a return to tuba after an 11 year hiatus

[b.williams]

Welcome back!
What helped me was playing in a community band.
Good luck!

[Michael Bush]

I started again last year after twenty-seven years off.

The same things help now that helped then. Long tones, scales, a metronome, as much face time with the tuba as you can squeak out. I found that my fingers were a lot smarter than my embouchure or my ears. I was pushing the right buttons very quickly, but getting the right notes to come out at the right time when I do is a continuing challenge.

My impetus also was a community band. The director asked one of my kids if she thought her dad could still do anything with a tuba. In that band the first season we played extraordinarily challenging music, not really the community band repertoire ("Colors for Trombone"? Gack.) That gave me plenty of excuse to practice.

Now I'm in two community bands and an occasional quintet at church. Plenty of reasons to practice and play. Maybe I should say it helps not to let yourself get over-committed!

[bort]

Play every day. Even just 30 minutes if it's all you have, play every day!

[swillafew]

You're already doing it, and the advice is confirming it. I keep a Kelly plastic mouthpiece in the car for bonus buzzing. It's a worthy investment.

[hbcrandy]

All that I have seen written on this thread is superb advise for those returning to the tuba after time off or having taken no time off and playing. I do offer one small caution. Buzzing a mouthpiece while driving a car is dangerous. If you are in an accident and your airbags deploy, you can be seriously injured by having your mouthpiece to your mouth at the time.

Welcome back to the tuba. I wish you a fun and enriching musical experience.

[Roger Lewis]

Some very good stuff here. I would add to that to get with a local, well respected teacher to just get a lesson or two. Getting back into it and dragging a bunch of bad habits can make it tougher to get better.

I look at it like my golf game. At the beginning of every season I go get with my golf coach and get my swing set-up so that I don't start the season off with a pull-hook or something stupid. I find it to be very helpful and it makes the game more enjoyable. It will make your playing more enjoyable as well.

Just my observations.

Roger

[Phil Dawson]

Try playing some melodies - preferably by ear. Make music with your horn. All of the technical stuff is great but spend some of your time listening to what you play and making your horn sound as pretty as you can. Good luck, Phil

[dwaskew]

Go play in a group that will have you. Don't be shy about asking. "Tuba playing" isn't something that is meant for the living room. It is not a solo instrument. Go somewhere and play music.

Probably some of the truest words ever written here.

[Rev Rob]

I've returned to tuba playing after a 40 year hiatus. My advice, same as what everyone else has mentioned - I would add, be patient and be amazed at the joy of music.

[TubaRay]

You've already gotten some really excellent advice. All I have to add is, "Welcome back!"

[sloan]

Been there, done that:

a) Method book (I like Rubanks). Start on page 1.
b) Teacher. At least one or two lessons to avoid catastrophic technical flaws.
c) Ensemble. Play with any group that will have you.
d) Listen, listen, listen.

[iiipopes]

I was out for 20 years before coming back. Welcome back to the trenches! Oh, yeah, what everyone else said, plus this: have fun!

[termite]

G'day Archer

I went back to playing three and a half years ago after a twenty year break.
I found that I had to do endless long notes to get the air going before I could do anything else. This tended to make me stiff and inflexible. After a couple of years I've started warming up with something that moves around the instrument and then do long notes.

I made one massive mistake that wasted about eighteen months. I practiced in a live room that made me sound much better than I was resulting in me spending a lot of time only half blowing the thing. If I play in the live room so that I sound about mf to my ears and then do the same in my special dead room I only get half as far in one breath in the dead room. I'm now a big believer in practicing in a room that automatically makes you put twice as much air through the thing without thinking about it.

I'm trying not to duplicate what others have said, I don't think this ones come up. For my own playing I find that it's important to spend a lot of time playing stuff that I sound good on. If you spend a lot of time sounding good then you are practicing sounding good. This gives you a foundation for attacking something hard. When you spend half an hour struggling through something hard making a mess of it you've just spent half an hour practicing making awful noises.

