Tuba and Tricks

[MaryAnn]

"Air and valves" -- so many problems with phrasing and tempo are due only to airflow and tonguing technique, and these get masked by all the noise made by playing normally.

Early in my playing days, I knew a local semi-pro tuba who would air and tongue his parts during band rehearsal -- during, say, when the woodwinds were being worked on -- and he always played great. I didn't quite put two-and-two together until we started doing it in drum corps, though ("Why are you singing your parts? You don't sing with the same air as when you play, do you?"). After that, I took the idea back to school, and it worked wonders. Even in our quintet, we sounded like we gained a week's worth of improvement after only a couple reps of air-and-valves along with a metronome click.

****
Here's some of what you notice:
- Uniformity of volume and dynamics. More airflow = louder dynamics, right? When you have a section of players and one is audibly using less air than another, then it's a guarantee that their sound output isn't going to be the same, either. So now you can get the players who are too loud down to match at soft dynamics, and the soft players to come up at loud dynamics.

- Tempo consistency. You'll always be able to hear the metronome because you aren't obliterating it with your horn's sound. You'll probably also discover that your attacks aren't late because you're slow, but they're late because you didn't stop playing the previous note soon enough. (this especially happens when trying to breathe between passages)

- Tonguing quality. You'll more easily hear the difference between "too" and "doo" and "thoo". You'll also quickly notice a "...*pop*" if you stop the note with your tongue.

****
What this doesn't help is pitch stability. That's where I like using a BERP or opening all the water keys.

To me, this is the best advice here. People always say "practice!" but rarely do you find someone who will tell you HOW to practice. The above is one of those things. My own tip for intonation is learn about beats, what they mean, and spend time both with a drone and with your small ensemble working on getting the beats where they should be in those pieces tonal enough that it matters. I've been astonished at the amateur groups I've played in, both small and large, that rehearsal is centered on being able to make it to the end in one piece and little else. A five minute demonstration of beats could fix SO many things, and if you have a quartet or quintet, the above by Leland would be extraordinarily helpful.

[toobagrowl]

I've been astonished at the amateur groups I've played in, both small and large, that rehearsal is centered on being able to make it to the end in one piece and little else. A five minute demonstration of beats could fix SO many things, and if you have a quartet or quintet, the above by Leland would be extraordinarily helpful.

^ Don't expect most amateur/community groups to improve intonation/sound/dynamic issues, because they just don't have the trained/refined ears for it. Some/many community players have been at it for decades, and still have wonky pitch, among other 'issues' they just don't hear. For many of them, it is a recreation -- they are not 'serious' at all about actually sounding better.

So, if you are a trained, serious musician you really need to find the best groups you can because you will not be happy in a typical amateur/community group.

[basslizard]

Tubas are HUGE (quadruple oversize, compared to the cornets - on which they are based), and thus dynamic.
By "dynamic" (very much: subject to sonic change), I mean that their intonation is hugely affected by temperature, player fallibility, and tubas' own fallibility.

Before playing music (far more important - at least to me - than running through some technical "routine"), I believe it is extraordinarily important for me to - most every time I play - remind/reestablish the "language" (correct pitches) that I will be using to speak the music.

I had to hurry in to play at last night's basketball game with the community pep band with my frozen tuba that I'd left in my car all day, I didn't worry about missing the first few notes - pretty much a guarantee the first song was a complete tosser and no note I played was going to sound good until my horn was warmed up. There's still a lot of snow and ice on the ground, and I don't think we got above freezing yesterday. I did have the foresight to put my mouthpiece in my pocket to warm up along the way.

As a side note, the bass guitar player in the band doesn't read music, so I usually give him the first few notes. I was not helpful on that first song.

And the sheer amount of spit that must be emptied after playing a cold horn!

[basslizard]

That big tuba - in your picture - is not listed in your signature.
Is that someone's else instrument, or a recent acquisition?

That's the Buescher Eb that I've been working on. At least I've assumed it's an Eb tuba. The serial number puts it to 1916. I'm not a small person; it really is a monster. I think I posted a picture of it next to my Jupiter. It's got a small shank receiver on it. I've been playing it with a mouthpiece I swiped out of my son's bass trombone case, which turns out is really a large shank baritone mouthpiece.

[basslizard]

It's a matter of perspective.

I have two band directors (one former, one current) in my small group, and often we're still just trying to get through the music when we've got a lot of new or very out of shape players. I used to be shocked at how little warm up we do, and the fact that we don't bother tuning. We're often playing outside or in noisy venues. A few of us tune anyway, and show up early so we can warm up. When it's just the core group, we do work a little harder, and give each other help where needed. If I'm struggling with something, they will help. Some of us have time to practice, some don't. None of us are professional performers.

I live in a very small community, and I count my blessings that I even have a brass group and a band to play in. In a town of under 800 people, 80 miles from the nearest larger town/university/semi-pro music venue, it's almost unheard of to have the musical talent that we have. 5 years ago I hadn't touched a tuba since college. Now I play every week with a group, and practice frequently. Right now we have a young missionary playing with us who is very talented, and can play the socks off of any of us. When he moves on, it will hurt. He's been baffled by our lack of warm up and tuning, and now comes over once a week to give my 16 year old much needed trombone lessons. My youngest wrapped a ribbon of jingle bells around my non-functioning alto horn for the non-musical missionary. We taught him how to keep a beat and lead us (at least get us started)

[anotherjtm2]

When playing a BBb tuba you can read treble clef Eb scores the same as Bb bass clef by adding 3 flats.

So.... I've known this one ever since I played bassoon and sat next to the bari sax player, where it was very useful.
But today I just realized a related version: you can do the same thing with F horn treble clef parts if you use Bb fingerings on a C tuba. A little weird (and opposite to my need to practice the C fingerings right now), but noticing this made for a nice afternoon of playing horn duets with my daughter.