What’s on Your Stand for 2022? (Warning: crappy Bach content ahead)

[Doc]

Bill, other than the solo, what I usually have on my stand will be changing this year. I will be doing more Max Schlossberg and Theo Charlier. I have had these books for decades and have only used them for a few specific things. I decided I want to learn more of this stuff. I also want to explore Arban a little more.

I have never used Charlier, so I’d be interested in your opinion once you’ve revisited it and spent some time with it.

[Doc]

I bought an Eb tuba a few months ago, and after taxing my elderly brain alternating between it and my euphonium, I decided to dig into my cornet roots and start playing euphonium in treble clef. One of my online mentors has said that treble is a natural fit for euphonium scoring, and pairs nicely with Eb tuba doubling.

So, I have begun transposing a lot of my software-based scores for treble. I use Musescore and can produce a treble version in less than a minute. I have a lot of the Bordogni etudes in that format, among other stuff. Reading the treble score, while allowing muscle-memory to kick in from playing the same pieces in bass clef, has made it a pretty smooth process.

My computer sits literally 3 feet from my music stand, so most of the time, I just sit in front of the computer to play. I even do this with the tuba, since it is an old 3/4 model, barely larger than my euphonium.

So, I guess I have dust on my stand.

Well, you DO have stuff on your virtual stand!

[tclements]

American in Paris, On the Town, Black, Brown and Beige (Ellington), Carmina Burana, Symphony in 3 Mvts (Stravinsky), and more!

[Doc]

American in Paris, On the Town, Black, Brown and Beige (Ellington), Carmina Burana, Symphony in 3 Mvts (Stravinsky), and more!

Nice!

[hrender]

Eby and Bordogni mostly, sometimes Arban or Bell. The Cerveny has made me (re-)interested in more lyrical stuff as of late, so I'm also working on play-by-ear songs that I know well, e.g. "Someone to Watch Over Me" and "Summertime".

[the elephant]

Eby

My very first weeks on the tuba were spent buried in this book while I quickly taught myself in a practice room in High School. As soon as I could read BC in a non-embarrassing way I rejoined the concert band as the only tubist for UIL Concert & Sightreading Contest. (I had decided to temporarily switch from trumpet because the one *real* tuba player ran away from home to live with his dad. He asked me to cover his parts for the contest. I never switched back!)

This book is a classic. Thanks for the link. I need to pick up a copy.

[bloke]

I have never used Charlier, so I’d be interested in your opinion once you’ve revisited it and spent some time with it.

What's your opinion, Bill ?

https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usim ... dantes.pdf

They remind me (a bit) of the Kopprasch horn etudes, but (obviously) more Frenchy-sounding/less Deutschy-sounding.

Other people may treat trumpet books in different ways, but I always treat "middle c" as the 2nd partial open pitch of whatever tuba I'm playing...and I don't "transpose" them to bass clef...(Just in case the previous sentence didn't make it clear,) I just read the treble clef music, and treat "whatever" tuba as a "treble clef baritone"...

[Doc]

I have never used Charlier, so I’d be interested in your opinion once you’ve revisited it and spent some time with it.

What's your opinion, Bill ?

[url]https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usim ... dantes.pdf[

They remind me (a bit) of the Kopprasch horn etudes, but (obviously) more Frenchy-sounding/less Deutschy-sounding.

Other people may treat trumpet books in different ways, but I always treat "middle c" as the 2nd partial open pitch of whatever tuba I'm playing...and I don't "transpose" them to bass clef...(Just in case the previous sentence didn't make it clear,) I just read the treble clef music, and treat "whatever" tuba as a "treble clef baritone"...

At first glance (and a quick sight-singing of the first 25), I like them. I see your point about being more Frenchy.

Since I’ve been playing BBb bass parts in brass band, using fingerings as you describe seems natural, and reading regular treble clef has become a slight challenge. It has become a lot easier to “play CC fingerings” when playing treble clef whichever key the tuba is in, and for the purpose of adapting these to each key of tuba, that treble clef baritone/CC fingerings approach seems to be the right one. It allows you to work the same respective range of each instrument.

[tubanh84]

Right now, Kopprasch, Bordogni* (in three octaves), and Snedecor, to continue to get to know my new (to me) 184.

I'm interspersing it with the Persichetti Serenade, some work here and there on Encounters II, and the Gregson concerto so that I'm not JUST playing etudes.

*this is the book I got when I was in 6th grade. It has notes from three different teachers from 10 years of active instruction in it. I still find things to improve on all these years later. I'm also now realizing that it has been longer since my last lesson (15 years) than I took lessons for (10 years). I should probably arrange for a tune-up.

[Doc]

Right now, Kopprasch, Bordogni* (in three octaves), and Snedecor, to continue to get to know my new (to me) 184.

