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TTU Visit

February 2, 2012 By 2 Comments

KnoX Brass WorX Co with TTU Faculty Brass

Left to Right: Joshua Hauser, Jeremy Hansen, Joel Tillman, Sarah Fellenbaum, Sean Greene, Robert Owen, Chris McCormick, Charlie Decker, Winston Morris, Samuel Chen

The KnoX Brass WorX Co. is very grateful for the hospitality and kindness shown by Tennessee Tech University and their Music Department. We had a BLAST performing in Cookeville last night. Here is an mp3 of us performing some Gabrieli with the TTU Faculty Brass Quintet: Gabrieli Sonata pian e forte

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Music Practice Flowchart

April 11, 2011 By 1 Comment

I was given this flowchart by a colleague at my university. It does a pretty good job of covering all the excuses we and our students find for not practicing our instruments. Enjoy.

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Improving Pitch Accuracy

March 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Tips for Missing Fewer Notes in Performance Situations

What is involved in becoming a more accurate performer? Everyone misses notes at some time or another, but there are those who seem to never miss notes when they perform. Do these players have a “super chop” gene that allows them to play without missing notes? Did they buy the “right” mouthpiece that never misses pitches? The answer to both of these questions is decidedly, “NO.” In all likelihood, those who consistently play without missing pitches have learned how to: 1) Efficiently hear what they want to play in their head before it comes out of their horn and 2) Have developed an efficient, disciplined practice routine that allows them to make excellence a normal occurrence in their playing. Pitch accuracy, therefore, comes with diligent preparation and focus and a commitment to the task at hand, making great music.

The following list is a collection of habits that can contribute to improving pitch accuracy and consistency while allowing us to better serve the musical purpose of our performance.

