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Norlan Bewley's TUBA Tips for TUBA students

 

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TUBA TIPS FOR PLAYERS & STUDENTS - From NorlanBewley.com
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"Learn To Practice – Step 3: Tuba Rhythm Fingerings"

Now that you know the rhythm and the fingerings, you are going to practice putting them together. You are going to teach the rhythm to your fingerings so you can do the right fingering at the right time. This sounds very simple, but it is harder to do than it looks.

To do rhythm fingerings, say Tah, Too, or Toh out loud while you do to the correct fingerings IN RHYTHM. You must say Tah, Too, or Toh out loud. This is a timing and coordination exercise, so you must say Tah, Too, or Toh out loud to tell if you are matching them and your fingerings to the rhythm. Use a slow tempo at first so you have more time to think and keep the rhythm correct. Try this musical example:

tuba music

This sounds easy, but it is not. If you have trouble with this, it is perfectly normal at first. Remember when you learned to ride a bike? Looks easy, but it takes coordination and skill that must be developed. So does this. Keep doing the rhythm fingerings and your timing and coordination will get better and better. Use it on all of your music so that you begin to master the valves.

As you get better at rhythm fingerings, you will begin to notice that your fingers seem to know where to go automatically as you read the notes and say Tah, Too, or Toh. This is your goal! You want to build your tuba reflexes so that when you read a note your fingers automatically do the correct fingering IN RHYTHM.

This will make it much easier to play the notes since your fingers will know where to go, allowing you to focus more on playing the notes with a great sound. It is hard to play the notes when you are struggling with your fingerings. Do rhythm fingerings all the time until you get really good at them. As you progress, you will only use them for difficult spots in your music.

Copyright Norlan Bewley 1999

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