Thanks for nice comments as well as interesting observation. I'm not exactly sure what do you mean about resetting, feel free to elaborate, I'm curious to hear. Thanks for watching my friend!
Got it, my bad for misunderstanding! He's very young, got a plenty of things that needs fixing, I could only break down one at a time due to time reasons, but very good observation. Actually had a lesson with him this morning, he's learning really quick :)
Hello! I'm an adult beginner on euphonium in England. I started this month aged 58, having never blown a brass instrument in my entire life. This was my first time watching one of your videos and I found it really helpful. I'm going to work through your whole channel now! All my practices are on RU-vid as I want to encourage other older people to take up a brass instrument. My goal is to prove that it is possible for anyone to learn. I'll find a video of yours which reflects and deals with on of my (many!) problems this week and give it a shoutout. Do you have any specific tips for older beginners?
Thank you for this very informative video, as a new brass player some of these problems are things I have personally been struggling with. The way this is explained makes it easy to understand ways in which I will be able to improve.
Very interesting and instructive. Now in my 60's, when I was 35 years old I moved from Euphonium/Baritone to Trombone, and then 15 years ago I shifted to Bass Trombone (a Yamaha YBL 613H. This instrument is heavy (though there are much heavier!), and I find more and more that it is painful to hold for any time (this of course is all done by the left arm, along with the two valves, while again the right needs to be completely free for the slide). I would appreciate any comments you migh have!
Hey brother! Glad you like the video. Which part do you feel in? Wrist? Shoulder? Elbow? Usually most of the issues come starting with a shoulder and end up with not even necceseray a shoulder pain. Symetry is the key for strenght, have you tried looking at the mirror in terms of your posture. You always want to avoid one shoulder being higher than the other. It would really be tricky to tell the exact issue without seeing you play and I just don't want to give you some false suggestions. Sorry if that didn't help all that much. You could shoot a short video and send to me if you want. That might give me a better clue. Best of luck my friend and let me know if there is anything else you need helping with! Best, Algirdas
Very helpful. I'll be paying more attention to posture and breathing. I can reach F# above middle C (reading treble clef) fairly comfortably. I'm still struggling to reach G. I plan to take grade 5 next summer. The accompanied pieces all require G and some of the scales A flat or A. I know it's down to good technique and practice, so I'll keep trying.
InsaneBassNinja definitely not. It's one of the easier brass instruments to start out on. The hardest part in the beginning will be getting used to the feel of buzzing in a mouthpiece, and forming a correct embouchure. If you know anyone who is skilled in euphonium or trombone in your area, you might get them to help you out. The only barrier to entry for a lot of people is the price, but this guy has made some good videos over the cheaper horns and which ones are best for beginners. Best of luck!
Thanks a lot my friend! I put a love of time and effort in these so appreciate your comment. In terms of title, agree 100%, except for not sure whether there are many professionals watching my stuff :D never know though, might just take your advice ;)
There is a big difference in the maturity and stature of a child and an adult. He might feel that he is doing the same thing as his instructors. I have watched Katrina Marzella many times take in a big gulp of air before playing her baritone horn. Maturity takes time.
I just came into playing euphonium and when i play, i get a too vibrating sound. Can someone help me? (By that i mean you can literally hear how my mouth vibrates.)
Tuba is an instrument built to play in a symphony orchestra. The way people sit and the way instruments spread sound is based on the physics of the sound in order for the audience to hear everything with great balance. You'll notice that tubas used in orchestra are pointing left and the ones that are in brass bands or pointing right. Euphonium is a brass band instrument and is supposed to be sitting in the first row on the right side of conductor. I do not know the exact physics of the sound but it's mainly built to the way it is to have a balanced place sound wise in the ensemble the instrument is playing at. Hopefully that makes sense my friend!
can I just Say that the reason it looked like i was hugging the instrument was because of the angle of the leadpip therefore make i look like i was hugging it
The music you added when talking prevents us from understanding and listening well what you are saying... Please stop this next time. Thanks for your job
Sure mate, thanks for sending the vid! Shoot me an email with your schedule and we'll arrange a skype lesson! Will be opportunity to look more into this kind of stuff!
That's a quick one :D Unfortunately I have to leave soon and will only be available in like 4 hours, I assume that might be late for you? Tomorrow maybe then?
