A Tuba Post

[Colby Fahrenbacher]

Dear @bloke,

I am sure that you haven't been able to sleep well for months, considering your desire to see more tuba posts from me, so I thought I would indulge you with a little journal. I am sure that you will find my thoughts both educational and riveting.

Today I warmed up and ran through my fundamentals on my B&S MRP CC tuba. I usually like to start my day on CC tuba, but I'll start on F if I am working it up for something. I used the same routine that I've used since college, which includes long tones to warm-up, followed by turn studies, diatonic scales in all twelve keys, flexibility studies, and high range endurance exercise, ending with slow arpeggio exercise to work into the pedal register and relax everything. I know the over-board use of the word "warm-up" triggers some people, so I made sure to differentiate. I've been playing on my PT-88 lately. It's nice and cushy, and has a nice warm sound on my CC tuba.

After my warm-up/fundamentals, it was time to work from home for a bit. I'm glad that I can do much of my work from my house without the fear of having my job shipped off to Pakistan. I often marvel at orchestral librarians who are able to do their work almost entirely remotely. Although a number of the tasks can easily to done at home, others are significantly easier with office access.

After making enough progress on some string parts, I wandered back to my practice room to play my B&S PT16 F tuba. I always like to do a quick re-warm-up when I've been off the horn for a while, just to make sure I don't hurt myself or teach myself any bad habits. For years, I've done a quick exercise, starting in the middle register (usually a C) and play (both slurred and lightly tongued) 5-4-3-2-1, tranposing down by half-steps until in the pedal register. It's a pretty common vocal warm-up, and is quick and nice. After that, I played through another exercise that focuses on breath attacks and buzzing. Again descending by half-steps after each pattern, I play/breath attack/buzz/breath attach/play a note three times, starting on a middle register C. I like this pattern because it gives me the chance to model the sound and pitch I want to buzz, and then the opportunity to practice the buzz back on the horn at the end. I usually only do one octave because I've never been good at low register buzzing. One of the ideas behind this exercise was to get better buzzing low, but I haven't seen much change with it.

After that I played through etude #22 from John Shoemaker's "Legato Etudes for Tuba", playing it once as written (slurred), once as written (lightly articulate), and once down an octave. It was a nice, lyrical etude and sat well in both octaves. I have been using this book lately in multiple octaves to spend time in the low register on both horns, and they have been very nice for it. Not as noodley as some of the Rochut's and nice to play.

I hope this note finds you well and alleviates any mental distress you've been experience due to my lack tuba-specific posting. I will be sure to keep you updated as things progress.

Take care!

[Three Valves]

How am I supposed to properly visualize your treatise without knowing for sure if your CC and F tubas are silver or brass?

[Colby Fahrenbacher]

Great point! My CC is silver plated, and my F is lacquer, though it’s mostly (completely?) hold brass, unlike newer models that only have gold brass in the bell (and lead pipe?). Hope this helps the visualizations!

[UncleBeer]

And I thought bloke was tiresome.

[bloke]

At least, I now understand that the problem with posting about tuba playing is that tuba playing bores this gentleman...

...Might I suggest pursuing something more interesting...such as BB-flat?

[Colby Fahrenbacher]

Ah well the sousaphone and euphonium aren't in the practice rotation right now. I'll be sure to let you know when Oktoberfest season rolls around and I dust them off for my gigs. Lest Three Valves miss out again, the sousaphone is a 1919 Conn 36k silver with a gold wash bell, and the euphonium is a raw brass 1967 Besson Sovereign.

[russiantuba]

Surprised you don’t use a breathing tube before you play. First thing Mickey Moore had me do and said it’s the best way to make sure your first notes of the day are with the biggest sound possible.

[bloke]

Surprised you don’t use a breathing tube before you play. First thing Mickey Moore had me do and said it’s the best way to make sure your first notes of the day are with the biggest sound possible.

I drilled two holes in the back end of mine, so I could hang it around my neck on a string. After I did that, I stopped wasting time trying to find it each morning before my warmup routine.

[russiantuba]

I drilled two holes in the back end of mine, so I could hang it around my neck on a string. After I did that, I stopped wasting time trying to find it each morning before my warmup routine.

Since it was a full moon and all last night before the post…

Tomorrow, Colby will read this and ride his bike to a hardware store to pick up some tubing and a drill so he can do the same. Then after warming up on his silver rotor MRP 5/4+ CC, he is going to bike to his public library to talk to a master of library science on what books with literary value that they fear will be banned and removed from libraries starting Monday. Once done reading, I suspect he will try to get paperless copies of them incase Ray Bradbury correctly predicted the future.