  1. Nervousness or stage fright is one of the most common things that can affect a performance and have the most damaging effect on how we play.  I could write an entire article on this subject alone – and I may in the future. Some of us are more affected than others by feelings of panic, self-doubt or worry when we perform, causing physical reactions which include shortness of breath, dry mouth, shakes, etc. These physical manifestations of our nervousness cause us to miss notes and keep us from playing our best.
    There are many who take beta-blockers or use other techniques to treat these symptoms of  “bad nerves”.  One technique that has worked well for me and I recommend to my students is to focus more on the music. Once we start worrying about things we cannot control – like what people will think of us if we play badly, how we sound out in the room, the focus is shifted from the music to ourselves; and it’s not about us, it’s about the music. Your mind is the most powerful tool you have as a performer. It’s stronger than your ears and it’s much stronger than your chops. I have often heard the phrase, “You become what you tell yourself most often.” I believe this to be a fact. If you tell yourself that you are the greatest performer in the world over and over again, you will start believing it and it will affect your playing for the better. Of course, the opposite is true as well – So get rid of those negative thoughts and start focusing on the music!
  2. Come up with a daily routine that covers every kind of playing you are likely to encounter. Hold yourself to a very high standard of performance and don’t let yourself get by with playing your fundamental exercises and etudes the wrong way with sloppy technique. Practice breathing and playing every tempo. Play in every key and every tessitura. Practice every dynamic and articulation. Work to maintain sameness in your playing in all registers. Do it the same way, sit in the same chair in the same place and hold your horn in the same way every time you practice. If you create a routine of excellence, you are setting yourself up to perform from a position of strength instead of a position of weakness. A routine will train our chops and our brain to realize that performance is nothing out of the ordinary. The venue may change, but the playing position, range, dynamics, etc. we perform are the same thing we do every day. This will help keep your nerves in check so you may better focus on the task of making great music.
  3. Some players have formed habits of moving their eyebrows, puffing their cheeks and making weird faces while they play. I think extraneous movements are harmful because the only thing that affects changing notes, truly, is what’s going on inside the mouthpiece. That’s all. If you are moving your face around, it’s taking energy away from the music and is probably creating tension somewhere else, which has the potential to damage your tone quality. Also, making exaggerated facial movements may cause an “overcompensating” phenomenon where a player uses too much movement to achieve an interval than is necessary. Keep a small locker-sized mirror on your music stand to observe and try to relax any extraneous facial movement from your buzzing.
  4. Breath support and breathing are crucial to pitch accuracy. You must play with enough air in your lungs to control your sound. If you take shallow breaths and try to play with a minimal amount of air you will not be able to control your playing as well as if you take a big breath. This phenomenon shows up when we become nervous and get short of breath. What happens? We miss notes. Make breathing a part of your daily routine so that you may make “Big Breathing” normal and easier to combat stage fright. Also, it is really important to plan and write in your breaths when you practice so you are used to breathing in the same places in the same way every time you play that music.
  5. Slow fingers can make you miss notes. If your fingers aren’t getting the valves aligned before you want the note to happen, the proper length of tubing won’t be available for that note and you will either miss the attack or a “fluddutt” sound will result. Think of the trombonist. From very early on in their development, the trombone student realizes that if the slide is not in the correct, stationary position when they want to play a note, a glissando will occur. Mechanically, it’s the same for us. Our tubing must be lined up a split-second BEFORE we want the note to sound. “Popping” your fingers down or making sure they are down before you want the note to come out will cut down on split attacks, make your legato smoother and your marcato cleaner. Another technique you can use to better coordinate your fingers with your chops is to buzz your mouthpiece in your left hand while practicing the fingerings at the same time in the right hand. This technique will better coordinate your fingers with your ears and help improve your pitch accuracy.
  6. Know exactly how your part fits into the whole musical texture. If you are unsure of the balance or function of your part, if you suddenly feel like you’re playing by yourself because of a sudden change in the texture you may not play as well. Great musicians will familiarize themselves with the musical score to make sure they are “fitting in” in just the right way. Always make it a goal to be a great musician who just happens to play the tuba.
  7. Learn to connect your ears directly to your chops. Your ears are stronger than your face will ever be. If you can hear an interval in your head and know how it’s supposed to sound, you will be able to play it on your horn. If you see a major sixth printed on the page and you have no idea how it should sound, you’re going to have a hard time recreating that interval on your instrument. Singing a passage along with a pitch reference such as a piano or keyboard will help get the pitches in your head. Then buzz the same passage on your mouthpiece. The instrument only amplifies what happens in your mouthpiece, so if you have an efficient buzz guided by a strong ear, you will improve your accuracy immensely. Practice playing simple melodies by ear every day. Once you get more comfortable with this, try playing those melodies in all the keys.
  8. This goes along with the first point, but the more often you can perform for an audience, the easier it will be to establish a routine of performing well. Many of us, when preparing for a recital in school would work for months and months to prepare an hour of music, perform it once and then never play it again. Consistency comes from repetition of positive behaviors. When you prepare a recital, set up as many performances of it as you can. If you are preparing a degree recital, try to perform your recital at least three times before your scheduled recital at school. Look for venues that will appreciate good music: Churches, Retirement Communities, and Elementary Schools all come to mind.
  9. If you are having trouble with pitch accuracy on a short passage of music, take it out of context. A tricky lick can be broken down, transposed into an easier key, an easier tessitura, etc. Always work from a position of strength. Find out how to make the hard parts easier, master them completely and then put them back into context.

10. Lastly – If you’re having trouble “nailing” pitches, is there something wrong with your instrument? I have played a few tubas that have pitches that just aren’t there, no matter how hard I tried to find them. I can think of a particular tuba where the Ab at the top of the staff just doesn’t come out – Or another horn where the low G three ledger lines below the staff doesn’t want to come out. Sometimes there are ways to overcome the limitations of instruments, but sometimes there just aren’t. Have a trusted colleague or teacher try the same thing on your instrument. Can they do it? If not, it may be the horn.
We are lucky to have a wide array of professional quality instruments that are continually improved upon with help from great performers. Also, there is probably a psychological confidence boost when you play a horn with a very even response that is easy to slot and play in tune. When you feel like you are playing an instrument that fits you well and “won’t let you down” in a performance, it is easier to concentrate on the task at hand: making great music.

Dr. Sean Greene is Assistant Professor of Music at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, TN and Adjunct Instructor of Tuba and Euphonium at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, TN. Sean holds the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music Degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He has studied tuba with John Stevens, Sande MacMorran, Dan Perantoni and Winston Morris. Sean lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with his wife and their two daughters.

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Tips for Improving Low Range on Tuba

October 12, 2010 By 2 Comments

This is an article which I wrote for an upcoming issue of the ITEA Journal. I hope you find it helpful.