I'm fourteen and playing a level 5 solo called L'allegro for solo and ensemble. If you've ever heard of this piece, do you have any tips pertaining to this piece specifically?
Have you ever heard of Horovitz Euphonium Concerto? It's a good combination of technical and lyrical playing and would for sure challenge you to push yourself
You could play 2 and 3mvt. Slow and fast movement, both together under 10minutes. Otherwise one of the tunes from Arban would be pretty impressive, something like "Variations on Norma"
Help! I tried out for a band, and my biggest problem was continuity of notes and airy sounding gaps between pitches when slurring. Also, my tone sounded nasally and lacked that nice, round, sound that is desired. What should I do to fix this? Are there any good videos I could watch? (I've only been playing baritone/euphonium for about 4 months now, but I have YEARS on saxophone and a few stringed instruments so I speak 'music' fluently)
Hi Nathan, I know that this will probably not going to be an answer you are looking for but at least I can be very confident saying that the biggest issue in your case is time. It took me years to develop my tone to where it is today and it is perfectly normal that things sound a bit off in the beginning. The problems you mentioned are caused by multiple factors stacked at once rather than one specific thing. If you want to bench 200 pounds it will take you certain time spent training to achieve that. If you want to bench 200 pounds effortlessly you will have to bring your bench to 250 pounds, where 200 don't feel that heavy anymore and you can do it with flawless movement and motion. This might not be the best analogy but hopefully you got the idea. It takes time to build range and the fact that you can squeeze out certain note it doesn't mean that it is functional in performance context. In my videos I cover a lot of basics that will help you to achieve what you want over time. Work on air control, your embouchure, your posture and in long term this will allow you to increase your overall skill set, not only range or tone. It would be hard for me to give you more specific advice without actually hearing you play but if you spent some time browsing through my videos you will definitely find most of these topics covered. Again, sorry for not being more specific but don't want to give you crappy advise. Hopefully this helps at least a little brother. Best, Algirdas
Hi, I am an aspiring musician and wish to soon be a euphonium soloist as you are, but I am always inconsistent when it comes to my playing, as sometimes my playing can be absolutely amazing but other times it can be very crappy. I was wondering what you would do for warm-up and how you would go about trying to get as close to your 100 percent playing ability whenever you pick up your horn?
Hey Ryan, this is an issue with more young players than you probably think. Especially with the ones who practice a lot. I would suggest looking at the performance as a separate skill. You spend hundreds of hours practicing every year and I bet you don't spend nowhere near as many performing. When you perform there is many different circumstances: now you have to listen to piano or a band in order to stay together, you have to adjust to different acoustics, you have to pay more attention to tuning, you have different breath timing due to accompaniment, adrenaline. When you practice home alone, you can purely focus on yourself playing whereas in performance it changes. It takes time and experience. My performances used to fluctuate a lot in terms of quality as well. What could help you decrease that gap faster is analyzing and recording yourself to see exactly what went wrong. Maybe you split the note because you were counting in your head and you forgot to take a good breath? Maybe you got a bit nervous and your posture became unstable which is something you don't normally have in practice room? Ask yourself these questions and look at the upcoming concerts as an opportunity to fix these things. Always have a clear goal what you're trying to achieve with the performance. Maybe this time you will focus on not moving too much not to mess up you embouchure. Maybe this time you will focus on listening to your breath so you are always aware that you're taking one. Things like that. As you get better and that becomes natural, add something else to work on during performances. That's how you gradually get better. In terms of physical problems. An often one I see is people not being able to control their air well due to adrenaline and increased heart rate. When you perform, adrenaline causes extra air demands and that give your body a signal for more air. Try to resist the temptation of forcing the air both in and out. Inhale slowly and most importantly resist the temptation to blow out air to fast. We as euphonium players use slow/warm air and as soon as you get a bit nervous your brain starts rushing and you start blowing a very fast air like a trumpet player would do and therefore start splitting the notes. These are just a few things to think about. When I work with my students I always have a very good and well structured plan on how to decrease that gap between best and worst performance and it's usually a multiple step process. Upside is, if you do it correctly, you will get better at it in a much faster way. Hope that helps brother! Best of luck with your practice! Algirdas
I have been playing with my mouthpiece way to high up on my lips for quite some time now, switching to the correct embouchure seems very difficult and anytime I'm not thinking about centering lips in the mouthpiece I go back to my old ways, is their a way to fix this problem? What are some ways to get use to this adjustment so I can get a good sound with this new embouchure
Know that feeling buddy! I realize that's probably not the answer you want to hear but at least I'm not going to bullsh** you, it takes time. Time is the key! Don't practice anything unless you are aware you centering is perfect. Each week you will get more comfortable. Obviously, playing pieces and playing in concerts will be an issue. Use your old embouchure in performances but NEVER in practice. Within 3-4 months you should notice that you can gradually use your new/correct embouchure in more complex stuff than just basic exercises. Until then, whatever piece or exercise you choose to practice, keep the centering as your main focus point. As soon as you feel your embouchure gives out or you stop concentrating quit playing. Continue next day. You should be able to make it more sustainable quickly as long as you stay away from your old habit. Hope this helps my friend, best of luck!
