Posted by Rick Denney on March 15, 2002 at 11:52:45:
In Reply to: What's on your stand? posted by Kenneth Sloan on March 15, 2002 at 00:54:04:
Well, let's see. I have Air and Bourree, a perennial practice-room music stand resident, which I use to see where I am after I warm up. My copy is old and yellowed, and shows the measure numbers I marked on it when I played it at solo contest in the 10th grade. I don't particularly like it, but it does what I need it to do.
There are lip slurs and other exercises given to me by my teacher, which I work on every time I practice, in addition to some buzzing exercises which I still can't do. Two other stand residents go with these: a metronome and a tuner.
I usually keep several of the Little transcriptions of Marcello suites. Number 5 and Number 1 get looked at most frequently.
I usually hit a few of the low parts on some excerpts that I'll never get to play outside my practice room, such as Pictures and one or two of the Prokofiev symphonies. Berlioz from time to time, when I really need a reality check. If I have a whole evening to play the tuba (meaning wife is not at home), and I don't want to fry my chops too soon, I'll crank up a CD of perhaps the Prok 5, and play along. That exercise is the best argument for a remote control for my CD player I've been able to concoct.
One thing I've been doing lately to help get my F tuba chops back in shape is reading through the Sear Advanced Duets. I play the upper part on F and the lower part on Bb, each in turn. Going back and forth like that is good for the brain.
Beyond these staples, there are about 500 things within reach that I might grab and look at, on a lark. The, er, stuff from James Grant is always within reach. Also, I'll look at whatever band or quintet music has me challenged at the moment.
One of these days, I'll put on a recital of all this stuff. "Tuba Music for Beginners, played badly by an Engineer" will be the title. It should be quite entertaining, in a Florence Foster Jenkins sort of way.
But lately I've been practicing not at all. Work, moving to a new house, a big and unexpected proposal effort, more than my usual share of business travel, and a surprise family illness have all conspired to extinguish any progress I'd made over the last year or so. Oh, well.
Rick "whose tubas are still in the car after Tuesday's band rehearsal" Denney