Some Tips for Improved Low Range Sound Production on the Tuba

by Sean Greene

Many students, amateurs and professionals occasionally have difficulty producing a great, consistent tone quality in the extreme low register. Some players produce sounds that are too weak and thin at one extreme or can be too forceful and unfocused at the other extreme, resulting in either a “yoinky” or “blatty” sound quality. In this article I will share a few pointers I have picked up over the years that may help you find greater ease in negotiating the low register on your instrument.

Like any other aspect of tuba playing, the low register requires good, methodical practice to develop and maintain technique. As the saying goes, in order to play (insert type of playing here), you must practice (insert same type of playing here). Come up with a methodical plan and follow through and be honest with yourself. Break things down into small sections, use a recording device to hear what you’re doing and learn to love the process by which we improve as technicians and musicians.

First, the low register can and should sound as full and rich with a singing quality as the middle and high registers. I hesitate to define the term “low range”, since problem notes will vary from one player to the next and from one instrument to another. In very general terms, this starts somewhere below the G three ledger lines below the bass clef staff for contrabass tuba or below C or Bb two ledger lines below the staff on a bass tuba, down to the fundamental pitch. Problem notes may start much higher for younger players. It’s important to realize that everyone is different and we all have different things to work on. Our main goal should be to make the music sound better.

The first thing I would like to mention to promote a better sound in the low register is for notes that are exactly an octave apart, the lower note will require roughly twice as much air to produce the same intensity of sound. Players sometime neglect the increased air volume (amount of air) required to support a great sound in the low register and wonder why their sound isn’t as good as they would like it to be.

Second, in addition to a huge amount of air, the air speed makes a difference in low register tone production. Players should strive to produce slow, warm air in the low range. One could imagine using their breath to fog a mirror with hot air to get the proper air speed for the low register.  When a player moves warm, slow air, the throat relaxes, the jaw and tongue drop, the oral cavity opens up and air moves at a much slower speed with less restriction. Many players try to “force” the low register out of an instrument by using air that is too fast or “cold”, accompanied by lots of upper body tension, and as a result, a less than optimal sound. Learn to erase all tension from your body when you play and you will likely improve your tone quality.

Another way to describe this forced air phenomenon is to equate the forced air with the “gun” attachment on a typical garden hose. When using this kind of hose attachment, the water sprays at a very high rate from the hose. When the gun attachment is removed, the water falls out of the end of the hose. This “falling out” is the kind of air we want to use to play the tuba in the low register. The low range will respond better to a huge quantity of warm air falling out of your lungs than a small amount of air forced from your body at a high rate of speed.

From the discussion of air quantity and speed we move next to the embouchure. An efficient embouchure is relaxed and ready to vibrate. The corners of the mouth are set, the mouthpiece creates a seal around the mouth firm enough so that no air is escaping around the rim. You should have no more pressure on the face beyond that which is required to make the seal. As the player descends into the lower register, the bottom lip will predominate inside the mouthpiece and the corners of the mouth pull down. Some players practice pivoting their body backwards in the chair to play lower notes. Other players direct the air up in the mouthpiece as they play lower. Use whatever works for you, but remember to use plenty of slow, warm air and listen for proper pitch and tone. Using a recording device will make improving your tone quality in the low range much more efficient.

To make sure your embouchure is functioning as efficiently as possible, try buzzing scales and arpeggios in the low register with and without the mouthpiece, using a keyboard or other pitch source as a reference. You will soon be aware of the amount of air required to produce a solid ‘buzz tone’ in this register is approximately double that of the middle register. An efficient buzz will allow you to create a full, loud “buzzsaw” sound with resonance and control. Remember to take frequent breaks when buzzing because the stress on the facial muscles is much greater when only buzzing the mouthpiece rather than playing it in your tuba. Resting one minute for ever thirty seconds you play your mouthpiece should give your chops enough time to bounce back from heavy duty low register buzzing.

Whenever we discuss embouchure and buzzing, it is important to point out that the tuba only amplifies the sound we create with our ‘chops’ in the mouthpiece. If your embouchure isn’t performing at optimum efficiency, you probably won’t sound as good as you might, regardless of the quality of instrument you play. If your embouchure is tired, rest. Take a break- Go for a walk and come back to the tuba later. Your face muscles need time to heal and rest just like any other muscles in your body.