most the time when I try to get rid of a bad habit like, recently my on my right hand fingers used to be leaning towards the left and I found they needed to be more to the right side of the valves, I would try to work on it in warm ups usaully a slower long tones excercise like Remingtons, beautiful sound study, etc. In a slower excercise it is easier to think about using the proper techinque. I also played in techical excercises like arban scale and interval excercises but I played them really slow at first using proper technique and brought it up to tempo.
most the time when I try to get rid of a bad habit like, recently my on my right hand the fingers used to be leaning towards the left and I found they needed to be more to the right side of the valves, I would try to work on it in warm ups usaully a slower long tones excercise like Remingtons, beautiful sound study, etc. In a slower excercise it is easier to think about using the proper techinque. I also played in techical excercises like arban scale and interval excercises but I played them really slow at first using proper technique and brought it up to tempo.
I love playing, but nervous with performances as I just look really stupid in the photos (my throat just reaches towards the crowd 😂) is there any way I can fix this, a bit awkward of a question but I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find some way to fix it
Hi Matonizz! Where did you get the pics from? My girlfriend is the horn player. She doesn't mind the photograph, but she is a little concerned where you found the photo. We understand this video is for educational purposes, but she is curious if you found the picture on the internet or from the person who took it. Bye the way, love your videos, she is worried about the photo portraying her in a bad image. Please let me know! Love your videos man! I would love to meet you someday because I'm a euphonium player as well.
Josh oh wow! That's a weird situation. As far as I'm aware I just googled horn posture or something else, but it was definitely googled. Never considered it might catch anyone's attention since I found it in public. I will blur her face tomorrow first thing in the morning. Apart from that, glad to hear you found it useful. If you're ever around Pittsburgh let me know and we can definitely meet up. Send my apologies for me and tell her it was definitely via Google engine. Regards, Algirdas
Matonizz that's very nice of you. Again, it's not a big deal. We were just curious. Anyways, I will take you up on that if I'm in Pittsburgh. Stay safe, work hard, and keep motivated 😀
No problem Josh! I've done the editing yesterday on RU-vid editor. For somewhat reason it's taking awfully long to finalize the changes. It says it's 57% complete and that it should be processed soon. Just wanted to let you know that it's done, just being uploaded on the video. Take care buddy!
Are you familiar with the Ergobrass? It is a support for euphonium that helps to relax while playing, because the weight of the instrument is on the hips. See : www.ergobrass.com/euphonium/. I found it on internet, but I don't know anyone who uses it already. I think it could be really helpful. Do you have expierience with it? What do you think about it?
Hey bud, how are you doing? I've got so many lined up now and I'm really behind atm so maybe sometime in the future be a better time. How's your practice?
Definitely not :D It's a piece called Odyssey and it's actually with a rock band. I'm going to premiere it on 2017 ITEA SCRTEC, so if you around come and listen yourself my friend ;)
Trust me buddy, there will be a set of 10 world premieres out soon and it's going to be something no euphonium player has ever done ;) something I've working on for last 6 years :)
I was joking in that one comment because my teacher is a Parker Artist too. So I've met a few of the other Parker Artist like Michael Parker and Bill Prichard. I still need to meet you and Lance Laduke though.