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Tuba and Euphonium
Technique
As a younger student (I consider myself an older student now) I was
amazingly fortunate to be able to work with some knowledgeable and
exceptionally effective teachers/mentors: Charles Aiken, my final high
school band director; the late David Randolph at the University of
Georgia; Mark Lusk at Penn State; and Fritz Kaenzig at the University of
Michigan. I was able to pull ideas, systems, beliefs, and truths from
each one of them and meld all that into my own teaching and performing.
About 14-15 years ago I spent some time analyzing what I do, how I do it,
and why I do it that way—this was in both my teaching and performing. The
analysis of my teaching resulted in a system for developing technique
based upon the idea of delineation. As performers we are the ultimo-multitaskers,
we have to do so many different things simultaneously, it would make most
CEO’s head spin. In order to effectively work on the development of
technique, we need to be able to identify the components of technique and
work on them as independently as possible. Sound/timbre development is a
separate issue from this, and in the following ideas I don’t address
those in any particular way, except to say all of these exercises should
be performed with one’s best sound, all of the time. If it doesn’t sound
good, then why bother……..
The following link contains the opening from the book that I have put
together, explaining these concepts in a more formal manner:
Introduction to Tuba and Euphonium
Technique
Articles
Developing Sight-Reading Skills
Practicing
Practice Blue-Print
Suggested Materials
Orchestral Excerpts for Tuba
Euphonium Excerpts |
