Practicing without a tuba

[carsonjon211]

Right now I do not have access to my tuba but want to practice. If there's any good tips on practicing without the instrument please let me know!

[TheTuba]

Same question, I am going to India for a month. How do I practice there?

[Donn]

Jugs - The Jug Band Cookbook

How To Play the Jug - Lesson 1

[TheTuba]

Jugs - The Jug Band Cookbook

How To Play the Jug - Lesson 1

I'll try

[hup_d_dup]

Same question, I am going to India for a month. How do I practice there?

You are going to India. Do you go there regularly? Probably not. Don't worry about the tuba. Use your time wisely. Immerse yourself in a transformative experience. If you need to make music, bring a harmonica. Or sing.

Hup

[Bill Troiano]

I don't know if I was lucky, or the time off did me good, or what, but 15 -20 yrs. ago, we did our family drive from LI to Fl. to visit the in-laws. With all of the stuff we brought, besides 3 kids and a dog, there wasn't room in the mini van for my tuba. I was concerned because we'd be gone for 9-10 days and I had 2 gigs a couple of days after I got back. One was a difficult brass quintet program and the other was soloist with a concert band.

So, I brought my mouthpiece and a Korg tuner. Each day, I would buzz scales and use the tuner to keep myself fairly in tune and to find starting pitches. I aimed for being within 10 cents of in tune. I played each note for 5 second or so before moving on. I would play all 12 major scales. Done. It would take around 10-12 min. I would try to do this twice a day, but with all of the family fun, it was sometimes difficult. I might have even skipped a day or 2. But, when I got home and picked up my tuba, it seemed pretty easy and it was if I hadn't stopped playing. So, who knows? That process worked for me that time.

[carsonjon211]

my best serious response: (I'm assuming you're a young person...??)

Ha yeah, I am young. I'm about to start my first year of college majoring in music. I honestly wasn't concerned at all, just curious if there was any magical thing I didn't know about for laughs and giggles. The reason why I can't practice is because I need to buy a tuba and I plan on doing so in a couple of weeks. (I have been saving up)

[KyleMG]

Mouthpiece buzzing is, IMO, nearly always the move for situations like this. Do Scales, longtones, pieces you’re familiar with.

[The Big Ben]

Mouthpiece buzzing is, IMO, nearly always the move for situations like this. Do Scales, longtones, pieces you’re familiar with.

I was thinking that, too. Get a Kelly plastic mpc. like the type you normally use and buzz on it no more than 10-15 min. a day. Kellys are cheap, light and not a lot of money. If you drop it, it won't hurt it. Some people use them for their all the time mpc.

Specifically for TheTuba:

There are some really different musical instruments in parts of India. Get someone to show you how to play something and learn a tune. It will make your grandparents very happy. And, as the others say, soak up as much as you can. That culture is part of you even though you are living in the US. If a feeling for the music takes hold, you probably could find a person or group in your community with a band or group you could play in every so often when you got home.

[Sam Gnagey]

I do an exercise with circular breathing against different lip aperture settings and air speeds. By keeping this up for 10 to 15 minutes duration you will start to feel the burn in your chops like you've put in a pretty long real practice session. There's no sound produced other than from the passage of air through your chops. It's good to approximate what pitches you might be producing through an imagery process and conceptualizing playing lip slurs or even legato etudes. Lots of players dismiss circular breathing as a trick. I believe that it is a valuable took to utilize when appropriate.

[Ken Herrick]

Is that Bloke making farting sounds again???