I'm interspersing it with the Persichetti Serenade, some work here and there on Encounters II, and the Gregson concerto so that I'm not JUST playing etudes.

*this is the book I got when I was in 6th grade. It has notes from three different teachers from 10 years of active instruction in it. I still find things to improve on all these years later. I'm also now realizing that it has been longer since my last lesson (15 years) than I took lessons for (10 years). I should probably arrange for a tune-up.

Those books are always valuable and provide opportunities for continued improvement no matter how old you are or how advanced you are.

The only thing wrong with them is that they get worn out. I finally replaced my Rochut (Bordogni) trombone book that was over three decades old and threadbare. Lol. My Kopprasch is not much better. Blazevich is a bit worn as well. I haven’t replaced my Arban trombone book that finally fell apart a couple years ago, but I need to get another one. Good stuff is, well… good stuff!

[tubanh84]

The only thing wrong with them is that they get worn out. I finally replaced my Rochut (Bordogni) trombone book that was over three decades old and threadbare. Lol. My Kopprasch is not much better. Blazevich is a bit worn as well. I haven’t replaced my Arban trombone book that finally fell apart a couple years ago, but I need to get another one. Good stuff is, well… good stuff!

My Bordogni is in pieces. I just keep the pieces together. My Kopprasch is in embarrassingly good condition. I just spent so much time when I was younger obsessing over solos and excerpts that I didn't appreciate the process of working on etudes AS ETUDES and demanding an high level of polish on them. They were just....those things I had to be able to hack through so that we could work on Prok 5 some more. I think I was told this, though maybe not as clearly as 18-year old me needed: If you can get through Snedecor #5 well, Fountains will be a breeze.

There's a lot I'm trying to go back and re-do in a way. Tuba is one of them.

[bloke]

Blazhevich:

I am thinking that these were written primarily (only?) to familiarize advancing trombone students with reading tenor and alto clef. as well as changing which clef they are reading on-the-fly.

Without that specific challenge, “an octave lower for tuba” (and completely in bass clef) they just seem to me to be the “blah-blah“ studies, and not much good for anything other than some not-many-surprises sight-reading. They are (well…) sort of easy, and really don’t address any musical issues in particular…sort of Rubank-ish, except less fun.
Two or three times, I’ve picked them up and played through some of them, made a bit of a subconscious face, and then tossed the book back towards the file cabinet. Further, when I buy used tubas to flip - and find music in the case or bag, I always seem to “draw the Old Maid”, and it often ends up being a Blazhevich book, rather than something (well…) good.
>> Something that kicked my butt for a while - until I worked on them enough:
the Verne Reynolds 48 études for Horn (interval studies - particularly 1 - 23, odd)… and then, I would pick up a tuba built in a different key - and let them mess with me some more…
(with apologies to the Blazhevich fans)

[tubanh84]

>> Something that kicked my butt for a while - until I worked on them enough:
the Verne Reynolds 48 études for Horn (interval studies - particularly 1 - 23, odd)… and then, I would pick up a tuba built in a different key - and let them mess with me some more…
(with apologies to the Blazhevich fans)

That's not on my stand, but it's on my shelf. It probably SHOULD be on my stand, now that you mention it.

[Jperry1466]

Good job on that, Doc. You make them sound easy. I used the holidays to do some arranging for our local tuba ensemble: 3 tubas and 3 euphoniums, ages 90, 70 (me), 61, 48, 26, and 25. We rehearse in a church, so we play a lot of arrangements for different church services. We also play at other venues; one Sunday we played for a morning church service then at a Brewery restaurant the same afternoon. We played 11 Christmas gigs in 4 weeks; some of them even paid but all of them at least fed us. We just do it for the love of playing. Just now finished an original arrangement of What A Friend We Have in Jesus for an upcoming service, and a shortened arr. of Overture 1812, which sound good on the software playback. Sometimes arrangements that sound good on playback don't sound good with the group, and sometimes vice versa. Did an arrangement of Canon in D for the upcoming wedding of one of our euphonium players, one of Liberty Bell March, another of "Pink Lemonade", a one-step by AJ Weidt (1921), and several others geared to our different audiences. As far as solo stand work, the Bach Suites give me all the challenge I can handle at this age, and I work on the all-state tryout etudes that my private students have to play. So that's what's on the stand.

[tubanh84]

>> Something that kicked my butt for a while - until I worked on them enough:
the Verne Reynolds 48 études for Horn (interval studies - particularly 1 - 23, odd)… and then, I would pick up a tuba built in a different key - and let them mess with me some more…
(with apologies to the Blazhevich fans)

I say this with as much love as I can: You jerk.

I pulled this out last night, and my lips were shot in 15 minutes.

[bloke]

I don’t recall ever being able to do things - that I couldn’t do before - without trying to do them.