Euphonium & Tuba Lesson 1.1 Assembly, Hand Position and Posture

Hey cadets, today we're going to talk about tuba and euphonium assembly, hand placement, and proper posture. So I'm going to demonstrate how to take the instrument out of the case and assemble it. The tuba and the euphonium are both really similar as far as how you take it out of the case and put the mouthpiece in and all that kind of stuff. So I'm just going to demonstrate it on the euphonium. What you want to do is make sure that you lay the case down on a flat surface. I have mine on the floor. That's actually probably the easiest because you're not going to be able to find a table probably big enough to hold the tuba or euphonium. I mean, you probably can, but it's a lot easier just to kind of set it on the floor. It's not going to do any harm and that way there's really no risk of it falling because it's on the floor already. So what you want to do is there's clips and latches on the case. Make sure that first your case is on the right side, the bottom is down, and I always check and make sure that the handle is at the bottom part of the case. You see how there's kind of this line here? It should be on the bottom. And the brand name of the instrument, mine's a Yamaha, so it says Yamaha on the top of the case. That's also another good sign that your instrument's in the right spot. So you want to clip or unclip these latches and this one flips up and the other one down here is the exact same way. It all depends on your case and your instrument, your brand, and all that kind of stuff. Then what you want to do is open the case and you want to take your, I always take my left hand. What's nice about brass instruments as opposed to woodwind instruments is that you can kind of put your hand anywhere on the instrument and it'll be okay to pick it up there. So you want to take your left hand. I always take my left hand just because then if I want to, you know, or you can take your right hand. It doesn't really matter, but your left hand is the hand that's going to be on this part of the instrument anyway. So just take the instrument out and then immediately grab it with your right hand because it's really hard to just kind of pick it up with one hand. So I always just, I use it just to lift up, grab my right hand, and grab the instrument out. You see with my instrument, I'll explain this valve a little bit later, but I have an extra valve here and I have a little clip over it and just take that, undo that, and the valve just pops right back up. All the other valves are going to be just normal. Now take your mouthpiece, which I keep in this little slot over here. Take my mouthpiece out and then you simply place it into the part of the, the obvious place where the mouthpiece goes on the instrument. And then I give it a little twist just so that it doesn't fall out. But you, there's this really cool sound that a lot of middle schoolers like to make with their instrument and that's, you do not want to do that. Every band director, every lessons instructor will tell you do not do that because what will happen is the mouthpiece will get stuck. And if your mouthpiece does get stuck, you do not want to take any kind of tools to this instrument unless they are meant to take a mouthpiece off. Don't have your dad, don't have your mom, don't have anybody take a tool to your instrument. Bring it straight to your band director and have them do it because they know what they're doing. They will probably not damage the instrument if one of your parents or whoever you know have, you have around, if you try to take a tool to this and you don't know what you're doing, you might screw something up. So just make sure that you're doing everything right. So yeah, that's how you put together the instrument. It's really easy. There's, you know, just stick the mouthpiece in, make sure you're holding it right. Not much to it. So now that you have everything set up, we are going to talk about how to properly hold the phonium, where you're supposed to put your hands, all that kind of stuff. So you want to make sure that one, you're sitting up straight and that your back isn't hunched over or sitting up with your back kind of behind the chair. Make sure you're just kind of, what I was always told is to sit as if you're standing. So just kind of make sure that your shoulders are, you know, not like this, just kind of relaxed, but still, you know, your body's still erect while you're sitting in the chair. You want to take the instrument, you'd want to take your left hand, your right hand, and just sort of bring the instrument to you. You don't want to, a lot of people, and I had this problem for a long time, and that's sitting the instrument on your knee and then doing one of these and kind of going to the instrument. If you're shorter, that's probably going to be your first instinct, but you still want to make sure that you're bringing the instrument to you, not going to it. So make sure that you take your left hand and sort of cradle the instrument. My instrument is what's called a compensating euphonium, which means that it has an additional valve and it's actually down here. You'll see a lot of other euphoniums that have a fourth valve, but it's up here, mine is down here. So what I want to do is make sure that my left hand is over that valve. My index finger is the finger that actually pushes that valve, and the only thing that that does is it opens up another system of, it's really complicated, it's something you don't really have to worry about, but it opens up another set of tubes, which helps bring out some of the lower notes and make those more in tune, and it