Brass Band Logo

NJH Music Logo

Some of the contents of the pages on this site are Copyright © 2016 NJH Music
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Symphonic Sound

Hilary Mateer wrote:

> Can someone tell me how to play a tuba symphonically?
> I have never played in an orchestra and was not aware of a different > way of playing the instrument. 

The "symphonic" style of playing the tuba, (or any other brass
instrument) is merely playing with a clear and unrestricted sound. Try
to visualise (audialise) :) the sound of a note through its "vowel"
shape ie. "ooh". Add the tongue to the front of the note, thereby adding
a consonant and you get "Tooh" or "Dooh". 
Brass bands (even those at the very top) tend to play with a more
restricted (or interrupted) airflow. What you will hear is more of a
"Twaah" or a "Dwaah" sound.
You may have heard orhestral players criticize brass bands for
constantly playing "behind the beat". This (IMHO) is not actually the
case, the articulation is probably spot on, but because of the added
consonant "w", the projection of the note is delayed.
The cause is possibly a lack of air column support forcing the player to
"close up" after the initial articulation, but I feel that this is a
learned behaviour passed on by generations of well-meaning but often not
particularly well instructed teachers, upon whom the brass band has had
to rely upon for years to train their youngsters.
So really, the brass band style of playing the tuba is more down to a
lack of discipline than a recognised method.

> I play a BBb Bass in a Brass Band and a Wind
> Band and the only differences I was aware of was that :-
> 1) The Music is scored in Bass clef in a wind band instead of Treble
> 2) We only have 2 tubas in a wind band instead of 4 (maybe thats all > we can get)
> 3) The wind band sound is much more open than brass band which means I
> can actually hear what I am playing
> Maybe I am missing someting essential! Can someone please enlighten > me.
> 
> If orchestras do not use BBb or EEb Basses what pitch are they?

What Matt said about Eb tubas not being used is probably correct for The
States and Canada, but in the UK, for some reason the EEb is probably
still the most widely used. Only for the largest works would the tuba
player use a big horn like a CC and even then many still stick to the
EEb. 
Personally, I use a 4/4 size CC tuba most of the time and switch to my
6/4 CC for the really big stuff. For solo work, nothing beats the EEb.

This is only my opinion, and I would be keen to read other teachers'
views on this. Hope it helps, anyway.
Cheers,
Adrian.


--
unsubscribe or receive the list in digest form, mail a message of 'help' to
listserver@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Services] [Contact Us] [Advertise with us] [About] [Tell a friend about us] [Copyright © 2016 NJH Music]