Tuba Prayer: “Lord, grant me air.”

I think I love the tuba. Maybe it’s because tuba’s a member of the wind instrument family, so clarinet and tuba are like fifth cousins, twice removed. The tuba was very satisfying to play, despite my obvious shortcomings. Brandon Larsen is responsible for placing this massive instrument of total domination in my lap. He was very knowledgeable, and very patient.

This week our video is in two parts: First I conquer the toilet bowl mouthpiece, and in the second video I take on every blessed inch of that tuba. Also, Twitter user @tubachic contributed two questions for this week’s interview.  @tubachic is ‘in the know’ about all the blog happenings, because she follows @TashinaLyn on Twitter.  *hint hint*

Hope you love the tuba as much as I do!

Interview

Tashina: When did you first start playing the tuba?

Brandon: See, I don’t have that typical 6^th grade story. I actually started out on the trombone, and I come from a really small town, and when I got into middle school, they didn’t have a trombone for me to rent.  And so they said, “Well, euphonium is about the same. Just learn the fingerings. You read in the same clef…”  So I started playing that, and when my 9^th grade year came along we didn’t have a tuba, so we were very top-heavy.  My band director challenged the flutes to play the tuba, because it takes about the same amount of air to play the tuba as it does the flute.  It’s just a lot of ‘open air.’  I volunteered, and nobody else volunteered, so he let me have it.  I thought I would just have to take everything down an octave, and I’d be fine.  But the tuba mouthpiece is like a toilet bowl.  It just takes up your whole mouth.  It took a lot of adjusting and getting used to.  After that, I started excelling at the tuba more than I did with any other instrument.  The rest is history! I came to Southern Utah University, got a scholarship, and here I am!

Tashina: Do you own a tuba?

Brandon: No, this tuba here is about $10,000. The school bought it for me, because I was majoring in music. It’s about 4 years old… and dirty, I need to clean it.  My senior recital is coming up too, it needs to be polished.  One day I want my own, and I want it to be all personalized.  You can have them with your name etched into them, and sandblasted, and just beautiful.  But that costs a lot of money, and I’m a poor college student.  So all I own is the mouthpiece.  This mouthpiece was about $120.

Tashina: Does the tuba have a height requirement?

Brandon: No, I’m 6’2”, and Tyician—who plays the tuba as well—is much shorter.  We noticed in brass studio the other day, that I have to put the tuba on my lap for it to reach my mouth, and he has to put it on the chair in order for it to reach his mouth.  So it’s that much difference, and you can make adjustments that way.  Also, they make tubas even smaller.  Student-sized tubas are pretty small, everything is compact, like a euphonium almost—it’s just a little bit bigger than a euphonium.  They make tubas in different sizes, so that different sized players can play them.

Tashina: When playing in ensembles, the tuba doesn't always get the most exciting parts.  What do you (or other tuba players) do to pass the time?

Brandon: Count.  That’s the official answer for any conductors who are reading the blog. I like to fill out 12-tone matrices! But in most ensembles, if I don’t play for 150 measures, then usually they give me a Trombone 3 part to cover or something like that.  So mostly I’m given parts to cover, and I’m switching parts and trying to fill in here, and fill in there, while I’m resting on the tuba part.  So that’s what I do a lot in orchestra.  In band, I rarely rest.  You’d be surprised by how many wind ensemble compositions have exciting tuba parts.  In the last 4 years, Dr. Stickney has picked a lot of stuff that has a tuba solo here or a tuba section soli there, or whatever, so it’s been pretty cool.

Tashina: One of my Twitter followers @tubachic, shared two interview questions for you as well:

What is one of the most uniquely challenging parts of playing the tuba, compared to other instruments?

Brandon: I think that it’s the size of the mouthpiece, and not only the size of the mouthpiece, but how involved your embrouchure is in getting pitch and things.  Not to say that the other instruments aren’t… but the trumpet just uses a small space on the lips, and the trombone and euphonium use a bit more, but with the tuba, you use almost your entire mouth to produce a sound.  There is so much more air that is used just to get a squeak or note out, let alone different dynamics and pitch levels.  I’ve had the opportunity to take brass methods and learn all these different instruments, and I noticed that there is a lot more embrouchure control that you need to have to be able to play the tuba.

Tashina: If you could impress one thing on a beginning tuba student, what would it be?

Brandon: More air. That’s the common tuba answer, and probably what we’re going to talk about throughout your lesson. More air, more air, more air. The thing with the tuba is, it can be an absolutely gorgeous instrument, and you can play solo music, and it can be very beautiful, if you use the right amount of air. And if you don’t, it sounds like you’re trying to strangle a duck… a very big duck.