Warming up on... tuba?

Gorkk · Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2003 5:44 pm Post subject:

Last week sometime, there was a pep band game at school and I decided to play Sousaphone with my brother. I was trying to save my trumpet chops for a weekend festival that we were in the middle of. Anyway, I played quite a bit, and at the end my lips felt like silly putty!

Well, after this hour or so of tuba playing, I decided to see how my chops felt on back on my trumpet. Though I was quite drained from the tuba playing, my trumpet tone was excellent and my flexability felt top-notch. So... I was wondering if anyone out there (perhaps a low brass doubler) has had similar experience and whether anyone finds any merit in playing for a little while on a larger brass instrument as a warm up. Any insights would be appreciated (though incoherent babble is dandy as well).

Until we meet again,
~Nick "Sousa, Sousa Man!" Wondra

Strawdoggy · Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2003 4:16 am Post subject:

Nick,

I have had the same experience. I am a band director and often play along with the kids. I have found that playing baritone horn or trombone during the day often does a good job of warming me up for an evening gig. As long as I don't play all day.

Another experience has been that playing a good deal of french horn during the day helps get my chops "focused", but I have to loosen them up before I do any trumpet playing on a gig.

Steve

BADBOY-DON · Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2003 6:29 am Post subject:

The late Jim Crowder, a world class tuba player here in the Seattle area felt exactly the same way. His trumpet playing was enhanced by his Tuba playing and visa--versa'and Maynard is also a very accomplished valve trombone player and often made the remark how the bone...brings back the blood flow and moves the lactic' acid away from the choppers in a hurry:)
Even this old badboy, has an old old old
Lyon & Healy "Chicago" valve trombone that seems to give my trumpet choppers a badly needed maaasaaaazzzzze-n'-rest. However the old L&H bone is in very bad condition and is in need of some valve work according to Dan Oberloh which bye the way, will not improve the quality of the sound due to the basic design of this valve trombone. This old bone sarificed sound...when it was designed to "sit flat on its Bell" which made for some pretty amazing bunch of coiled brass tubing necessary. Because of this and the bad valves, it plays pretty stuffy and requires lots of correction for intonation problems...
Ha!
all this extra drivil totally unrelated but I feel betta- Thanks!
Still, resting the chops, as much as you play is still the very important bottom line:

trumpetjunkie · Heavyweight Member Joined: 07 Jan 2003 Posts: 622

I play trumpet and tuba as well. Just don't try to play both at the same gig without sufficient time to re-coop.

~Kaleb

Strawdoggy · Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2003 9:25 am Post subject:

I didn't want to get off-topic, but I wanted to add one more thing...

About 10? years ago there was an ITG article by Edwin Tarr entitled "Why I, a Trumpet Player, Play the Horn" (or something like that). He spoke about control issues. (French Horn)

[ This Message was edited by: strawdoggy on 2003-02-06 12:26 ]

Pops · Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2003 9:45 am Post subject:

[ This Message was edited by: Pops on 2003-05-13 13:37 ]

musicmonkey · Veteran Member Joined: 01 Jan 2002 Posts: 344

I think part of it (I also play tuba and trumpet) is that the tuba gets your lips buzzing, without working the muscles needed for trumpet practice (this works both ways). Also, tuba requires A LOT of air so you are taking big breaths and probably naturall transfer that over to the trumpet.

mm

Gorkk · Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2003 4:54 pm Post subject:

Okay, so here's another question...

How long would you say is sufficient "re-coup time" between playing tuba and going to trumpet? For example, tomorrow morning my jazz band is going to a festival where I have to play a few quasi-scream charts. If I were to do a little warming up on tuba an hour or two before I had to play, would that be enough time? I'd assume so, or perhaps even too much time... maybe I'll play tuba a few hours before, then about a half hour or so before playing, ask the bass trombone player (concequently my twin brother) if I could play his trombone for a little bit... Any input?

Merci Beucoup!
~Nick

musicmonkey · Veteran Member Joined: 01 Jan 2002 Posts: 344

I don't think you need much time at all between instruments. At least that has been my experience. I suppose it would be good to have a little time to get the lips adjusted to the smaller mpc, but other than that I see no reason for taking time between preforming on the two instruments.

mm