The mouthpiece is another variable that contributes to your sound production. If you are unhappy with the sound you are making on your mouthpiece, you may be able to improve it with some of the suggestions listed above. If you have tried them and you would like to try a different mouthpiece, go to a conference that will have exhibits with many different models of mouthpieces to try. Try something different, if nothing else, you may find it easier to do certain things on a different mouthpiece. Every player’s face is different and every mouthpiece works differently. Again, a recording device will allow you to hear yourself as others hear you and give you a better idea of where your deficiencies lie and probably let you hear things that sound better than you thought. Like a tuba, your mouthpiece is just a hunk of metal. It cannot hear beautiful music and cannot create a beautiful sound. That creation is the sole responsibility of the musician sitting behind it.

One technique I have found very useful when working on a piece of music is to find a very low passage I have trouble with and play it an octave higher, using the same fingerings I would for the low octave. Practicing in this way, the high octave “teaches” the lower octave how to sound. This technique strengthens my aural perception of pitch and tone in the “easy” range and allows me to practice moving the valves for combinations I will use in the low octave. However you may choose to practice, always work from a position of strength. Find a way to take difficult passages out of context, make them easier, practice them to perfection and then put them back into their original context. Don’t accept things as being impossible and too hard to do. There is always a way to improve and figure things out. Practice and prepare smarter and pay attention to small details.

This article deals mainly with being a tuba technician, but I encourage you to never lose sight of the fact that every note we make on our horns should be great music. Play beautiful melodies, etudes, arias and vocalises every day and strive to make the low register of your horn imitate the most musical singing voice of a great russian basso profondo. Listen to great singers and other instrumentalists and strive to imitate them when you play. We are all musicians and developing artists, no matter how long we have been studying the tuba. I hope this article was helpful to you and will help you to enjoy playing the tuba even more. Music is made for sharing, so get out there and perform! Good luck and have fun!

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KnoX Brass WorX at NYSMF

July 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Well, I failed.

I promised to keep everyone updated on our trip to Oneonta for our concert at the New York Summer Music Festival (NYSMF), but I did not.

Don’t hold it against me… I am only a Horn player after all.  We are a well meaning breed.  But, sometimes, events conspire to bring us down.  Sometimes,  we see something shiny and … SQUIRREL!

What was I saying??   Oh never mind…  Here’s a brief recap of our adventure into the Northern lands of this fine United States.  Our adventure, to the small picturesque town Oneonta, NY , the home of the NYSMF, started off with a bang.  Sean, rented us a fine “snot green” Jeep Patriot for our drive.  In the beginning this looked like it would be plenty big.  That was before we added the Tuba, French Horn, and Joel’s Trumpets.  That pretty much filled the entire storage compartment of the vehicle.  Now we had to add our luggage.   Needless to say, backing was a major hazard for us in that vehicle.   Thankfully, Sarah and Sam were already up at the Festival else, we would have had to rent a Hummer.

The drive was a pretty uneventful 13 hours of car riding bliss.  Joel taught us a VERY exciting game for the trip.  One that I won’t repeat here.  Because, once you start this game, it ALL goes down hill from there.  Happily, it provided us with countless hours of entertainment.  Once we arrived in Oneonta we unpacked and went to eat at the Neptune Diner. If you are ever in Oneonta, you need to visit this place.  They have EVERYTHING!!  After dinner we returned to the NYSMF campus and … rehearsed.  Yes, at 11:30 we met Sam and rehearsed until about 1:00am.

Before you ask, there is NO video of that rehearsal.  Joel, Sean and I were brain dead from 13 hours of driving and it was LATE!  You don’t want to hear it.  We only rehearsed in the first place because we hadn’t played as a group with Sam for about a month.

Our first morning started off with a reading of a Gabrieli Double quintet with the Festival’s Brass Faculty. Those guys were incredible!  I did get a video of the rehearsal reading but not the actual performance.  The camera ended up in a bad spot during the rehearsal.  Except for the jackhammer going off in the middle it sounded great but, the angle was bad and most of the people were cut out.  If any would like to hear/see that, leave a comment below and I will post it.

The remaining time was taken up with by working with some small ensembles and rehearsals for our Concert.   I still  need to go through all the pictures before I post them.  I have managed to get the concert off the camera and trimmed. Below you will find a Youtube playlist of the entire concert.  The tunes are in the order they were on the concert.  So,  if you turn up the sound and turn down the lights it will be ALMOST like you are there.  Total concert length comes in just a hair over an hour so, get yourself a drink and some popcorn and ENJOY!

