What are you practicing?

[arpthark]

I have been asked to play euphonium on a piece with my local band (Ives, Variations on "Jerusalem the Golden") and have been woodshedding that part, which includes a few showy arpeggios up to a high C. Working on upper range flexibility as well as blending the upper range into the middle-upper range of the instrument.

On tuba, I am dusting off the Gregson concerto for the first time in about 14 years.

So... whatcha working on with your tuba/euph-ing?

[bloke]

I would have to say "everything"...

- random technical etude books (mostly stuff that is challenging for me...otherwise, it would be a time-waste - though I'm "checking" through some appears-to-not-be-all-that-difficult stuff, just to make sure I can play it to my own critical satisfaction)

- a several vocalise books (one written in the tuba octave, and the others written in the trombone/bassoon octave)

- some Bach cello suites' movements

- one or two Schumann (op. 94) Romances

- I've got the stack of Torchinsky excerpt bks. on the floor, but only Mahler is on the music stand.

- Fountains/Ride/Metamorphosis/Sensamaya/various long exposed J. Williams movie solo excerpts and more are on the stand - even his Concerto (which I haven't performed since 1994), the RVW is somewhere in the back of the stack (yuk)
Most of these are nice big 11"x14" xeroxes of the original engravings, including that manuscript version of the J. Williams Concerto (as the published version was not available, at that time).

I'm not only working towards BB-flat mastery, but working towards putting myself (playing ability) more towards where I was c. a decade ago (rather than just "plenty good enough to not get hollered at by some podium peep"). LOL...I'm not auditioning for anything, but am just tired of playing "well enough".

...These aren't on my stand, but are PDFs in my laptop.. I've got about fifteen 4th trombone parts for a big band plus strings gig in less than a month where I'm playing those parts on the F cimbasso (with mutes), so I guess that counts.

RATHER THAN all of this hard work - though, I guess I should just buy this and be done with it:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/185737513953

[the elephant]

@arpthark — I am re-learning my new-and-improved-but-different F tuba while preparing for two quintet recitals and a solo recital.

[EDIT: I removed the link because none of that stuff is legal. It is just for me. And I think that the person I posted it for has a copy now. I removed the info because the person who wanted to read it has read it now.]

[Mary Ann]

Well, cool. If I lived close enough to drive to hear that, I would.

[Kirley]

Thanks, Wade! That Blazhevich is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for to relearn Eb fingerings.

I just borrowed an old Holton medium Eb and had it cleaned up a bit. Works great. 3 banger, front action.

So, to the point of the thread, Eb fingerings!

Mostly hacking through Bordogni and Kopprasch since I know what they're supposed to sound like and I already have them sitting around.

[arpthark]

Thanks, Wade! That Blazhevich is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for to relearn Eb fingerings.

I just borrowed an old Holton medium Eb and had it cleaned up a bit. Works great. 3 banger, front action.

So, to the point of the thread, Eb fingerings!

Mostly hacking through Bordogni and Kopprasch since I know what they're supposed to sound like and I already have them sitting around.

This is exactly how I picked up Eb fingerings, doubled with trial-by-fire in a British style brass band.

[arpthark]

I dig that arrangement of the Blazhevich, @the elephant. You've F-tuba-fied it!

I've done something similar with Hindemith's "Drei leichte Stücke," (originally for cello), but in the opposite direction. I un-F-tuba-fied it!

[Grumpikins]

Plodding through Bordogni and Blazhevich etudes. Practicing switching between Cc and Bb horns. Trying to make my fatty brain more flexible.

Also some tv theme melodies and bach for fun.

Sent from my SM-J327VPP using Tapatalk

[the elephant]

I dig that arrangement of the Blazhevich, @the elephant. You've F-tuba-fied it!

I've done something similar with Hindemith's "Drei leichte Stücke," (originally for cello), but in the opposite direction. I un-F-tuba-fied it!

I do not enjoy hearing tuba players perform the old SMC edition of the Barat. The euph version is *much* better since the piano part is very muddy with the solo part down an octave in the middle of all the left-hand stuff. The tuba version is just the same piano part with the solo part engraved one octave lower, with no other changes. So I moved it up a P4 ( I learned it on CC, so I just moved it up so the fingerings would fall into place more easily for me) and redid the piano part in many places to make the solo and piano parts sound good together — to me.

All of my changes to this set of pieces are, in the end, to make things sound better, save fo enharmonic respellings to facilitate reading.

[TriStateFans]

Well... I'm waiting for my "intro back into tuba" to arrive. Once it gets here, I'll start at the very beginning. It's been decades since I have played, and I have to relearn to read music (I expect that to be an "oh, yeah, that's right" type of a deal). I'll probably then go right to scales and start focusing on building the chops.

Then? I'll let you know.

[bloke]

I've played through that Barat French tuba piece (being discussed in this thread) a couple of times with my new to me new to me euphonium with a huge bell section.

