ETUDE POLL

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NOTE: The original Poll question was too lengthy, it read:

ALL TUBA students: Tonal etude books composed by Fink, Blazhevich, Bordogni, Rochut, Concone, Kopprasch, Vasiliev, Grigoriev and others were presented to me in a constructive way, helping me better understand and thoroughly prepare standard repertoire.

The results will remain anonymous and may be used in my lecture recital, so please be honest.

Real-time phone text polling platform:
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[Mike Finn]

I have never considered the role of Etudes as being to prepare students to play the standard rep, by which I assume you mean orchestral lit. Rather, I always considered them essential in learning phrasing, dynamics, articulations, rhythms, technique, familiarity with various keys etc. Certainly those skills are necessary in approaching the standard rep, and therefore I never felt slighted that my instructor(s) did not make direct connections between them. (And I hope that my students don't feel that way either.)

However, if a particular student's focus is entirely on becoming an orchestral tubist, then certainly one would expect their instructor to encourage the student to make the necessary connections between the path and the destination. (And yes, perhaps they would be better served with etudes/methods more directly related to the particular excerps they are preparing, the way the Knaub book prepares us to play Blazhevich.)

[tubashaman2]

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Thank you fellow tubenetters!

All great comments so far, I appreciate the input. Funny, I am already using Tim Olt's book as an example in the recital, as well as Blazhevich 21. It's not just orchestral excerpts training though, but all standard rep. Solos, Band excerpts, Orch excerpts, unaccompanied stuff too.

Sneds are great for so many other reasons...I'm also including 8 excerpts from the Sned book.

Blaz, Kopp, Vasiliev, Grigoriev, Snedecor, Beauregard, Collinet, Wes Jacobs, Tyrell, the list goes on. Recital won't be too long though.

Keep your opinions coming in as well as your votes!

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Re: ETUDE POLL

Postby Mike Finn » Mon Jan 25, 2010 7:13 am
I have never considered the role of Etudes as being to prepare students to play the standard rep, by which I assume you mean orchestral lit. Rather, I always considered them . Certainly those skills are necessary in approaching the standard rep

Mike and all other tubenetters: I meant for "standard rep" to apply to current solo orchestral military band pieces taking center stage in auditions and recitals around the world.
For instance, Plog Three Miniatures is now a major staple of our solo rep. Three Furies is another that I now consider standard. And while it is hard to predict what the next solo, or orchestral excerpt will become standard - I direct your thoughts back to your votes and future votes. While I am pleased with the outcome thus far, a resounding "yes" sweeping the polls, I found this important to mention; none of the books Blazhvich, Concone, Kopprasch, Vasiliev, Grigoriev, Tyrell, ever touches on the meat and potatoes of the Plog - the octatonic collection, or the strange rhythms in Sensemaya, the extreme ranges/rhythms/effects of the Kraft Encounters II, or the Thomas Ades Tuba part in America. Don't get me wrong Mike, I agree. They are "essential in learning phrasing, dynamics, articulations, rhythms, technique, familiarity with various keys etc", but do you feel like the content prepared us for pieces beyond...1950?...tonality?

[The Jackson]

This is just me mouthing off, but I'm thinking that all of these standard study publications (Bordogni, Kopprasch, Tyrell, etc., etc.) can drill and exercise us in those different areas of playing to establish a solid and positive fundamental playing foundation and then use that to springboard us into the newer repetoire. Maybe there is no published material for the newer stuff, but being experienced in the more traditional ways can be used to make up our own approaches to the contemporary rep.

What I'm trying to say is that musical "street smarts" can be used to tackle the new music. All of this work done in the shed, in lessons, performing different music in different groups, listening to music and analyzing music can be used to formulate the best way to engage a new work.

[Mike Finn]

...but do you feel like the content prepared us for pieces beyond...1950?...tonality?

With that clarification, I would change my vote form "sort of" to "not really". Although you'll have a hard time getting anyone to say anything negative about the methods that our teachers used with us, and our teachers' teachers with them, the etudes written decades before the "modern" music in question will neither contain nor fully prepare the student for some of the things they will encounter in today's works. Not just tonality, but technique as well. Multiphonics, flutter tongueing, extremely fast/loud playing, extremely high/low tessitura, etc.
I do not know of a method/etude book that fills the gap you point out, but I did not know of Tim Olt's book either (sounds like a great resource) so there may be something available, just not used as widely as the classics. If there isn't something like this, I would agree that there could be a certain niche market for it.

[Mike Finn]

I meant for "standard rep" to apply to current solo orchestral military band pieces taking center stage in auditions and recitals around the world.

I should also mention that in my limited experience, solo recitals and an orchestral/military auditions are two very different animals. While the solo recitals offered by music majors, their teachers, and a growing number of tuba soloists can certainly be expected to contain at least one or more entirely "modern" work, I (and perhaps most of the "yes" responders?) am of the mind that this solo/recital playing comprises such a small percentage of the music most of us play most of the time, that the apparent comparitive dearth of modern lit preparatory material presents no real problem.

As the music written by today's composers continues to evolve, should our methods of preparing to play it evolve as well? Perhaps, but that sort of change comes slowly (and not without some growing pains along the way.)

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Thanks to all who voted. Lecture recital was a success, and is gratefully over. Man it was stressful!

[iiipopes]

I hate etudes. I did in school. I still do now. I understand why they are necessary to students. It is not just the technical or lyrical aspects, but their use in pitch referencing, motif recognition and all those other things that help a person learn not only good technique and tone, but sight reading, the relational aspects of how a tuba part fits in to the ensemble, etc. I still hate them. At this point in my life, since I play for an avocation and not a vocation, I use etudes only when a piece of literature eludes me and I have to dig out an etude that will help me with the lyrical or technical point needed to make sense of the passage of literature that is eluding me.

Now, when I was first coming back to tuba after my two plus decades away, I bought some of the standard literature and busted my backside getting back into shape. And after my son is done with Scouting and I go back to playing more tuba, I'll get them out and bust my backside again to get back up to the next level. But right now I've hardly enough time to learn the repertoire in the groups I'm playing in much less spend more hours on something I'll never play in public.

I guess you could call me performance driven at this point in my life. So be it. I still hate etudes. That may be one reason I did not pursue music major in college.

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Thanks to all for your votes and input!

[swillafew]

Woodwind players get better methods than we do. The melodious etudes are better, and the technical studies more diverse. I think the best thing ever is playing the "William Bell" routine, since it does not discriminate on the keys. If you look hard, even the Arban book has a few pages that include all the keys. If you can manage all that, tuba parts are relatively friendly and often quite easy. The "20 minute warm up" book is also a worthy work out. I wish I could play the entire thing :/