Sean also taught the Brass Warm-up class one morning… I have video and pictures of that as well but, those all require Sean’s executive approval before I will post them.  The warm up class was quite interesting so, as soon as I get the A-OK, I’ll post up some of the highlights.  In the mean time, I hope you enjoy the show!

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tuba keys: pros & cons

July 8, 2010 By 2 Comments

I was recently asked via Twitter the pros and cons of different keyed tubas.

Short answer: THE SOUND!

Long, rambling stream-of-consciousness answer: See below.

To begin, I should explain that there are two main types of tubas: 1)Contrabass tubas (BBb and CC) and 2)Bass tubas (F and Eb). In very general terms, contrabass tubas have a deep, broad sound and bass tubas have a lighter, tighter sound, though there can be some variation on those characterizations, depending on the size of the instrument, etc….. But for now, I will discuss the uses of the four main keys of tubas below.

I should point out that the BBb tuba is the most popular key of tuba in public schools in the United States. The BBb tuba rose to popularity in the last 100 years from the school band movement boom (!)  and the stars of that movement were manufactured in influential factories in places like Elkhorn, Elkhart, Cleveland and Grand Rapids. Millions of dollars have been spent on advertising for school instruments targeting public schools, the BIGGEST market for instrument manufacturers.   All beginning band texts published in the last 20 years include instructions for BBb contrabass tuba. (You will find older methods that include Eb tuba books) Who was responsible for deciding that BBb would be THE tuba that we teach in the US schools? I dunno. That is for someone else’s dissertation. But, when you think of a characteristic ‘band’ brass bass sound or “tubby the tuba” oom-pah music, you are probably hearing a BBb tuba or sousaphone in your head.

The BBb tuba is also the contrabass tuba of choice for professionals in Germany, Great Britain and many other parts of the world. The BBb tuba is less popular among professional musicians in the United States, though there are relatively few orchestra, commercial and band players who use a BBb as their main contrabass instrument.

Among many professionals around the world, however, the BBb tuba has gotten a bad rap. The BBb tuba can be characterized as a sluggish, “tubby” instrument with a broad sound and a slow response. With every rule, thought, there is an exception. Listen to some of the things Nat McIntosh has done with a BBb sousaphone with the Youngblood Brass Band and you’ll be too busy picking your jaw off the floor to care what key his tuba is in.

Ahem. In very general terms, the response of a BBb tuba is slower compared to that of a CC, F or Eb tuba, since there is more tubing to fill up with air. Some people like this sound better than those made by other instruments. In Germany, the F tuba is used for most everything and the BBb tuba is reserved for only the ‘biggest’ orchestral literature that requires a big, broad sound like a Bruckner or Mahler symphony. Also, since the “tuba explosion” of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the aspiring tuba player has been looking for equipment that will allow the easiest performance of the most challenging solo and chamber literature. Recordings by people like Roger Bobo, William Bell, Harvey Phillips and John Fletcher inspired us to push the accepted limits of the tuba and, coincidentally, none of these artists used a BBb tuba in their recordings.

The CC is the most popular key among professionals and college students in the United States. The response is quicker than that of the BBb tuba and is generally a more agile instrument. All tubas come in different sizes, from 3/4 size to 6/4 size. The size of the instrument generally dictates the amount of sound and projection and the breadth/quality of the sound. Many players use a 3/4 size instrument for chamber ensembles and 6/4 size instruments for large orchestras and bands.

The F tuba is the main orchestral horn for countless tubists in Europe. The sound of the F tuba is tight, compact, light and has a singing quality. Most F tubas are used for solos, chamber music and orchestral literature that requires a comparatively lighter sound. Though pitched a P5 higher than the BBb tuba, F tubas do not necessarily help a player play higher notes, but it is a more compact sound and an F tuba can provide agility that a contrabass tuba lacks. Also, some professional orchestral players like playing F tuba because to them,  it provides a better timbrel link between the trombones and the Double Basses than the contrabass tuba.

The sound of the Eb tuba is somewhere between an F tuba and a CC tuba. Eb were once quite popular in the US and are gaining popularity as a viable option for players seeking a great solo instrument with the depth and breadth of sound characteristic of a contrabass tuba.

Instrument technicians and other ‘mad scientists’ have made instruments in different keys like D & G, giving us choices much like the variety of keys available to trumpet players. They create these ‘alternative’ keyed horns because they say that different keyed tubas lend themselves to different keys or different composers’ music. I would tend to agree.

