Getchell #90 - Tuba Lesson

I'm starting to speak now. Alright, here's number 90 out of Getschel's second book of practical studies for tuba. Let's look at the first four measures, the first phrase together. So, we have this thing, or we have this maestoso. And those are the five flats in the key signature. Okay, we're in B-flat minor. We're going to go to the D-flat major in the next section in the Allegro. Right now, B-flat minor. Don't forget your high D-flat, second valve. Your G-flat, two and three. Your D-flats below the staff, two and three as well. Let's play this a little slower than the tempo a couple of times. Then talk about it. One, two. Okay, so the big thing that you need is a huge sound at the beginning. Maestoso, everything sounds real big, real tall and open. The notes are almost really kind of accented. I'm helping that style and that feel by breathing on those ties. Bom, bom, bom. Beep, beep, bom. Then right here. Before the legato, you have to take a huge breath. Because even though you're playing quietly there, you have to play smooth and connected. Which is going to take way more air than what you just used even playing loud. Bom, bom, bom. So you've got to really tank up there on that rest. Don't ever feel, when you get a good chance to breathe, feel rushed along, okay? Let's play that one more time. One and two and. Bom, bom, bom. Notice how contrasting the first two measures versus the second two measures. We have kind of this bright, loud sound. lots of articulation, almost hammered. And then you have the legato, very smooth, piano, very dark tone. Okay? So make that contrast happen. That's how you get good points. Okay, let's look at the next four measures. We have some more of this kind of loud maestoso kind of style. One, two... So right there, what I'm doing, I'm kind of smoothing it out near the end of that phrase in anticipation for the next phrase, which is going to be a lot more legato. I'm going to kind of play a little softer to help the line as it stays legato. So let's play that again. Remember all of our accidentals, G-flats. Don't forget those G-flats and D-flats. Second vowel, low D-flat, two, three. Play that again and make sure that we diminuendo towards the end of that phrase and get that warm, dark sound too. Here we go. One, two... So some good places to breathe in there. So anytime you get that tie over, be sure and breathe. Whenever you get a dotted rhythm, it's a good time to take a little sneaky breath. I like to leave a little gap of space in my dotted rhythms when I play the tuba because the tuba can be kind of muddy. And when you're especially moving on a stage or in a big room, you want to be sure that you hear all the details, especially the little notes. If you have a dotted eighth note followed by a sixteenth note, you want to help that sixteenth note kind of stick out by taking that little sippy breath and leaving that space. That really helps your style. All right, let's look at the next four bars. A little smoother. One and two... Notice the breath I took before the run of the sixteenth notes. I took a big old honking breath there. If I didn't, I'm sure I ran out and broken one of those slurs. Let's try that again. Keep the sound real smooth to reflect all those slurs. Use the dotted notes to sneak in breaths and take a good big breath before the sixteenth notes there. That'll really help you figure out the legato line as the phrase continues in the second half. One, two... There we go. Make sure part of that dark sound too is you can do those notes like C, D flat, B flat, stuff below the staff. You really open it up, drop your jaw and get that really warm dark sound. Keep the top of your throat and your mouth open like you burnt your mouth on hot pizza or something. It'll help you blow real foggy warm air and the warmer the air, the warmer the sound. Okay, let's look at the next four bars. One, two... So what this section does is it calls back to some of the previous ideas and helps us end on the D flat in anticipation for the new sound that we get the Allegro in the key of D flat now instead of B flat minor. Even though they have the same key signature, B flat minor and D flat major, two different sounds. So that last little bit of that phrase helps us find that key of D flat. Let's play that one more time. One, two, three... Notice the good breath I take after the long notes and notice the detail of the 16th notes sticking out really cleanly, helping the sound of the phrase and the music there. Okay, so we get to the next part, Allegro. So Allegro fast. Okay, so it's going to be quick. Now it can't be so quick that it's messy. There's two tips I can give you for playing cleanly and lightly on a tuba to keep it from getting messy. One is lighten the tongue a lot more than you think. Don't get so thuddy. We don't want that. Like really tip of your tongue kind of thing. And also think about the wind moving in between the notes too. The tongue is just there to interrupt the air. Unless you have a steady, strong stream of air behind the tongue, it's going to get weighed down. Think about the tongue being knocked down by the air as opposed to you moving the tongue. Just the tiniest tip of the tongue to help keep it clean and the wind behind the tongue blows the tongue down. All right, here we go. Let's play a set up for this Allegro. One, two, three... Two things there. It's a really simple repetitive lick, but notice the dynamic mezzo forte. I'm going to start a little softer than that because we have this nice crescendo in there, the B accent, and the forte at the end. So we want to start softer and crescendo louder to make that dynamic change more present and a lot more audible to the listener. Let's play that one more time. One, two, three... All right, let's look at the next four measures. We have this kind of triplet rolling meter thing. So the trick to hear is you want to hear all 12 of those triplet subdivisions. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Every single measure and make sure that you're not rushing through that. And to do that, what I want to do is I'm going to play it a couple times slowly and count it off in 12. Then the last time I will play it kind of feeling each three beats in one. So feeling it in four as opposed to 12. Let's play these four measures slowly. I'll count the 12 first so you can hear all 12 subdivisions. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. What people like to go wrong is they don't hold that quarter note for all three of the triplet divisions that they've been used to hearing. Let's count it off again in 12 and really hear all three of those divisions inside of that quarter note. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. And now at a quicker tempo. One, two, triplet. Good singing accent on that last note too. Let's look at the next four measures. Same kind of thing. Watch out for the accidentals that carry through the measure. Don't mess those up. Let's count this one off slowly in 12 too so we can keep the rhythm really good. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. All right, let's do that again and pay extra attention to the Let's get a good lift. So what a lift is like the last slurred note of a group. I kind of like have this little kind of like shortening of the note but it's kind of a rounding. So the open on my the back of my throat is still really open like you're going like that. One more time in 12. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. All right, a little faster. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. All right, a little full tempo now. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. Always be sure to play things that are very technical in nature slowly more than you play them at tempo. It will help retain the muscle memory of your technique. So for instance, if you're about to go into an audition, make sure that you play, you know, slowly three or four times versus trying it at tempo one time. All right, let's look at the final one, two, three, four measures plus the pickup, the three notes that pick up into it. Watch out for the accents. Make sure they have a good strong beginning, a bit of space between them. Really hit them like a ball-ping hammer. Here we go. One. Let's do it in twelve. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Oh, I got to come in at one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. So that is the key to that one, number 90. Be sure you don't play too fast and not play clean in the Allegro. Make sure that you're playing with rhythmic integrity, that you can feel that triplet subdivision for everything that you play in that section. And then in the beginning, make sure that you have good contrast of style when it calls for that. And that's it.