Posted by Sean Chisham on January 02, 2002 at 20:04:31:
Just giving a plug for Roger Bobo's book, Mastering the Tuba, Book 1 from Editions BMI. I got it as a Christmas present and love it. It has 109 pages divided into over 20 sections. Each section addresses a specific technique such as breath control, intonation, articulation, flexibility, vibrato, lip trills, clarity, basic warmup, etc.
He gives a couple of paragraphs before each exercise explaining the goal and direction to take the etudes. A lot of time is spent on getting an evenness of sound throughout the line. All of the exercises are ingeniously simple to understand and incredibly effective. Most are a type of theme and variation. Each variation adds a bit of a twist to work through a different weakness. He has you play each exercise chromatically through all keys. This is yet another example of driving home the idea of evenness throughout the horn.
Almost the entire book is in treble clef, so keep that in mind. He recommends each instrument transpose so that the written C sounds the fundemental of the instrument. I.E. CC tubas play the exercises in C, while F tubas should sound an F when reading the C in the treble clef. This is to keep you in the same relative partials. Many of the studies are fingering dependent as he has you work through the long valve combinations such as using the 4th and 5th and 6th valves.
A sign of a great teacher, in my opinion, is being able to most clearly communicate instructions, demonstrate effectivelly how it should be, and make as simple as possible the means to get there. This book is an excellent example of this philosophy. Very concise.
Page for page, this is now my very favorite technical study book. I can't wait for the next two installments in the Bobo trilogy of wisdom.
sean