On this post I hope to share a little of what I have learned throughout the years to others become better musicians.
“Putting Meat On Your Bones”
Proper playing on a wind instrument starts with breathing, and proper breathing starts with a strong diaphragm.
I learned the technique called “Puttin' Meat On Your Bones” from a tuba player and it was the single most important thing that I learned to create a powerful sound.
Here’s how you do it. Sit on the ground with your legs extended straight out in front of you.
Grab your instrument and start playing. A scale pattern, a full song. Whatever.
As you play start playing lean back until your back almost touches the ground.
Stay down there as long as you can before coming back up.
You will notice that as you lean back your volume will automatically increase.
Leaning back like this has the effect of forcing you to use your diaphragm when playing.
Keep doing this over and over until you can really feel your diaphragm upon standing up.
You’ll notice that when you stand up you won’t have to work as hard to produce a powerful tone.
I.e. you won’t have to puff your cheeks and yank your horn to be loud.
What do our other musicians have to share?
D. Rashad Watters
Founder, CEO
Block Band Music & Publishing, LLC
(919)-698-2560
BlockBandMusic@gmail.com
Block Band Music & Publishing…Providing Music, Equipment, and Accessories for Showstyle and Corpstyle Bands
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Replies
After graduating from college (Hampton U), I briefly marched with Carolina Gold drum and bugle corps. It was an experience that truly changed my life as it pertains to music and marching band in general.
Here's one of the things that I learned.
I have always been a powerful player. All through college I worked on long tones, and "putting meat on the bones" as I mentioned earlier. I played with the biggest mouthpiece I could get my hands on. A 1 1/2 or 1G which is basically a tuba mouthpiece made for trombone.
I always felt like my entire section depended on my power. Although I worked to maintain control and good tone quality, I always pushed to be louder than the rest of the section and other sections in the band. I know I'm speaking to a lot of people here.
When I marched corps I learned that my actions in band were largely counter-productive.
One the main things that we did was to line up the whole horn line in an arc. When the instructor gave the cue, we would all play a G, then an F, and a C major Chord. When the director gave the next cue we could each play any note that we wanted.
I pushed to generate as much sound as I could when we were allowed to play any note we wanted but it felt like no matter how loud I played, my sound wouldn't project. (I played euphonium and we all know how loud those can be). It was like all my sound was hitting a brick wall in front of me.
That changed however when we played the C chord again, with very little effort the sound seemed to explode from my horn.
That's when it clicked for me. Intonation and blend are everything.
The closer that the members of a band are to playing the exact same notes in a chord the more the sound projects. It’s actually true that a band that is well in tune doesn't have to work so hard to produce a powerful sound.
I recommend that band directors or section leaders use this technique with their band or section. Try playing a unison note to tune to, then a chord, and then have players play any note they want at multiple volume levels. Without taking another breath switch back to the chord. They will notice how much more powerful they become. From there, keep tuning over and over again, and repeat this process and your band will become louder and louder.
Hope this is helpful to someone.
D. Rashad Watters
Founder, CEO
Block Band Music & Publishing, LLC
(919)-698-2560
BlockBandMusic@gmail.com
Block Band Music & Publishing…Providing Music, Equipment, and Accessories for Showstyle and Corpstyle Bands
Connect with Block Band on Facebook or follow us on Twitter!
Tuba Control
Breathing
Everything with a wind instrument starts here. Often, when I see tuba players play they forcibly push the air into the horn like they are blowing a balloon. Playing the tuba this way will always produce a swallow, blasty sound. This way produces a swallow sound because the player simply does not have enough air to fill tuba. They can blow air through the horn, but “filling it up” is a whole other matter. You can easily spot the player who plays this way. He/she rocks back to take a deep breath and leans forward each time they play, pushing the air from their chest.
The Bellows Approach
Here’s how I like to think of tuba playing. Instead of focusing on pushing the air through the horn, focus on filling your torso with air, particularly your stomach. (Yes, I know the stomach doesn’t fill with air but when thinking about it filling with air your diaphragm will extend allowing your lungs to expand to maximum capacity).
Once you are full of air don’t blow the air out, instead just relax and contract your diaphragm. Think about pushing the air out of a garbage bag or balloon (or bellows). When you play this way, I like to think that instead of blowing air through the tuba, you are using the air in your body to move the air that’s already completely filling the tuba. Don’t lift your shoulders, or tighten your neck muscles. All of this should be completely relaxed.