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The Art of Rehearsal

June 10, 2010 By 4 Comments

Chamber Ensembles are generally short-lived beasts. It’s pretty rare for a group to form, stay together long enough to “gel” and build a following playing concerts. Many, many groups dissolve long before they reach this point for several reasons- Not the least of which being poor rehearsal habits. The Knox Brass WorX Co is really lucky to have such experienced players who get along really well, share a great love for making music and are well-versed in good rehearsal techniques. The following are some rehearsal habits you can use to keep your rehearsals civil, productive and help you along the path of creating a great musical experience for yourselves and your audience.

First, there is an unwritten (maybe, maybe not) rule of diplomacy whenever you rehearse. When making suggestions, try your best not to single any one person’s playing out for being “God-awful”. Instead, make a constructive comment that can be applied to everyone in the group. Instead of “Joe, you’re really stinking it up at 32.” you can say, “Can we all be extra sensitive to counting at measure 32, especially around beat three?” Everyone has an ego, feelings and sense of musicality- And we all play better when we feel like ours are respected. Be flexible and be willing to try things a different way. Be open to other ideas of musical interpretation. Be willing to make compromises and keep the lines of communication open. Always remember: It’s not about you, it’s about the music.

A second habit (a biggie) of successful chamber music groups is they really know the score. Know everyone else’s part as well as you know your own. Play from the score when you’re learning a new piece. Write other people’s rhythms into your part to remind yourself what else is going on while you’re playing. Know what member of the chord you are playing at all times and adjust intonation accordingly. If you don’t have the melody, get out of the way. Build a solid sense of time. Subdivide, subdivide, subdivide and count like crazy. Listen, listen, listen. Match articulations, pitch, dynamics. Play everything on the page and then some.

Habit #3: Record everything you rehearse and listen back to the recording. Set up a microphone or video camera in the corner of your rehearsal space and forget about it. Go back and watch/listen to how things REALLY went. The tape never lies…..dun-dun-DUUUUN.

Habit #4: Start and stop together and know who’s responsible for giving the entrance/cutoff. It sounds simple enough, but you would be surprised how difficult a concept starting together is for some groups to master. The key is for whoever starts the group to take a good breath in time (the tempo of the music) and with the energy that particular passage of music requires. It is also important, though slightly less so, to give a visual cue to the group to visually reinforce the tempo indicated with the breath. The other members of the group need some sense of the tempo in order to come in together and a solid breath, taken in tempo is the key to togetherness. Cutoffs require more of a visual cue. Just an up/down motion will suffice. Making a circle in the air with your horn as a conductor would is often a wasted motion since most people in the group will only be able to see you from one side instead of from the front. Oh, and listen, listen, listen.

Habit #5: If possible, never sight-read the first rehearsal of anything. This shows respect for your colleagues, and let’s face it- It saves rehearsal time. Also, come to rehearsal warmed up and ready to play. I know, this seems simple, but it makes a huge difference. If you do have to sight-read something, make sure you play the right rhythms. Nothing ever comes to a screeching halt when you miss notes, but if you guess at a rhythm- Train wreck city.

Habit #6: Always have a pencil at rehearsal.

Habit #7: Most all successful brass groups generate their own music. Everyone in the group should get into the habit of arranging, composing, commissioning, etc new music for the group and bring it into rehearsal. An advantage to writing your own music is it gives you the ability to tailor your charts to the group’s strengths and tastes and it gets you thinking about music from the composer’s point of view. Audiences will enjoy hearing fresh repertoire, too. If you think you’re no good at composing or arranging, think again. Just do it. It’s just like anything else. The more you do it, the better you will get. Everyone has to start somewhere. All composers and arrangers turn out some pretty bad music in the beginning. It’s okay. I’m sure you were responsible for a pretty raunchy Bb scale at some early point in your development, too….. Have fun and make music.

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On Warming Up

June 1, 2010 By 2 Comments

Sean with Paul Haugan's Hirsbrunner KaisertubaI am a big believer in the power of a good, methodical warmup. Regardless of your age or ability, a good, daily warmup routine can help you build new skills more quickly and maintain the skills you’ve already mastered.

Ideally, I would really like to be able to spend about an hour on a good, methodical warmup,  but let’s face it- We don’t always have time for that. When you can’t spend that much time, find a few good exercises that get your air flowing, your ears listening and your face feeling limber again.

