any major university". I know where you went to school, and you haven't been to every major university. I learned about compound time and simple time when I was an undergrad. I know that UGA has used numbers for solfeggio. My roommate at MSM was a UGA undergrad and used numbers in class. We teach intervals, major, minor, modal, whole-tone, pentatonic(M and m). We teach triads and chord symbols, the latter of which I never learned before I joined the Army, and some basic Harmony. That's where the bone of contention is with most college folks. No two harmony texts are written exactly the same, so everyone that comes through here thinks the way they learned is right and everybody else is wrong. Most of the stuff we teach would be covered in a remedial class in college, but the course is not designed for someone with a MM. The only reason you hated the school is because you already learned and could apply the material. Again, I deal with college grads every day that can't read two clefs fluently, can't spell triads, and can't properly resolve the TT in V7 chord, and can't play all of their scales.

BTW, I just checked the Kostka/Payne Tonal Harmony book against our TC12-42(Harmony) book, and escape tone, eschappee, in not incorrectly described. Let me know what you're talking about and I'll be the first to acknowledge it. The manuals also say that we must be able to tune our instrumnt to a reference pitch within 30 seconds. I know people that couldn't do that in 30 years, both in and out of the service.

Hope you're still my boy.

[Tubadork]

Chip,
if I remember right (I'll check again, but I think I threw all of that stuff away) there is no mention of escape tones at all in the Basic Music Handbook and what I learned as an escape tone they have mislabeled as an appoggiatura . I checked my Kostka and Payne (pg175) and that's how I learned escape tone also.

If I remember right there was also some mistakes in the harmony section, but I can't remember those as well.

FWIW: I have no prob, with #'s for solfeggio (that's what we did at ESM, but I did solfegge at WPU). That simple, compound stuff I think is a load of crap and has no application, but hey, that's just me.

BTW there are college grads there who can't read both clefs? Wow, shame on their college! I learned that the 1st day of freshman music theory at William Paterson University (not really what anyone would call a high powered school, but has a good department and a GREAT tuba teacher Paul Scott). I'm not even get into the other stuff, seeing as how most of those knuckleheads are making more money than I am right now (grrrrr!).

Let me know what you find out about the basic book, it is possible that I'm a jackass or have remembered wrong.

I'm still your boy!
Bill

[KevinYoung]

hey, who's the tuba instructor at the USAESOM? And is Roger Ridenour still around?

[Mike Finn]

Bill, you and I had very different military experiences (and musical backgrounds) but let me get this straight: you're complaining about the Basic Music book and you didn't mention tetrachords?
I joined the Corps right out of high school, unlike a large percentage of military musicians now who have some college, and many with degrees before they join. I had some basic harmony and ear training stuff in high school, so what I got at the SOM seemed to jive pretty well; at least it was presented in a fairly logical fashion. The chord symbol section in particular was a great help to me, coming in as a tuba player and having an electric bass issued to me. "It plays the same notes" said they...
When I later attended college and sat through the first two semesters of theory, most of it was either review of the SOM or stuff I had picked up along the way. I probably could have tested out, but I could tell right away (and was not at all suprised) that some things were taught differently, and I wanted to make sure I learned it their way too. The only thing that was completely missing from my college theory classes... tetrachords! (And of course the ever-present threat of being turned into a cook or truck driver if you didn't pass your exams )
Semper Fi,
M "One ta & ta a ta Two ta & ta a ta..." F
Oh, and Kevin, I think Roger is in Alaska and TubeNet's own jtuba is the instructor at the SOM.

[KevinYoung]

Thanks for the info Mike! Just dropped him a line.

When did you go through the school? Just curious. I went through in '93.

[ThomasP]

FWIW, I haven't been in the military and learned the terminology of Simple Duple, Compound Triple, and other things including Complex "X", when I was a Freshman in High School.

The Band Director was older, but never in the military.