It takes a little while to master this and definitely is not as easy to play loud initially as huffing and puffing. Eventually, though you while find as your “stomach” muscles get more used to it, its seems to take almost no effort at all to produce a huge sound, that even sounds good on videotape (as long as you are in-tune of course). See the aforementioned “meat on the bones” technique to increase strength and sensitivity in your diaphragm.
So How do I do this quickly? Exactly. “How” is how you do this quickly. Here’s what I mean. Say the word, “how.” Now say the word “how” quietly. Now say “how” backwards (meaning take a breath while saying it). Did you feel your stomach move (Your diaphragm expand)? Say “how” backwards to take a quick full breath without raising your shoulders.
I hope this information will be useful to you and will help all of our bands produce even better tuba players that can produce that bass sound that “we” like.
D. Rashad Watters
Founder, CEO
Block Band Music & Publishing, LLC
(919)-698-2560
BlockBandMusic@gmail.com
Block Band Music & Publishing…Providing Music, Equipment, and Accessories for Showstyle and Corpstyle Bands
Connect with Block Band on Facebook or follow us on Twitter!
Yanking ≠ Cranking
Yanking ≠ Horn Movement
Cranking is simply playing loud. It does not infer a particular tone quality, whether you or in tune or not whether you are moving your horn. There’s not a thing in the world wrong with Cranking.
There’s also nothing wrong with moving your horn up and down as you play for visual effect. I am the first to admit that moving your horn up and down as you paly really looks cool. I did this often myself as a player and brought this concept to my section when I was college.
“Yanking” however is characterized by usually taking a swallow breath, and then snatching your horn down as you play. Those who yank their horns tighten their shoulders and necks when playing in order to get the maximum air from their horns.
So what’s wrong with that?
Well, there’s no air in your shoulders and neck, so there’s no benefit to adding tension to these parts of your body.Actually when you add tension to your neck and shoulders you make yourself play softer. That’s right. If you are yanking you are actually defeating yourself in two ways. The tension in your neck and shoulders travels to your mouth and lips which helps to create a thinner sound. This sound carries very little weight as compared to producing a fuller sound. (For example of a thinner sound vs. a fuller sound think of the sound that a trombone produces vs. the fuller sound of a baritone).
The tension also keeps your keeps your upper body from resonating along with the sound. When you allow yourself to relax your entire body becomes an amplifier for your sound, and the sound goes in every direction not just through your horn. Here’s an example of this. Play a song on your cell phone (YouTube, Pandora; whatever). Now take your phone and place it on top of a drinking glass. You should notice that the sound of your phone gets louder. The glass is now amplifying the sound of the phone. Now, you are not made of a conductive material so you are not going to make your instrument “that” much louder but if you are truly playing correctly the sound can surround you.
Conversely, when playing correctly your neck and shoulders should be completely relaxed. No matter how loud you “crank” keep absolutely no pressure in shoulders. Focus on taking a relaxed breath, keeping the entire body relaxed and pushing from the abdomen.
There is no “right” time to yank. There’s nothing at all wrong with moving your horn to what you play as long as you play correctly. “Yanking” on the other hand, where you are snatching your instrument down and tightening your shoulders and neck have as much to do with “cranking” as standing on one leg has to do with getting “crunk” on the snare drum.
Can a band sound good with players that yank? Absolutely. We see and hear this all the time, but generally you have to be a somewhat larger band to pull this off. If the wind players in a band all come in together, cut-off at the same time, and all play with the same articulation a band can still sound good overall despite the individual tone qualities of its respective players.
Can an individual player sound good yanking? Possibly, but it’s very hard to do so. Basically the player has to overcome all the obstacles that he/she is putting on himself/herself just to produce a good sound.
D. Rashad Watters
Founder, CEO
Block Band Music & Publishing, LLC
(919)-698-2560
BlockBandMusic@gmail.com
Block Band Music & Publishing…Providing Music, Equipment, and Accessories for Showstyle and Corpstyle Bands
Connect with Block Band on Facebook or follow us on Twitter!
More of these, please! I'm learning more and more!
that's a lot of typing
Just my 2 1/2 cents. :/
Kool topic!
"Stick Control" by George Stone is what every rudimental drummer or prospective percussion marcher should acquire and practice EVERY DAY!!
Each exercise has different stick patterns which require you to sight read rhythms that have completely different sticking combinations and then the opposite to develop evenness. The most important part of these exercises is the development of your form.
The book is over 100 years old, which was when we only had the essential 13 rudiments (if that). So, you'll see the combinations for a swiss army triplet without a flam, the sticking combination for a flammed mill and even a paradiddle-diddle.
These exercises WILL get you raw.