I like to warmup first thing in the morning, as early as possible. If I do this, I know that if  I get called to do some other task during the day- I will have at least touched the horn and done my routine. Nothing is worse that the feeling you get when it’s 10pm and  you realize you haven’t touched the horn all day. Do it early and it’s done.

When you sit down to warm up, what should your goals be? A-HA! Goals are good. Have them. Work towards them. Never sit down to practice without having a clear goal of what you wish to accomplish. That’s just logging time for the sake of logging time…And that’s not getting you anywhere.

When I sit down to warm up, I want to: 1)Get my breathing apparatus moving huge amounts of slow, warm air, 2) Get my fingers and chops coordinated with my breathing, 3)Touch on every type of music I’m likely to encounter. I want to play through every key, every articulation, every dynamic across the entire range of my instrument.

A typical warmup session for me will begin with stretching. The tuba is a particularly physical instrument to play, so to avoid sore muscles in my back, shoulders and elsewhere, I typically do some sort of stretching. If you’re new to stretching, or haven’t done it since middle school gym class, I would recommend Bob Anderson’s Stretching Book or a series of yoga DVD’s by Rodney Yee. I would do this for no more than five or ten minutes. You want to be in a relaxed state before you begin to play. Being physically relaxed will help many aspects of your playing when you pick up the horn.

After stretching, I like to do about five minutes of breathing exercises. I do not recommend any more time spent on this activity, because there is a risk of working towards “being a good breather” instead of becoming a great musician. My main breathing exercise consists of three sets of multiple-rep “blows” through the horn, with and without valves depressed. Each set is at a different tempo. The first set is at quarter note = 60. The second set is identical to the first, but at quarter note =120. The third set is at quarter note=35. There are many pauses throughout this routine, for both reflection as well as regaining consciousness. All breathing should be as relaxed as possible and breathe to absolute capacity (and then some) every time you take a breath.

As tuba players, our ultimate goal should be to move huge amounts of slow, warm air while making great music. That should be on the top of the idea pile while you do the breathing exercise.

After breathing, I like to do a little mouthpiece buzzing. Again, not too much, since buzzing the mouthpiece is so much more efficient than playing the instrument- it also places more stress on your facial muscles. You should rest your chops one minute for every thirty seconds of buzzing you do. Also, try to always buzz at a piano or some other pitch source. Buzzing while using the piano as a pitch reference will help you engage your ears to match pitch and provide a reference for “where the heck you are” range-wise.

After buzzing, I go into a long-tone routine. The focus should be to produce a beautiful sound, taking in as much air as possible every time you breathe. It’s during the variations on the long-tone exercise that I like to add different articulations to my routine.

Articulations…..When you think about it, brass players are capable of many more different types of articulations than we actually practice or even think about every day. Of course, we have marcato and legato…But what about pure legato, legato tongue, marcato sostenuto, forte-piano, sforzando, orchestral accent, staccattissimo and breath articulations? I think that incorporating these articulations into your daily routine will help you master each of them while breaking up the monotony of your long-tones and “Remington”-type exercises.

I like to go through all the keys and finger patterns in my warmup. One of my favorite exercises is what I call the “diatonic scale exercise”….You play a major scale up and down in one octave- then you start on the supertonic, going up and down in one octave, but you keep the same key signature as tonic. Go all the way up to tonic again and arpeggiate back down to the first tonic.

I like to work on intonation with a series of arpeggios in all the keys. At the same time, I’m listening to my sound and keeping my breathing slow and relaxed. I do, from time to time, play along with a drone during my practice time to work on listening and putting notes right where they need to be, pitch-wise.

Also, we have too many technological resources at our disposal for anyone to have an excuse to not record themselves on a regular basis. Record yourself. Listen to the recording. Repeat. Listen. Improve. Repeat.

I have typed out a few exercises from my daily warmup routine in bass clef for tuba and trombone/euphonium those of you who would like to try it out. There are many more exercises than I’ve mentioned here. I can’t claim to be the originator of the exercises I do- I’ve just collected many exercises and concepts that were introduced to me by some of the fantastic teachers I’ve had along my journey: John Stevens, Andrew Oppenheim, Roger Bobo and Sande MacMorran. I also highly recommend the James Stamp Trumpet Warm Up Book, Roger Bobo’s Mastering the Tuba Book and The Brass Gym.

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