this is just too long to read... seriously. RANTINGS AHEAD

[CrappyEuph]

You should record yourself playing. Get a minidics player and a microphone, record a practice session, wait a few days and then listen to it and see if you really sound as bad as you think you do. I bet you'll be surprised.

- CrappyEuph

[tubaaron]

Yeah! Recording yourself is a great, great way to hear how you really sound like. You can listen out for everything - clarity, tempo, style and musicality, etc. Besides this, you can walk down to the nearest supermart, get a pack of beer and invite your tuba playing friends down to listen to you. Get them to bring their horns and mouthpieces down too. That way, you and your friends can try out all the equipment and have everyone comment on each other. Once business is over, drink.

[Tubaryan12]

My french horn playing fiancé' consistently tells me that I sound dark and solid and wonderful. I contest that it's too bright and unstable. And that I’m still not hitting all the pitches the way I should. Do I have some sort of disease that I only hear the worst in my playing?

Yes you do. It called "being human". We always think we can sound better. You get all of the feedback from the horn. You feel every vibration you make. Even though you may not feel that the note was perfect because of all of the feedback you personally get doesn't mean that the end result wasn't good . Couple that with the fact that you don't have the best vantage point for listening to yourself (several inches under the opening of the bell). I know I can and should sound better and so does everyone else that puts their lips to a mouthpiece and blow.

[Dylan King]

I’m told that the tubist from the LA opera is coming to my school to be a part of the applied music program at my school. I’ve heard him play once in Madame Butterfly. At least I think that would be him (CD recording)... it was so powerful... so perfect. I strive for such a sound.

Doug Tornquist?

[winston]

.

[oldbandnerd]

Spend thousands of dollars on whatever the pro's are using and play the crap out of the equipment .Then you will realize you play pretty darn good ...even with what you had before .

[Chuck(G)]

II am definitely having trouble with sight playing music. A trombone player once told me that if he's not able to read the part ahead of his playing then he wouldn't feel fit to perform it. This struck me in a way that I felt less of a player. The concept of reading ahead of the music was foreign to me. I had always played the note and looked at it at the same time. And when I tried to read ahead I became ..."stumblely"

Notes were missed and I was disheartened by my poor playing ability. I am currently trying to make reading ahead work for me. Every day I sit down with a new piece or exercise and try reading it by reading ahead of my playing... it's difficult at best. And at worst I’ve lost my place in the music and fallen behind the metronome.

I'd humbly like to submit that I think you're reading the notes, but not the music. Let's see if I can explain it.

Suppose you're driving down the freeway with your vision firmly fixed 1 foot in front of the car. Yes, it's true that you'll see all sorts of interesting things (gum wrappers, pieces of tire, the expression on the face of that roadkill), but you'll also be guaranteed to run off the road or get in a serious accident.

A piano player (who has to deal with a lot more notes than you) doesn't actually read music a note at a time. He (or she) sees a bunch of notes in the left hand and mentally recognizes, say, a first-inversion D7 chord and plays it. It'd be a train wreck for sure if the player said "Let's see here, that's an F#, and an A, and a C..." SImilarly, he sees a scale run or arpeggio, chromatic run, etc. and instantly recognizes it for what it is without thinking about it.

How fast could you read the newspaper if you had to read a letter at a time? Why can you read a word almost instantly, but have to think about how it's spelled? How did you learn to read the way you do?

If you can read "whole words", you've got the skill to read "whole music". You just need to hone your reading skills to learn to grab more than a note at a time. Fortunately, like most languages, music is built up of elements and patterns that have a relationship to one another.

Scales and arpeggios. Know them on sight--it isn't good enough to be able to read them--know what every scale and arpeggio looks like (no matter where it starts and ends) and learn to recognize and play them by instinct.

A good player hears the music in his/her head before it's played (or in the case of Glenn Gould, sings it while it's being played). Learn to sight-sing your music.

Learn to play by ear, if you can. At least if can't read every little blot on the page, you can play "goes like this" and at least avoid obvious clams
.
Hope this helps...