In the bloke attic there is a tiny 1920s 4 valve top action Conn 2J E flat (not to be confused with the model built in C decades later) I have shortened to f, but I never finished that project and it's sitting in one of those little bitty Jakob Winter molded cases made to fit those really small Besson B flat (B&H "Regent") tubas. That 5/8" bore F tuba with its small bell might be an interesting thing to attempt French tuba solos, but I don't know if I'll ever finish that project...?? (Here's a picture of the 3-valved version: https://cderksen.home.xs4all.nl/images/2Jdraw1926.jpg )

I like the piece, and I can play it, but (mostly because I'm not a euphonium player, and some of those guys play that piece so well) I have always avoided programming it and just settled for playing it at home. Obviously I've played it on F tuba until recently, but this particular euphonium sounds more like a tuba than other ones that I've owned, and - for that reason in particular - I sort of like it.

Back to your regularly scheduled blather

[the elephant]

Try this version out on your B&S. I did it years ago for my Eb tuba. I learned it in on that UNT 188 CC, so the fingerings are the same on F. I had an arrangement *for F tuba* a step higher, but I like this one much better on F. It still sounds like a tuba. On my 621 Blandaha it was shrill. This one feels… fatter? Not sure. Perhaps I prefer lots of flats?

[Three Valves]

Well... I'm waiting for my "intro back into tuba" to arrive. Once it gets here, I'll start at the very beginning. It's been decades since I have played, and I have to relearn to read music (I expect that to be an "oh, yeah, that's right" type of a deal). I'll probably then go right to scales and start focusing on building the chops.

Then? I'll let you know.

That’s exactly what happened to me.

I have some beginner/intermediate studies around here from my re-intro 5+ years ago.

Great condition, cheap!

viewtopic.php?p=24006#p24006

[arpthark]

Practice??? (Sorry, someone had to make the joke)

Been practicing mostly trombone the last few months - I took lessons over the fall (an elective for my doctoral program) just for fun-sies. For solo rep, my big project was the Bourgeois trombone concerto...that had always been on my bucket list. It's nice to cross something off! I think I'm going to move to the Ewazen euphonium concerto next. My chops feel the best they've felt since I was in grad. school (2007-2009) so I'd like to keep the momentum going.

[bloke]

Just to bounce off of Jeremiah's comment - and as a bit of a confession, I really haven't seriously practiced (until this current era) in quite a few years other than making sure that charts with hard licks have been ready to go for gigs.

[arpthark]

Practice???

If I can't practice, I can't practice. If I'm hurt, I'm hurt. Simple as that. It's not about that at all. But it's easy to talk about and sum it up when you just talk about practice; we're sitting here, and I'm supposed to be the franchise tuba player, and we're in here talking about practice. I mean, listen, we're talking about practice. Not a concert! Not a concert! Not a concert! We're talking about practice. Not a concert; not the concert that I go out there and blow out my chops for and play every concert like it's my last, not the concert, we're talking about practice, man. I mean, how silly is that? We're talking about practice. I know I'm supposed to be there, I know I'm supposed to lead by example, I know that. And I'm not shoving it aside like it don't mean anything. I know it's important. I do. I honestly do. But we're talking about practice, man. What are we talking about? Practice? We're talking about practice, man!

We're talking about practice! We're talking about practice... We ain't talking about the concert! We're talking about practice, man! When you come to the concert hall, and you see me play... You see me play, don't you?

Absolutely.

You see me give everything I got, right?

Absolutely.

But we're talking about practice right now!

But it's an issue that your conductors continue to raise!

Look, I hear you. It's funny to me too. It's strange to me too. But we're talking about practice, man. We're not even talking about the concert, the actual concert, when it matters, we're talking about practice.

Is it possible, though, from where he's coming from, if you practiced, not only you would be better, but your section mates?

How the hell can I make my section mates better by practicing?!

So they can be used to playing with you.

They should be used to playing with me. Those are my section mates. So my playing is going to deteriorate because I'm not practicing with my section mates? Is my tuba playing going to get worse? I'm asking you, is my tuba playing going to get worse? Is my tuba playing going to get better because other players' chops are hurt in my section, I mean, does that hurt me? Do you think that hurts me? I'm being honest, people's chops are hurt in my section but does that hurt me? Does that hurt me when I go out there and play Mahler for 48 minutes, does that hurt me as a tuba player? Does that hurt me if this person's chops are hurt or that person's chops are hurt? Does it hurt me?

[the elephant]

You have words. You have the BEST words. You're a very stable genius.

[bloke]

I for one believe we are changing the world here.
All of this is extremely important.

[the elephant]

Today I'm practicing three excerpts from the RVW and three from the Broughton — with a metronome — at half speed — over and over and over and over — until I am unable to play them incorrectly at tempo.

[bloke]

I'd wager you're doing the 6-valve thing...