[bloke]

I drilled two holes in the back end of mine, so I could hang it around my neck on a string. After I did that, I stopped wasting time trying to find it each morning before my warmup routine.

Since it was a full moon and all last night before the post…

Tomorrow, Colby will read this and ride his bike to a hardware store to pick up some tubing and a drill so he can do the same. Then after warming up on his silver rotor MRP 5/4+ CC, he is going to bike to his public library to talk to a master of library science on what books with literary value that they fear will be banned and removed from libraries starting Monday. Once done reading, I suspect he will try to get paperless copies of them incase Ray Bradbury correctly predicted the future.

I drank so much coffee today, that I'm probably going to have to get back up before midnight and PP-88 (oz.)

bloke "with my American shank"

[Colby Fahrenbacher]

I drilled two holes in the back end of mine, so I could hang it around my neck on a string. After I did that, I stopped wasting time trying to find it each morning before my warmup routine.

Since it was a full moon and all last night before the post…

Tomorrow, Colby will read this and ride his bike to a hardware store to pick up some tubing and a drill so he can do the same. Then after warming up on his silver rotor MRP 5/4+ CC, he is going to bike to his public library to talk to a master of library science on what books with literary value that they fear will be banned and removed from libraries starting Monday. Once done reading, I suspect he will try to get paperless copies of them incase Ray Bradbury correctly predicted the future.

Now here I thought Bloke was the only person incapable of staying on topic on this forum. Bloke has been practically begging me to make tuba posts instead of responding to his thinly veiled political commentary, and here I am being harassed as soon as I do. Do we wonder why there any many people who lurk and don't post yet?

I used the breathing tube all throughout studying with Mickey, though it's been years since I used it. For me, it was an integral part in opening up my oral cavity and opening up my sound. I never drilled any holes into it though, since I never had problems finding it. It was usually attached to my breathing bag.

[bloke]

I recommend that you take it to a tech and have it drilled.

If you're almost right there at that world class sound thing, that could get you over the finish line.

[russiantuba]

I kept mine in my jacket pocket as he suggested and it fell out. Though I have learned other ways to get a bigger sound that emulate the effect of this.

You have a rundown of your day—so I added that in. If you were on the forums a decade and a half ago, you would remember someone trying to get the Arban book banned because “there is no K sound in French”. Yes, this really did happen. Not sure you use the Arban, and yes I made a digital copy of mine because it was so used both covers have fallen off (random fact, my first ever online purchase),

You gave a rundown of your day as if to get response and cause trouble perhaps? Everything else I mentioned you have very strong beliefs in. Im sure after you finish the bowings in the parts you’re going to scan them and send to the players, right?

[Colby Fahrenbacher]

I gave a run down of my day because tuba posts are sacred to Bloke. Every time I have responded to his comments (usually non-tuba hot-takes unsupported by evidence), he has lamented that I never post about tubas. Clearly, in Bloke's opinion, lurkers have no credibility here. One needs to post incessantly about tubas before it is acceptable for them to troll other people and derail their threads.

So I thought I would give Bloke what he asked for. I'm not sure what your random questions have to do with my tuba thread, but rather than considering it rude of you to troll, I'll answer your questions:

- Yes, I've used the Arban book since high school, though clearly not enough to have mine fall apart of me. I'm not familiar with the thread you reference, and since most historical threads on Tubenet a rife with missing comments, I'll just have to take your word about people trying to "cancel" Arban. Considering it's a trumpet method book, I would think the pedagogy would need to be adapated at least slightly for tuba.

- I regularly use the first intervals exercise in the Arban's book, which I would have played through had I had time to get back to the horn last night. Starting in F major, I transpose the exercise down by half steps until I get to low Gb. I take my time, rather than playing metronomically, to emphasis a clean transition through each of the intervals and clarity of attach and pitch in the low register. If I have time, I'll play each key three times, tongue/slurred/tongue.

- Yes, we typically do digital delivery of parts to our musicians, which means frequent scanning.

[arpthark]

I remember the "no K in French" business. I think that person was pushing another French method book.

Relatedly, there's some weird French trumpet gobbledegook out there. I encourage anyone morbidly interested to check out Jerome Callet's "SuperChops" method. Jerry was American and lent his name to various mouthpieces and horns in the jazz realm, but he based this method on research of 18th-19th century French trumpeters and other historical European performance practice, and from observing the technique apparent in paintings of the day. In short, you buzz not with both lips, but with the lip and the tongue, and use the back of the tongue to articulate (thick tongue/anchor tongue). It's a high-compression system. You can watch the demonstration videos on YouTube. Kind of fascinating.

