TubaForum.net

I don't think such a thread exists, I know the update update update was from tubenet and recreated here but that is more off-topic.

Whether practice or performance, what did you play today?

I'll start.

Easter service for the church for one of the brass bands I play with. A handful of songs, but the main piece was Resurgam by Eric Ball.


(Stole this idea from another hobby/forum I am apat of for R/C Helicopters- 'What did you fly today?'. A way to encourage folks to fly, either by reading others and being inspired or sharing themselves). I can always use that nudge to practice so thought a similar thread here atleast inspire myself.

Since it is now 8:05 AM here, nuttin' yet. Later -- will be looking at and possibly tooting on an Alex F and an unknown-as-yet CC.

Uh, I played tuba along to the Frozen soundtrack while my 2 year old listened. That’s pretty much most of my “practice time” these days.

Mainly working on the intro to this brass band arrangement of The Dark Knight
Playing this in a concert next weekend. We have 2 Eb's en 3 BBb's in the band, it sounds so awesome when I add the low part

As you can see it starts on a D in BBb treble cleff, so thats actually a C (1-3-4 on my compensating Besson 994)

BramJ wrote: Sun Apr 06, 2025 1:05 pm Mainly working on the intro to this brass band arrangement of The Dark Knight
Playing this in a concert next weekend. We have 2 Eb's en 3 BBb's in the band, it sounds so awesome when I add the low part

As you can see it starts on a D in BBb treble cleff, so thats actually a C (1-3-4 on my compensating Besson 994)

And it dips down to the low C# as well! I was in the local brass band here for a season, and the rep honestly kicked my butt a bit playing BBb bass (on my CC tuba).

I have five MSO folders for upcoming stuff (very busy right now) and four manila envelopes filled with freelance work.

I am working on the Broughton Concerto for a performance on the 27th, so I am working on it about four times daily for 30 minutes to an hour at a stretch.

Because of the concerto, to avoid muddying the waters, I am playing all my upcoming work on the F tuba until the concert. After that, all of my work will need to be played on one of my CC tubas. I still play CC tuba every day for warming up, but I do not read anything on it. My dyslexia is acting up right now, and this is a technique I learned many years ago: just read on one tuba and do not swap fingering sets until things get better or work thins out.)

arpthark wrote: Sun Apr 06, 2025 1:11 pm

BramJ wrote: Sun Apr 06, 2025 1:05 pm

And it dips down to the low C# as well! I was in the local brass band here for a season, and the rep honestly kicked my butt a bit playing BBb bass (on my CC tuba).

The brass band repertoire really seems to be written with 4-valve compensating systems in mind. I also play in a 'normal' wind band but that repetoire never goes to these depths.

There are a lot of confused, poorly trained arrangers and composers who have this idea that if it is at all physically possible, then it must be easy to do.

Yesterday - Street band gig at Children's Hospital/Ronald McDonald House... and rehearsal ... we are working up a new arrangement of Enter Sandman and Master of Puppets.. It has some very tricky syncopated bits that trade off with the trombones and trumpets. It is the kind of thing that is really easy to play in isolation but really hard with the group.... because you are just a little bit off from everyone else and switching to being just a little bit off in a different way every few bars.

Today the band ran a soloing workshop for people who are not comfortable getting out the book. We have a a bunch of members who are terrified to play off the page, so the idea is to have a place where it is 100% ok to try something without worrying it will be bad. So I walked basslines on the Eb sousa for about 2 hours. Brought the bone along too and spit out some bad solos myself.

Morning church service:

Whom Shall I Fear - Kirkland
As For Me and My House - Duren
In the Presence of Jehova - Goss
Bless God - Rouse
Alibaster Box - Stewart

A rehearsal of the Gloria by Jenkins.
I can't see why people find this music good. I don't like it. I don't like the composer Jenkins. I don't like his other music (played the armed man)
I do like the orchestra (very much, last season they played Mahler 1 and Bruckner 7) so I will help them out. But I don't like this music.

I've got some "Jedi"...blah-blah band (not arrangement, but) original-keys transcription of some movie music (that's probably the note-y-ist piece in the folder...lots of runs of notes with double flags, etc...), along with some other John Williams transcriptions, a set of J.P. Sousa pieces (four movements of a suite - not technically "marches", but very much march-ish), some "Hobbit" thing (treble clef "bass" part, but that's OK), an orchestration of a Gershwin piano prelude, transcriptions of several numbers from the Candide operetta...

...This is for that (Wade calls it) "ringer band" that asked me to play with them.

Their first rehearsal for a concert at the end of the month is tonight...I believe I've met c. handful of the people involved...

bloke wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 3:18 pm I've got some "Jedi"...blah-blah band (not arrangement, but) original-keys transcription of some movie music (that's probably the note-y-ist piece in the folder...lots of runs of notes with double flags, etc...), along with some other John Williams transcriptions, a set of J.P. Sousa pieces (four movements of a suite - not technically "marches", but very much march-ish), some "Hobbit" thing (treble clef "bass" part, but that's OK), an orchestration of a Gershwin piano prelude, transcriptions of several numbers from the Candide operetta...

...This is for that (Wade calls it) "ringer band" that asked me to play with them.

Their first rehearsal for a concert at the end of the month is tonight...I believe I've met c. handful of the people involved...

Are the Candide pieces arranged by Grundman? I love those

I finally had some time to do some research on the Sousa stuff, and they're just a set of pieces from his operetta, El Capitan.

My understanding is that it was quite a popular operetta, but just the fact that Sousa wrote it probably had a lot to do with that.

It's obvious from this set of pieces that it's a comical operetta.

Snedecor and Broughton for four hours.

You know what's kind of hard?

It's hard to play hard stuff simultaneously with other tuba players in a band.

It's far easier to play hard stuff all by oneself in a symphony orchestra.

The problem is that the ears hear the other players doing things slightly differently and it fools us into thinking that we are playing like them, and we tend to change what we are doing based on false information.

The only time I didn't run into this was 11th and 12th grade through the first two years in college, when a friend of mine and I played together in high school and - again - in college.

Our style, phrasing, and pitch matched so well that we didn't distract each other.

Connotations by Gregson and Seterslått by Jan Magne Forde

Mainly a few specific measures in Connotations. The 6-tuplets in the start, and solo to get them under my fingers and pitches in my head.

During my parental with my daughter I try to do several small sessions during the day, as they double for entertainment for her.

Broughton. Easter stuff (rehearsal). More Broughton.

Practiced for Easter Sunday quintet with chior and handbells:

Were you there
On the Third Day
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
Hallelujah Chorus
Lift High the Cross
Sing Hallelujah, Praise the Lord

Several uhcita-puhkita Richard Webster fanfareish hymn settings on my gigantic compensating euphonium with its gigantic Elliott mouthpiece (bass trombone parts), and some other stuff on the compact Holton tuba.

One of the trumpet players was pretty green.

Don't you want to know what I ate when I got home?