Tuba Methods

Inspired by the mundane ritual of practicing standard orchestral excerpt lists, these 15 etudes present a new twist for the auditioning tuba player. The etudes will promote orchestral audition success by allowing the performer to practice techniques (articulations, rhythm, breath support, etc.) needed for a successful audition without having to practice the actual excerpts. Of course to win that audition, one must practice the actual excerpts as well. Good luck!

Herbert Lincoln Clarke was among the foremost cornet soloists and brass pedagogues of the latter 19th and early to mid-20th centuries and was, as well, a noted band conductor.  Born in Massachusetts in 1867, Clarke began his musical life as a violinist under the tutelage of his father.  He learned to play the cornet in his early teens and therein found his destiny.  He was soloist with numerous bands, but most notably with the famous bands of Patrick Gilmore and John Philip Sousa.  Clarke spent the last twenty years of his career as conductor of the Long Beach Municipal Band, one of the premier bands of that time period.  His students include the noted trumpet players and teachers Ernest Williams and Claude Gordon who themselves produced subsequent influential brass pedagogy materials.

The Technical Studies for Cornet (first published in 1912 and presented here as Technical Studies for Euphonium (Trombone) and Tuba) are but one of several pedagogical resources assembled by Mr. Clarke.  His elementary studies and characteristic studies are fine works, however, the technical studies are probably among the most widely used etudes of all time in brass pedagogy, perhaps second only to the method of the famous Jean Baptiste Arban.

For more information about Herbert L. Clarke, his life, performances, and pedagogy, visit the following website:

http://www.library.uiuc.edu/sousa

We also recommend a comprehensive doctoral dissertation on Clarke’s life written by Dr. James Madeja, titled “The Life and Work of Herbert L. Clarke.”  Consult your local librarian for information on obtaining this important research work.

Although etudes, there are just three pieces in this set and they are more like extended unaccompanied works. Good for High School and beyond. The pieces are:

Overture for One (In Classic Style)

Fair and Warmer

Capriccio

GOOD LIPS: Warm-ups, Daily Routines, and Etudes for Brass Players (tuba version)

This book is born out of my experience teaching economically disadvantaged folk and wanting there to be a better way of getting my students materials than stealing the work of my colleagues by making photocopies of singular exercises out of books. We, as teachers and students, have all had books that were 50-300 pages long that we would like our students to own, but do not ask them to purchase because they might only use 3-20 pages. My students, generally, cannot afford to buy every book and musicians cannot afford to give away their work for free. This book is not meant to be exhaustive or original in content. It is meant to meant to be a survey of some of the work needed to become one of “the world’s best,” meant to inspire a student to purchase books that are more in depth on the concepts presented, and most of all, meant to give a student one book that touches on most skills needed in the western art aesthetic.