[lprince]

Do I have some sort of deficiency?

no.

Maybe listening to more music would help. If your vision for what you want to sound like is strong enough then all that other stuff will go away- at least that's what I think.

Try listen to something other than tuba music. Listen to a cello player or a singer or anything you like. I find getting my 'sound vision' from different instruments less intimidating and I am more involved in making the translation to my playing. When you listen to other tuba players you can get caught up in things like equipment and how they hold the tuba and stuff that is so different for everyone you should just decide what works best for you. You are a musician, who happens to play the tuba. Don't worry about other tuba players, think about other musicians (some of whom may be tuba players, but for the most part other things).

In terms of practise, a very wise friend told me once to work from sucesses. Figure out how you can play something well now. Maybe slow it down, maybe speed it up, maybe breathe more, maybe louder, softer, skip notes, but make good music. Get what you want at the most basic level and build from there.

My favourite way of improving sightreading is playing duets. Play with your fiancee! Play with someone you can laugh with when you mess up.
Find anything, trombone duets and read them down the octave or bassoon or horn. I carry the rubank trombone duets, bach inventions and those teleman cannons around with me. I con anyone I can into playing duets with me since I don't have a fiancee(duets being the key word in that sentence). Duets are fun cause it's a social activity. You can't just stop playing and if you get lost just look or listen to the other part.

Maybe all terrible suggestions or at least not what you're looking for. Playing the tuba is hard, it gets harder every day.

liz p.

[MaryAnn]

When I read ahead in melodic-line music, it is sort of an "advance scout" type of thing. I glance ahead and then back to where I'm playing, over and over; it's sort of memorizing on the fly the note or two I'm playing, so I can get a sneak peak of what's coming up, which I also sort of memorize on the fly. I had someone comment recently on that...he also has trouble sight reading, and he was watching my eye movements while I was sight reading; he said this is what I do: look ahead, go back to where I am, look ahead, go back to where I am, etc. That's why I call it "advance scouting." I'm an excellent sight reader, so this technique does work. I don't know when/how I developed it, except I did an enormous amount of sight reading when I was in high school playing violin. Violin parts are complicated, and you need this skill of advance-scout-look-ahead. You don't visually sit on a note ahead of where you're playing, and you don't visually sit on the note you're playing; you go back and forth, back and forth. I bet you do this for page turns already; you memorize the few notes before the page turn so you can turn the page in time to play the next measure on time. It's the exact same thing, more or less. It is just done continuously.

It isn't something you're going to learn overnight, in a couple weeks, or even in a couple months. Just keep doing it and you'll be able to look back and see your progress.

As for the "gee I'm horrible" mindset, just dump that. When I was in college, I was fighting with the violin a lot. My teacher used to say "Darling, you must *love* the violin." It took me quite some time to figure out what he meant. If you're mad at yourself or at the instrument or at the results you're getting, your mindset is incorrect to play the instrument, and the music, well. You need to fix the mindset, and then take some lessons from a pro who can give you feedback that you will trust. Then, love your tuba while you're playing it.

MA

[Aubrey Foard]

dude... it sounds like you need to chill the f*** out. along with everything else, maybe you should try playing less. instead, think about playing while you're away from the horn.

you've also gotta stop obsessing about every tiny little thing. seriously.

if the LA Opera is the same thing as the LA Music Center Opera, then listen to everything Jim Self tells you. it will change your life.

[tubiker]

Relax
Enjoy
Keep positive

and just see if you can play in a different environment for a while - a change is as good as a rest zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz



Andrew Murray

[tubajoe]

Dude, been there, felt that.

It’s all about PERSPECTIVE.

Unfortunately, learning is not always a predictable thing. I think it moves in a spiral rather than a curve. On top of that, often our proficiency evolves at a different rate than our ability to perceive.

Be patient with yourself, and keep in mind that ideal (LAPO) – what you are doing with regards of goal and ideal is just right.

