Tuba mute help needed

[oldpatterns]

Just in case anyone was wondering how this all played out. Art H. lents us a homemade mute this week. My son brought it to rehearsal today and his conductor seemed to be fine with it. I suppose if I'm up to the project, I'll make one for him later on. But for now that seems to fit the bill for him.

Thank you all for your help and advice!

-michelle
the tuba dude's mom

[ralphbsz]

Does he know how to play pp and still have a smooth tone? If yes, ask the conductor to skip the mute. It really doesn't add very much, other than making the tuba play really quiet.

We went through a similar drama with a mute this summer. Our son's high school went on a concert tour in Spain. One piece in the repertoire calls for a tuba mute, for less than one minute of playing (out of enough repertoire for both full-length band and orchestra concerts). Our son can perfectly well play pp, and that gets all the effect of a mute. The school already owns a mute, but the tuba with mute doesn't fit into the tuba case. So the mute needed a separate case, which then had to come along as excess baggage. And it means one extra suitcase on a 2-week trip, going by tour bus from city to city, and from concert venue to concert venue. He couldn't take it (since we already had a tuba as excess baggage), so some poor percussion student got stuck with it. I think taking the mute along is just insane, but the band director insisted. And you have to give him credit: the printed music does indeed call for a mute.

We got a really cool picture out of it: our son, at the back of the school symphony orchestra, with his tuba even another foot taller due to the mute, in a wonderfully decorated concert hall in Barcelona.

[oldpatterns]

Yup. we are in the same boat until the conductor understands how my son plays. Luckily it a tubenet member helped us out and it didn't cost me much. It is pain to schlep to rehearsals every week, but once the performance is over, hopefully she won't request another song with a mute.

-michelle

[Mark]

Just to be clear, the purpose of a mute is not to make the tuba play softer. The mute changes the tone color of the tuba. I've had plenty parts that require a mute and are marked forte or fortissimo. Mute is not really what it should be called.

On the other hand, I really think the OP's son would have been fine without a mute.

[ralphbsz]

Just to be clear, the purpose of a mute is not to make the tuba play softer. The mute changes the tone color of the tuba. I've had plenty parts that require a mute and are marked forte or fortissimo. Mute is not really what it should be called.

Absolutely. There must be passages in the literature where the mute is absolutely required for the tone color. But: If the tuba is already playing pp, in the back of a 100-piece symphony orchestra where everyone is playing pp, then the tone color change will make no (perceptible) difference, and the only purpose of the mute in such a passage is to make sure the sound level stays down. And that goal can be accomplished more easily by playing very softly, without having to schlep an extra suitcase 6,000 miles.

By the way: Even on the piano, the effect of the "mute" (the left pedal, a.k.a. una corda) is both to make it less loud, and change the tone to softer with fewer overtones, and relatively more reverb. There are a few passages where one has to play loud with the left pedal. While it makes for an interesting effect, it also risks breaking strings (since the whole force of the hammer has to be absorbed by one fewer string). Been there done that.

[Sandlapper]

Shame, trombone players and trumpet players can get away using the rubber bowl from a plumbers friend.

[Sandlapper]

Shame, trombone players and trumpet players can get away using the rubber bowl from a plumbers friend.

[oldpatterns]

For those who helped with this topic - thank you. As you stated above- it was crazy for a kid to have a mute for a short song like this. IN the end - they aren't using the mute, and I can mail back the mute to the kind tubenetter who lent us one.

Thank you all for your advice and help!

-michelle
the tuba dude's mom