Practicing Contrabass and Bass Tuba

[Steve Marcus]

Please explain the reasons behind the choice(s) that you made in the poll.

In general, do you find it easier/more beneficial/less stress on the chops to go from the larger to smaller horn in one practice session, or vice-versa?

[imperialbari]

The choice of first instrument to practice ideally should address your main goal (or less ideally your main problem).

My goal is fulness and openness, soundwise. And maximal control without any trace of tension, techniquewise. That dictates playing the contrabass first. Actually my first bass, the Conn 26K, was the cheapest accessible tuba, which I bought for warm-up purposes in the hope of improving my bassbone playing.

Klaus

[Wyvern]

More often than not I start with my Neptune, then proceed to the PT-15 and might end playing on the travel tuba. I work on the principle that the smaller tubas will seem easier afterwards.

But that is far from a rule, if I have an important gig pending I may spend most of the practice on the intended tuba to use, then maybe just play the other 5 minutes at the end. One day this week I spent my whole practice just on F.

[THE TUBA]

Back when I played Contrabass and Bass tuba regularly, I would start with a warm-up session/fundamentals workout on contrabass each day. I like the feeling of really getting my air working on the big horn in the morning before rehearsals or other practice sessions.

[SousaSaver]

The choice of first instrument to practice ideally should address your main goal (or less ideally your main problem).

My goal is fulness and openness, soundwise. And maximal control without any trace of tension, techniquewise.

Klaus

Great advice. In my opinion that should be everyone's goal regardless of what you play.

Shouldn't you use the proper tool for the job? Say if you play nothing but orchestra gigs, than you are probably only going to practice Contrabass right? Of if you only play solos and quintet work, than you will probably mostly use a bass. I don't know I am just spewing forth my thoughts here...

[AHynds]

I tend to work foremost on the horn that I will be using the most in the immediate (circa 2 weeks-ish) future. However, I do make time to play contrabass as often as possible, even if I my upcoming performances are on F. So much of my fundamental technique and playing chops are based on the contrabass, so that if I don't play at least a little contrabass each day I tend to lose something over time.

Aaron H.

[Timswisstuba]

Having very limited practice time, I only practice what needs to be worked on. Rarely do I practice things that work. The same concept is applied to instruments.

[imperialbari]

Having very limited practice time, I only practice what needs to be worked on. Rarely do I practice things that work. The same concept is applied to instruments.

You are an established professional, who appears being in the lucky situation of more than full employment. Your basics are kept up to speed constantly. If your craziness about funny instrument hadn’t revealed the playfulness of a little boy, I might have feared for stress getting the better of you.

For me playing instruments is no longer something I do outside my home, as don’t like moving too much around. For me playing always also was part of a Zen-like approach to my own body and mind. That is what is left of my playing now. And I am happy about those leftovers.

Klaus

[b.williams]

In my daily practice I prefer to go from tuba to bass trombone to euphonium. Occasionally, I will reverse the order to shake things up a bit. Smaller to larger doesn't seem to work as well for me. Then if necessary, I will go back and practice parts for upcoming gigs, mixing it up to keep me mentally sharp.

[imperialbari]

The lesson of this thread matches general experiences. It is easier to contract muscles after they have been relaxed, that to relax muscles after they have been contracted.

Klaus

[jonesbrass]

When I was practicing regularly, I would practice the same things on both contrabass and bass, often taking them up or down an octave on both horns. Most often now, I practice everything on the bass, because I keep it within easy reach and it is much more managable size-wise.

[Elbee]

OK here goes, for what it is worth, (nada comes to mind) I just turned 75. I just lost 40 lbs on advice of cardiac guy. Due to asthma and whatnot I have been diagnosed as having 50% normal lung capacity. I play in a community band, we have two programs, Intermediate Band and Wind symphony. Respectively I play Euphonium and BBb tuba. I currently am emphasizing Euph in practice so typically it gets first work. I know that I will be playing at Band practice in that order, so Euph first then Tuba. Incidentally if you lose weight it comes off your face first, cheeks and chops, mouthpieces have been an interesting and challenging topic...Summer band will be a combined affair; hope to spend the summer getting to know the Euph better, but...
Loren

[Ulli]

work on my contrabass tuba Bbb and then switch to my Kontrabass
(upright string bass, 4 strings EDAG)
Ulli

[Lingon]

I may not be eligible to say someting regarding this matter because my day to day job is to play mainly bass trombone and some tenor trombone but not any instruments in the tuba family. However switching between the cylindric instruments does maybe resemble the thinking and procedures necessary to switch between the conical ones?!

Usually over the years I have started the day with some relaxing and breathing to get my body prepared for the days playing. Then my smallest instrument or mouthpiece to have the embochure together and centered. After that going gradually larger over the day. Essential seems to be very aware of the different sizes of instruments and that trying to play every size in exactly the same way will not yield good results. But thinking of every instrument for what it is and adapt to it both in the way of thinking of it and handle it will make things much easier and give better results.

Earlier I thought that it was difficult to mix the different instruments and preferred not to do any proffessional work with more than one instrument at a time. However, over some period of time I have started to mix the sizes every day. Some days starting big, some days starting smaller and so on. That have led to that I am now able to play on all my ordinary instruments in any random order, even to switch instruments in a couple of bars rest, and it will work.

After the last summer I happened to win a C tuba on the eBay and started to try to get it working together with the other stuff. It seems that my unsteady first steps on the tuba already has improved my trombone playing, and it is real fun too.

Maybe the different sizes if handled in a thoughtful way may help each other and maybe it could prove to be a good thing to not, like a ritual, play the instruments in a special order? At least have I noticed that for me playing just one instrument made me more tired than swithching around and that maybe my endurance have improved a bit with this 'flexible' approach that let different segments of the facial muscles be engaged more than just the same all the time. Time will tell and usually time is the thing in life that always is too short...

This works for me, at least for the moment, but not necessarily for any other.