Do this, stop practicing a bit. Pokorny taught me an important thing regarding this exact thing, he said that sometimes practicing is NOT done on the horn. Think about that.

I went through the same thing – worked up to that magic 8 hrs a day – and found it to be counterproductive in some ways. Realize that the mind has limits and it takes TIME and patience to expand those limits. 8 hours a day of relentless pounding just reinforces your ability to pound. Practice makes permanent, even (and especially!) with regards of attitude and mental approach.

Be organic. Listen to your body, your mind, your heart.

I’d wait on a lesson from a big time pro. That is only going to strengthen your self doubt – and is often a way to perpetuate it (like I said, I’ve been there). You have to have the right approach first.

First thing I’d do: Stop and have a beer, and start to read the INNER GAME OF TENNIS.

Then, I’d listen to some rock n roll. Then pick up your tuba and play something totally unrelated – something that is YOU and only YOU; something that you know you sound great at.

Keep practicing -- then, in a week or two or even a month or two, go take a lesson from a pro, but don’t take a self-deprecating approach to it. Have confidence in your own perspective FIRST.
(that sounds like what your lady is telling you…listen to her!!)

A. Jacobs was the man for helping players gain and regain this positive perspective, and although he is not with us anymore, many of his teachings are. Seek them out.

The answer is there, you just have to listen to yourself for it – and sometimes it takes a while to illuminate itself.

I can promise you one thing though – if you truly listen, the answer is probably much simpler than you thought it to be. That’s usually the way it works.


Don’t give up, but give yourself time and space. You are totally within a “forest for the treesâ€

[TubaRay]

What a thoughtful and "right on" post by TubaJoe. I enjoyed reading it very much. I don't have the problem of practicing 8 hrs. a day, but I believe I understand it. Practice is a quality thing more than a quantity one. TubaJoe said this quite eloquently, I believe. And to think he is from NEW YORK CITY! (just this Texan's weak attempt at a little humor)
By the way, my dad was born and raised in the Bronx.

[Steve Oberheu]

[quote="tubajoe"]Dude, been there, felt that.

It’s all about PERSPECTIVE.

Unfortunately, learning is not always a predictable thing. I think it moves in a spiral rather than a curve. On top of that, often our proficiency evolves at a different rate than our ability to perceive.

Be patient with yourself, and keep in mind that ideal (LAPO) – what you are doing with regards of goal and ideal is just right.

Do this, stop practicing a bit. Pokorny taught me an important thing regarding this exact thing, he said that sometimes practicing is NOT done on the horn. Think about that.

I went through the same thing – worked up to that magic 8 hrs a day – and found it to be counterproductive in some ways. Realize that the mind has limits and it takes TIME and patience to expand those limits. 8 hours a day of relentless pounding just reinforces your ability to pound. Practice makes permanent, even (and especially!) with regards of attitude and mental approach.

Be organic. Listen to your body, your mind, your heart.

I’d wait on a lesson from a big time pro. That is only going to strengthen your self doubt – and is often a way to perpetuate it (like I said, I’ve been there). You have to have the right approach first.

First thing I’d do: Stop and have a beer, and start to read the INNER GAME OF TENNIS.

Then, I’d listen to some rock n roll. Then pick up your tuba and play something totally unrelated – something that is YOU and only YOU; something that you know you sound great at.

Keep practicing -- then, in a week or two or even a month or two, go take a lesson from a pro, but don’t take a self-deprecating approach to it. Have confidence in your own perspective FIRST.
(that sounds like what your lady is telling you…listen to her!!)

A. Jacobs was the man for helping players gain and regain this positive perspective, and although he is not with us anymore, many of his teachings are. Seek them out.

The answer is there, you just have to listen to yourself for it – and sometimes it takes a while to illuminate itself.

I can promise you one thing though – if you truly listen, the answer is probably much simpler than you thought it to be. That’s usually the way it works.


Don’t give up, but give yourself time and space. You are totally within a “forest for the treesâ€