Ideas for staying fresh...

[Wes Krygsman]

I think that keeping the Ralph Vaughan Williams Concerto and the top orchestral excerpts in performance ready shape is important for auditioning tubists, but it is of course sometimes not stimulating to play the same things over and over.

Of course finding more ways to play it, listening to more recordings/interpretations, and using a drum machine/drones can help alleviate boredom.

What have you done to shake things up to keep your practicing of "warhorses" stimulating?

[MartyNeilan]

Play pieces on the "wrong" horn - VW on a Kaiser BBb, low range contrabass etudes on little F, etc.
Doesn't work as well if you only have one horn, but you could mix up the mouthpieces.

[euphoni]

-Play along with the recordings.

-Memorize the enitre concerto to make the music come alive.

-Seek out every concerto competition, community group and school for opportunities to perform the concerto.