The other thing I've found important in my own playing is to cover a wide variety of exercises and musical material. Each exercise has both a benefit and a bad side effect. For example long notes are essential to learn how to move air but can stiffen up the embouchure. If I'm doing a lousy job of playing a Hymn tune I fix it by playing something like arppeggios over the whole instrument.

I've found recording myself to be extremely valuable. When you hear what you really sound like you can hear a lot of what a teacher hears and fix it yourself. Warning - this requires great inner strength.

Regards

Gerard

[Euphistuba]

As someone who recently took up tuba, I can tell you this is all good advice....... I found a great teacher nearby and that has helped put me in shape much faster than doing it on my own. I would get a copy of the Brass Gym for tuba and play through it as your chops and skills allow. Great stuff there, and will help build tone and airflow. The DVD breathing gym is outstanding, particularly since I was breathing ALL WRONG! These have been a great help. Lots of long tones....slurs.....and listen to music......read some Arnold Jacobs......and find your tuba voice! Its the most fun Ive had in music and Ive been at this for 30 years!

Craig

[sloan]

On the subject of "playing stuff you sound good on": I agree - with the proviso that you spend *most* of this time playing with other people! That is - at rehearsals or performances.

It's very important to distinguish between "playing music" and "working on skills". When playing music, you
should always be in your comfort zone technically and concentrating on "sounding good" and interpreting
the music. This is called "rehearsal" and "performance". The other activity is called "practice". Practice does
not necessarily sound good - in fact, I think I can make a case for the point of view that if it *does* "sound good" then you aren't doing it right.

When you are "playing music", nothing should be hard. If something *is* hard, then you need to identify
the skill set you have not yet mastered, and then go off and *practice* with the goal of acquiring/improving
those skills. DO NOT practice using the music - practice using exercises, or etudes, or some other collection
of notes that you don't plan on ever performing in front of people (other than your teacher) - and don's worry about it sounding bad.

Let's use range as a simple-minded example: your rehearsal/performance range should be distinctly smaller than your practice range. You play all those horrible squeaks and farts during practice precisely so that you can play everything beautifully in rehearsal/performance.

Trying to "sound good" when practicing is an insidious trap - it causes you to make compromises so that the sound is "acceptable" rather than aiming for excellence while accepting a high probability of abject failure.
Failing during rehearsal or performance should be very, very rare - failing during practice should be commonplace.

[Wyvern]

When playing music, you should always be in your comfort zone technically and concentrating on "sounding good" and interpreting the music. This is called "rehearsal" and "performance".

An interesting philosophy! If you play with a band up to your standard, then you should in rehearsal be stretched some of the time. If you are always playing in your 'comfort zone' then you are playing in a band below your ability - you will not be motivated to improve and eventually will get bored.

The ideal is surely to be stretched a certain amount in rehearsal to induce one to practice (and improve) so you are technically comfortable with the music before the actual performance

[bort]

When playing music, you should always be in your comfort zone technically and concentrating on "sounding good" and interpreting the music. This is called "rehearsal" and "performance".

I agree with the principle of this for a professional or a more "serious" group....but that's a big expectation for an amateur group.

[TubaRay]

Failing during rehearsal or performance should be very, very rare - failing during practice should be commonplace.

I pretty much agree with all of your post, however I thought the portion quoted above was particularly profound.

I attempt many things in "practice" that I cannot do. In "rehearsal" or "performance," I hopefully have the skills to succeed. When I don't, I spend more time in "practice."

[termite]

Trying to "sound good" when practicing is an insidious trap - it causes you to make compromises so that the sound is "acceptable" rather than aiming for excellence while accepting a high probability of abject failure.

This makes no sense.

You've completely missed my point especially in the case of a recently returned player.

[tubainty]

For my own playing I find that it's important to spend a lot of time playing stuff that I sound good on.

Personally I think that is really bad advice. I spend about 75 percent of my practice time working on stuff that I consider my weaknesses, playing stuff I can't play. Practice what you can't play, just playing what your good at won't make you any better. I only spend about and hour every day playing stuff that I'm "good at". But that's just me, maybe other stuff works for other people but most of my teachers tell me to practice what I can't do, or rather learn how to do what I can't do.