Re: Levels of Playing


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Posted by Chris B on November 29, 2002 at 15:18:51:

In Reply to: Levels of Playing posted by Collin on November 23, 2002 at 19:18:35:

I reading all the responses I noticed that no one mentioned a great resource (well, at least in my opinion). GO out and invest in the book "Song and Wind" and the CD "Portrait of an Artist", both by and about Arnold Jacobs. Then read, listen and believe in what he did and said. This will give you some fresh insight into playing, instruments, mouthpieces, etc. As mentioned in the book, Jacobs would frequently take a student's horn and play it sounding just as great as he did with his own horn.

If you then have the mone to spend on some of his breathing devices, go for it.

It seems there are definitely two schools of thought, that of technique and that of tone being the determining factor in what constitutes a "great" tuba player. Seems to me like Jacobs solved the problem by having both :)

As a vocalist and tubaist, I agree with his ideas about things like solfeggio and "singing" throught the tuba. I am fortuate enough to have a vocal range that is comatible with the tuba (I sing second bass) so it si often easy for me to sing my part. It really does help. Listening to other great players also gives one a sense of what can happen and what a good soudn really is. Recordings of othe bras instruments are jsut as valuable. Dennis Brain's recordings of the Mozart and Strauss concertos are lessons in musicianship.

Hope some os these thoughts help in you development. I guess I was always blessed with a lot of natural ability but it tool me a while to really dig in and augment that with some good old hard work to achieve what I wanted. Even at that, after my Masters' recital I came to realise that I could be a very good, but never a great tuba player.


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