I don't have anything to contribute to the OP except that I don't really have a set of fundamentals that I go through anymore, because the brief time I can play tuba at home, I usually have a two year old strapped to my leg, or he wants to play his own little plastic Nuvo jHorn while I'm practicing. If I ever get a weekend to myself, I'd love to run through the Arban book in a couple days or really bear down on the Otto Maenz 12 Special Studies or some of the later Rochut tunes.

I should also do some 8vb (15vb if we're talking trombone book) Rochut exercises to nail down the low register fingerings on my quint valve Alex F. Facility is still a little far away for me.

[Colby Fahrenbacher]

Funny you should mention the Otto Maenz 12 special studies. I remember picking it up in school, it kicking my ass, and me hating it. I recently played through a number of the etudes, and though it kicks my ass less now, I still don't like it. Definitely very challenging etudes, but not my jam.

[arpthark]

Maenz was required playing my sophomore/junior year. I think I "graduated" from Maenz my junior year, and I was apparently the first person to ever show enough interest to go through all the tunes, so my studio professor made a little booklet for me which had a selection of related avant-garde/outre pieces that he had picked up over the years. A lot of stuff written in Germany in the 1980s, a photocopy of the original Penderecki Capriccio manuscript, a transcription of Dave Bargeron's solo in "And When I Die," other fun goodies. Admittedly, these days I like to stay a little more tonal.

[russiantuba]

Funny you should mention the Otto Maenz 12 special studies. I remember picking it up in school, it kicking my ass, and me hating it. I recently played through a number of the etudes, and though it kicks my ass less now, I still don't like it. Definitely very challenging etudes, but not my jam.

I have never heard of these. I’m going to have to Ohiolink them and check them out on paper music! Are these more of a CC or F exercise?

[arpthark]

Funny you should mention the Otto Maenz 12 special studies. I remember picking it up in school, it kicking my ass, and me hating it. I recently played through a number of the etudes, and though it kicks my ass less now, I still don't like it. Definitely very challenging etudes, but not my jam.

I have never heard of these. I’m going to have to Ohiolink them and check them out on paper music! Are these more of a CC or F exercise?

Honestly, they go throughout the whole range of the horn so either will work, but they mostly stay in the staff from what I remember. I played the whole book in CC but it would lay fine on F. A few high E-flats above the staff and such. I think there is one high F in an etude.

[russiantuba]

I gave a run down of my day because tuba posts are sacred to Bloke. Every time I have responded to his comments (usually non-tuba hot-takes unsupported by evidence), he has lamented that I never post about tubas. Clearly, in Bloke's opinion, lurkers have no credibility here. One needs to post incessantly about tubas before it is acceptable for them to troll other people and derail their threads.

So I thought I would give Bloke what he asked for. I'm not sure what your random questions have to do with my tuba thread, but rather than considering it rude of you to troll, I'll answer your questions:

- Yes, I've used the Arban book since high school, though clearly not enough to have mine fall apart of me. I'm not familiar with the thread you reference, and since most historical threads on Tubenet a rife with missing comments, I'll just have to take your word about people trying to "cancel" Arban. Considering it's a trumpet method book, I would think the pedagogy would need to be adapated at least slightly for tuba.

- I regularly use the first intervals exercise in the Arban's book, which I would have played through had I had time to get back to the horn last night. Starting in F major, I transpose the exercise down by half steps until I get to low Gb. I take my time, rather than playing metronomically, to emphasis a clean transition through each of the intervals and clarity of attach and pitch in the low register. If I have time, I'll play each key three times, tongue/slurred/tongue.

- Yes, we typically do digital delivery of parts to our musicians, which means frequent scanning.

Before you hate me more than you do… I have been told I talk tuba WAY too much, and over the last several years, I have tried to do less, relate better, and have humor.

I do 5 of the first interval studies every day, however I use a metronome. I know time is historically not my strongest aspect, and I feel if I’m going to be changing large intervals, it’s going to be in time and need to be centered in time, unless doing Penderecki, Kraft, 3 Furies, etc.

I only do them twice, first time slurred, second time tongued, as I believe slurring makes me provide the pitch, so if they are slightly slow on the slurs, it’s OK.

These are normally the last things I do in the routine, which I may post when I get home and after I do it. Yeah, sometimes, many times; I don’t get a warm up in before teaching, and even though I might teach and play throughout the day, the daily routine, if that’s all I do, which might be often, is crucial to growth as a player. I will be boring Dr. Green later to share my routine.