High Register Development for Tuba

[Geotuba]

Someone sent me a link to this (series of) book(s) - High Register Development for Tuba by Wesley Jacobs

Worth getting?

[David]

don't know about that book, but their Arban's is fantastic

[geneman06]

don't know about that book, but their Arban's is fantastic

I concur!

[ztuba]

slurs, arpeggios and scales are all that is required for high register development... start low and work your way up chromatically. I would also look up alan raph's bit on youtube as well .. a little research and zero method books are all that is required for high range development ... the problem with printed music for high range development is ... what happens when your highest note possible is higher than their highest note printed?

[hbcrandy]

Below, is my method for high register building. It has worked well for some of my students.

Building High Register

There are two factors in a good high register on a brass instrument. One is the building of strong embouchure muscles. The other is ear training so that the student is hearing the note they are aiming for before playing it.

This mouthpiece-only exercise works only for students without perfect pitch who can buzz a major scale on their mouthpiece. I will explain this exercise using movable Do syllables.

On the mouthpiece, alone, buzz the lowest note that can be played comfortably and accurately. Using that low note as Do, the tonic of the key, buzz a major scale, in slow accurate quarter notes, up and down as follows:

Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si-Do-Si-La-Sol-Fa-Mi-Re-Do-Re

Hold the ultimate Re. Vocally, sing the pitch of the ultimate Re saying the syllable Do, thereby, establishing a new tonic in a new key. Buzz a major scale using the newly established Do, up and down as previously described, ending again, on Re. Again sing the Re pitch as a new Do and repeat the process until the top notes of the scale can, absolutely, not be buzzed with an accurate pitch to complete the major scale. ALWAYS, use lots of air when playing the mouthpiece. This will transfer to your playing with the instrument and build your sound. Do this exercise daily. It takes me about 10 minutes.

This exercise builds embouchure muscles by buzzing the mouthpiece, alone. It also trains the ear forcing the student to play an accurate major scale without the aid of the instrument. Since the student, without perfect pitch, cannot tell the actual pitch of the note he or she is buzzing, the names of the pitches of the highest notes being buzzed are not known. I have found many players, including myself, develop a psychological “ceiling” of the highest note they think they can play. This “ceiling” is reinforced by the visual cue of ledger lines in printed music. One sees a note higher than one thinks one can play and therefore, due to self-fulfilling-prophecy, cannot play it. In the buzzing exercise, the pitch of the highest note being buzzed is not known. Therefore, the psychological “ceiling” is removed and the student will probably play higher notes than ever before.

[sloan]

slurs, arpeggios and scales are all that is required for high register development... start low and work your way up chromatically. I would also look up alan raph's bit on youtube as well .. a little research and zero method books are all that is required for high range development ... the problem with printed music for high range development is ... what happens when your highest note possible is higher than their highest note printed?

By the time that happens, perhaps one will have learned enough to continue the exercise up into the stratosphere without actual printed notes.

[David]

what happens when your highest note possible is higher than their highest note printed?

You can always take it up the octave. There are many exercise books this works well with. The bordogni vocalizes for tuba, Kopprasch 60 studies (most of it anyway), the Encore's arbans, Tyrell exercises and many of the studies from the 2 volumes of Blazevich.

Slurs arpeggios and scales are a huge help with playing higher also. Also not using the face/lips as a vice to clamp down on the air and force the notes out is something to keep in mind. and now I will begin blatantly stealing from my teacher to see if that helps...

"For upper range extension a movement of the jaw up and back with directs the rapidly moving air column down into the bottom of the mouthpiece [while maintaining the aperture shape of a flattened oval] is correct. It pushes the horn into a new overtone series by reducing the size of the air stream and negates the need to use a whole lot of muscle incorrectly."

stealing done