Posted by Tim Cary on December 18, 2001 at 12:33:16:
The band that I perform with invites local high school band members to sit in at the first rehearsal of a concert cycle and read through the folio with us. The purpose of this is to show young players that there is a musical life after high school and to hopefully let them pick up tips from more experienced players. It seems that on every second or third cycle, we get a local HS tuba player whose entire musical understanding of tuba playing is LOUD. Not just some of the time, all of the time. When the overall dynamic of the band increases, the playing just gets louder, with little regard to tone quality and pitch center. That coupled with improper tongueing technique and fundamental lack of knowledge of proper articulation on accents, staccato, legato, etc., makes for some real ugly playing. Now granted, much of that is not entirely their problem; many have not worked with private instructors and some have music teachers/band directors who are equally clueless (I am not bashing teachers in general, it just seems as there are some out there may not be well suited to teaching instrumentalists). Whenever I work with a young player for the first time, it seems as though they try to impress me with volume, no matter what the resulting tone color will be. The first few lessons always end end being legato etudes and soft etudes; these seem to help with teaching proper articulation and breath support. Just what is the fascination with young tuba and low brass players to play so load that the only purpose is to see how many decibels can be produced?