replaces the fingering 1 and 3, which, don't worry about that for now, you're going to probably be learning the 1 and 3 for a C for a long time until you become kind of a more developed and more experienced player. So my left hand is over the additional valve, or if you don't have one of those, just sort of cradling the instrument like it's a baby. You want to make sure that your right hand is over the valves. So I was told to make sure your hand is kind of like a C, and you want to just, you take the fleshy part of your hand and you put it right here where this bar is. Your instrument might not have that, it might just have a ring where you put your thumb in. You might want to talk to your band director or your private instructor and just kind of see where they think you should put your hand. For me, since this is the kind of instrument that I have, I'm this part, my thumb underneath, and my index fingers will go on top of the valve caps. Now, you want to make sure that your hand, like I said, is kind of shaped like a C. You don't want to play like this. A lot of people make that mistake where they play like this, and what that can do, it can do a number of things. It can bend the valves if you're not doing it right, and it kind of slows you down when you start playing faster music, and it's just, it's just bad technique. Make sure that your, the fleshy part of your fingers is actually what's on the valve cap. Don't, you don't want to be like this, because that too is just, it kind of hurts your hands, and it's just, it's not right. So yeah, fleshy part of your fingers over the valve caps, thumb underneath, palm on this bar right here, left hand over here, and then you want to bring the instrument to your face just like this, and now your bell is going to be kind of angled off to the side. You don't want to angle it forward or behind you, because that's, that's just, it's uncomfortable. It's going to kind of make it so you have a, it's going to give you, have a harder time making a good sound from your lungs, because if you're hunched over trying to get the sound out there, it's not going to, it's just not going to sound good. So yeah, make sure that you're, you're comfortable. That's a really important thing, and like I said, every euphonium baritone is different, so you, it might be a little bit different with the one you're playing on, so you're going to want to probably talk to your private lessons instructor or your band director in addition to watching these videos. Now the tuba is going to have a little bit of a different posture with it, similar to the euphonium, but it's a much larger instrument, and this, the way that you hold the instrument completely depends on the type of tuba, the size of the tuba, and your height in relation to the instrument. So if you're kind of a shorter player, a shorter, you know, you're, you're probably, you're, you're probably in elementary, middle school, so you're not going to be as tall as me. When I first started playing tuba, I actually used what's called a tuba stand. You might have one in your band room, that's something you'll want to talk to your band director about, or your private lessons instructor, and see what they think you should, what, what you should be using in order to get to the instrument and make, get the best sound out of the instrument. For me, I like to play with the tuba on the chair. Some people are a bit taller than me, so they can just rest it on their knee. So I'll show you how I hold it. Now this tuba, it's probably going to look different than the tuba you're playing on. You might be playing on a smaller tuba. This is a full-size tuba with rotary valves, as opposed to piston valves, which are the valves that I showed you on the euphonium, that are straight up and down. These ones look more similar to a French horn. They're flatter. I'll show you. It all depends on what kind of tuba you have. This is a full-size rotary valve tuba. So now what I want to do, I try to make sure that there's a corner of the chair kind of sticking out. You probably can't see it very well in the video, but I promise you there's a corner of the chair sticking out. You rest the instrument between your legs, or if you're taller, you can probably set it on your knee. Just make sure that you can get to the mouthpiece without having a strain. So sit up straight, just like you would with the euphonium. Now with this one, this tuba, since it has the rotary valves over here, my hand is actually going to come around and just hold it like this while my left hand cradles, or actually my left hand will come over the instrument and kind of hold it there. But if you have a probably more common tuba, you'll hold it almost the same way as the euphonium, where your hand will go through the top, on top of the piston valves, just like you saw in the euphonium video. It all just depends on where you're actually holding it. So with this one, your fingers are going to go lay flat, a little bit different than on the euphonium, but still make sure that the fleshy part of your fingers are on the valves. You don't want to be doing this, and you don't want to be doing this. You want to make sure that it's your fingertips, or the bottom parts of your fingers are on the valves. So that was just a crash course on proper instrument handling, posture, hand placement, all that kind of stuff for the tuba and euphonium. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to ask your band director, your private lessons instructor, or email us at beginningbandbootcamp. at gmail.com. The address should be listed on the bottom of the video. Thank you for watching, and good luck practicing!