Is there a Tuba etude book on slurring?

[timayer]

One of the things I've started to do recently, and I'll freely admit that it's a bit weird, is playing the Bordogni etudes all slurred and playing every other note an octave lower than written. Currently, It's really only working on the slower ones (in part for technical reasons, and in part because of the mental gymnastics). But it results in having to slur over two octaves in parts, and since it's Bordogni, you're also always cognizant of the musicality and tone involved. Plus, when you do it with etudes you already know, you're not note-picking, so your sole focus can be on the slurs, not learning the piece. While it's not going to win any speed competitions, it will smooth out register shifts and make your slurs fundamentally sound prior to speeding them up, as tone is always the first thing to suffer when you start working on technical exercises.

Also, if you do it in the office in the morning prior to the work day starting, it can also result in a lot of interesting looks when you get out into the hallway.

I think eventually I will try it in reverse - playing every other note up an octave, but I'm in low register mode right now.

[happyroman]

I'm not saying my slurs are perfect but I just saw this on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuYCnvalhfw" target="_blank" target="_blank and I was wondering how he could have gotten such good slurs if he only worked on the etudes I had.

I know for sure that the etudes are not too easy for me, and that I can't play them all perfectly at a reasonable tempo but I improve most when I tackle something that is too hard for me. That being said, I wasn't trying to pretend I was any good.

And thanks for the etude books !

After watching the attached videos, it seems like what you are looking for are flexibility studies, which by definition, are slurred. In that case, may of the materials mentioned earlier would be helpful. Personally, I am not aware of any material specifically written for tuba that provides these kinds of studies, but one can easily gather plenty from trumpet and trombone method books. Keep in mind that Toby Oft is in the Boston Symphony and has been working on these for years. Just remember to crawl before you can walk before you can run. Start at a reasonable tempo and keep nudging the metronome a click or two faster while maintaining your finest quality of sound.

To me, this kind of flexibility is impressive, but does not make someone a fine musician (I am speaking in general terms, now. Mr. Oft is certainly a very fine musician). Whatever you use to work on your playing, always keep in mind that you are striving to be a great artist, and not just a technician.

Finally, as for only improving if you try things that are to hard for you, I would advise you to be careful. In order to improve, we have to do something right more times than we do it wrong, otherwise, we are learning to do it wrong. Arnold Jacobs is quoted as follows: If you play a thousand notes a day but 800 are mediocre and 200 are magnificent, the brain will say, "Wow! Those two hundred notes were great and I am happy.” Unfortunately, the 800 mediocre ones form the habit. Make sure you have 800 great ones! Yes, we must challenge ourselves through the use of advanced music, especially drawing from the music written for other instruments. But, we must always make sure we are striving to make each note sound as good as we possibly can at all times. If this means learning something slowly, and gradually speeding it up while we make every note great, that's the best way to go.