Hitting a wall

[jrobba]

I feel like I have somewhat hit a wall with my playing. I have been playing as a tuba player in the Marine Corps for four years in a setting very different than I was in college and high school. When in school 90% of my time playing was spent practicing, where now, 90% of my time playing is spent performing and rehearsing. By the end of the day, I have very little time or mental/emotional stamina to spend working on the fundamentals that I am deficient in.

It seems like I can get the job done pretty well, but I am not happy with the product I'm putting out anymore. I don't want to say that I'm a better or worse player now, but but I would say that I am better and worse at different things. A tuba player that I look up to gave me the advice to find 15 minutes here there during my down time at work. After taking his advice about a year ago, I have found that it is imperative to work on the right thing in that 15 minutes.

I've noticed that I have a habit of playing the same/similar things during my short practice routines, and when I attempt to venture outside that material I feel like I am not a good enough self-teacher yet to guide myself though new ideas and concepts as a musician.

Any ideas/advice on what I can do are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[ginnboonmiller]

I think I can relate to this. I've certainly been there. Especially getting in a rut of playing the same stuff mindlessly on your own, when you don't have time to research and find another track. Two things that have helped me are both closely related to the general advice I have that you should shake things up as much as you can in any way you can:

1. If you ever get on leave for a couple days, don't touch the horn. Don't go near a musical instrument. Take a break from everything about your job, including being a musician in general. When I do that, I've found that I forget the stuff I picked up most recently first -- in other words, I can't remember my bad habits and I'm stuck with good technique to work with. It's not something to do every weekend or anything, but well timed, it has been the best thing to deal with my playing problems on many occasions.

2. Arban's. Not because it's so good on fundamentals, just because it's huge. On any given day, you can find a page you haven't worked on before. And then on top of that, because it is so good on fundamentals, you can accomplish a lot with your playing by just a few focused minutes working from the book. I picked this up on a lark, and I've been working through Arban's according to it lately, and it's been a really great way to stay out of ruts and keep attention on my playing:

http://www.bolvinmusic.com/publications5.html" target="_blank

I don't really use it according to a strict plan, but I follow his lesson plans progressively, about a day or two on each for now, and longer once I get deeper into the book. And I've found it's been great, even at about 30-45 minutes all day on it. Could be worth a shot, if you find you do better while you're on a plan instead of floundering about on your own.

[Alex C]

You need inspiration to help move you to the next higher plateau in your playing. The quickest route I know is to take a lesson from an inspiring teacher. LA's not too far, you already know a couple of names, call them, get a lesson.

[Josh Calloway]

I second getting lessons. It's very difficult to figure things out on your own and takes much longer to progress. Don't delay. I have made the mistake of putting off getting lessons for when I have more time. That time will never come. You will always be "too busy".
In the meantime, learn everything that you can from the other musicians in your band. I have learned a lot over the years from getting feedback and advice from those that hear me every day.

[jrobba]

Thank you all for your advice. I purchased the Arban's Manual today and started working on lesson 1 in my downtime. I'm also planning on scheduling lessons with some of the tuba players up in the LA area.

On the subject of inspiration, I've started searching around on YouTube for some good tuba playing and I have found it to be quite inspiring. Do you all know of any people who have good youtube channels, or any particular videos that you find interesting?

Thanks again!

[ppalan]

Find some of the stuff Chris Olka has put up on Youtube like this one:
http://youtu.be/gkjKrOP515s

Pete

[jrobba]

Find some of the stuff Chris Olka has put up on Youtube like this one:
http://youtu.be/gkjKrOP515s

Pete

Those are great! Gonna have to try out the peanut butter long tones tomorrow!