Practice
Regular practice is important for musicians of all types. Simply practicing on a regular basis is not enough, however. Practice needs to be taken seriously and carefully planned to achieve meaningful results. Here is some general advice regarding effective practice that you can share with your students:
- Take at least five minutes to buzz on the mouthpiece every day. This trains the lips to focus on correct pitch and tone production without the complication of holding the instrument and worrying about fingering positions.
- Work smarter, not harder. Don't practice an entire piece of music if only one section of it needs practice.
- Always use a metronome!
- Practice good tone quality and intonation as much as rhythm and technique.
- Clear your mind of non-musical distractions, especially negative feelings.
- Set goals for your practice.
- Give yourself more time than you expect to need for practice. Practicing when you feel under pressure to get more done than you can causes stress that will make it hard to concentrate.
- Most importantly, play every note as if you are performing it. People perform the way they practice, so you will sound like you are practicing on stage if you never sound like you are on stage in your practice room.
The Practice Session
A good practice session should include several parts:
A physical warm-up such as the Breathing Gym (as described on the Making a Sound page) consists of a stretch, a therapy (exercise), and a flow to improve strength, capacity, and air stream control.
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Mouthpiece buzzing: Unless you can buzz the correct pitches on the mouthpiece, you cannot have true control over the pitches you play on the instrument. Buzzing scales, arpeggios, and interval studies develops the player's control and flexibility. Playing familiar tunes like "Mary Had a Little Lamb" or "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" helps improve pitch accuracy. Hold the mouthpiece by the shank with as little pressure against the lips as possible. Aim for a noisy, "metallic" buzz.
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Long tones and slow playing on the tuba help develop the tone and build embouchure strength. Be sure to include dynamics to improve pitch accuracy at various dynamic levels. Focus on achieving a pure, centered sound. The staff below contains one example of a long tone exercise.
Interval studies like the one below develop pitch accuracy when practiced slowly on the tuba. As the player progresses, the speed and complexity of the exercises can increase.
Scale studies and arpeggios in all keys develop the technical facility to play all kinds of music. Scales and arpeggios are the building blocks of most compositions.
Technique, rhythm, and articulation studies in various meters to improve response and sight-reading capabilities. These should be challenging, but they should be learned at extremely slow tempos at first. Perfect accuracy is the priority. Skills increase through repetition and the tempo can be sped up gradually so that even the more difficult passages sound effortless. This example is in 4/4 meter, but a variety of meters should be encountered on a regular basis.
Every practice session should include lyrical, expressive etudes. These are the heart and soul of music, challenging the player to greater heights of artistic expression. These etudes do not need to be last in the practice session, but they should be played every day.
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