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Tuba lesson
Learn about the tuba from an expert musician with the U.S. Marine Band. Includes daily exercises for breathing, relaxation, flexibility, tuning and more.
Want to join the conversation?
- How big is a tuba?(4 votes)
- The main tube of a B ♭ tuba is approximately 18 feet (5.5 m) long, while that of a C tuba is 16 feet (4.9 m), of an E ♭ tuba 13 feet (4.0 m), and of an F tuba 12 feet (3.7 m).(3 votes)
- How heavy is a tuba(4 votes)
- It depends on the brand/type of tuba. Regular tubas are usually 20-30 pounds, while marching tubas commonly range from 45-60 pounds(3 votes)
- How much does a tuba cost?(2 votes)
- The cost of a tuba varies depending on the type and model. Prices range from as little as $1,000 to up to $12,000. Here are some approximate price ranges:
Student tuba: $1,000 to $3,000
Intermediate and professional tubas: $5,000 to $8,000 or more(1 vote)
Video transcript
("First Suite in E-Flat for
Military Band" by Gustav Holst) - I grew listening to
recordings of this band, all throughout middle
school and high school and I then saw that there was an opening in my final year of grad school and I knew that I had
to take the audition. ("First Suite in E-Flat for
Military Band" by Gustav Holst) Usually my warmup begins inside
of my lovely D.C. commute with my mouthpiece in my
car and usually, hopefully, if the traffic is good, it's
no longer than 15 minutes. If it's really bad then I give myself in a nice 30 minute
mouthpiece buzzing routine in the morning and I don't really do very, I don't do anything necessarily, descript inside of my buzzing. I usually just go for
creating a nice relaxed sound and ease of breath. (buzzing) I do lots of sirens like
that, just glisses up and down and then I'll go to maybe a few arpeggios. (buzzing) Still with a gliss and then
inside of my car trying to be as relaxed as I can, taking in the breath, letting
the breath come back out. Again, with ease and creating
a nice resonant sound. In the mouth piece there
are many different schools of thought, of how you
should buzz your mouthpiece. I think at the end of
the day it should always be the most easy and best
sound you can create. And then when I come into
work and I pick up my tuba, I usually start in the
middle to low register and I'll probably liken this
to stretching for a dance, or you know, any other athlete. And I just do, kind of again, very similar to what I was doing in the mouthpiece. (soft tuba music) And I'll do that a few times. (soft tuba music) And the point of doing that
is going through, and I slur, I try to do it across all the
registers of my instrument so I can feel where the
tightness is in my playing. Again, in the same way
that if I were an athlete. In another way I try to, okay
great, this part of my body is feelin' a little bit of tightness and I need to actually work on
getting that out before I go to play my instrument. I'll do that a few more
times and expand the range. (soft tuba music) And then after I do that, usually, depending on the morning,
it can take me more time than I would like just to
get that feeling of looseness and relaxation inside both
my body and my embouchure. I'll go on to probably
a few more exercises but the same idea. (soft tuba music) I repeat a lot of things
over and over again. So my warmup for me is
usually pretty basic because I like repeating
things so I can, I guess, use that as a metric for whether
or not I'm actually loose or too tight, or, on tour for example, my warmup changes from how it is now. This time of the year I'm not
always playing band concerts, whereas on tour it's a concert every night so my face usually is
a little bit tighter, so I change it. I play lots more things
in the pedal register. I guess, my overall point is I think that warmups are a very personal thing and they should depend and change based on what your playing is and where you are. ("First Suite in E-Flat for
Military Band" by Gustav Holst) I've actually had concerts where after the concert
someone comes up and goes, "What are you doing with your
slide so much, I didn't know, "you're not playing the trombone, "why are you moving your slide so much?" When I was in high school I
didn't move my slides very much then as I got into
undergrad and grad school, my teachers pointed out that
technically trumpet players they always are manipulating
the third slide. We kind of don't have to do that because we have a fourth valve,
and tuba players know this but when it comes to the first valve. (soft tuba music) You can manipulate that quite a bit. And depending on the
register and the range, say for example, on this instrument, it will be always dependent
on the instrument, this note here. (soft tuba music) I have to pull it out of
the note and be very sharp. (soft tuba music) I have to pull it out quite a bit. ("Masquerade" by Vincent Persichetti)