How to Control Volume When Playing Tuba

Viewing videos requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player.
Get the latest Flash player.

Showing 1-5

Part of the video series: How to Play the Tuba

Crescendos & Decrescendos: Playi...

How to Form an Embouchure for Tu...

Playing Tuba: Combination Valves

Posture Tips for Playing the Tub...

Tips for Keeping Tempos & Rhythm...

Tips for Keeping Your Mouth Clea...

Tuba Breathing Techniques

Add to My Playlist What is a playlist?

Summary: Control your sound volume when playing the tuba; learn how with tips from our expert tuba player and teacher in this free tuba music education video.

Views: 706 | Tags: instrument, brass, parts, tuba, tubalessons, tubamusic

Get the latest Flash player.

Email Video Add to Favorites

About the Expert

Kevin Smith Kevin is 51 years old, and a poet and therapist as well as tubist. Kevin has played a variety of musical styles over the course of his life, as well as a vari... read more

Hide Comments

Conversations About This Video

Comments
(0 comments)
Questions & Answers
(0 questions) (0 answers)

Be the first to comment on this video.

Have a question about this video topic? Ask our community members and let them share their knowledge with you!

Ask A Question

You must sign in to perform that task.

Log In Now!
Don't have an account? Click here to sign up for FREE!

Sign Up Now!
Already have an account? Click here to sign in.

Email Address:

Password:

Confirm Password:

Screen Name:

I would like to receive the Expert Village Video of the Day

Date of Birth:

Gender: Male Female

Country:

Zip/Postal Code:

Enter the letters you see below

What's This?

I agree to the terms of use and privacy policy.

Video Transcript

How to Control Volume When Playing Tuba

Hi everybody, Kevin Smith back again, Tubalove. I'm going to be talking now about volumes on the tuba. In other words, how loud or how soft you can play. And, there's quite a difference here. There's, there's, if you're looking at sheet music, there's what's called an Italian word. If you see a word, it says piano, it's not the instrument piano, it's just an Italian word that means soft. So if you see the letter P, it means play this softly. And as they want it more softly, they'll add more P's. Like PP, which means pianissimo - is very softly. And by the same token, there's an Italian word called forte, f-o-r-t-e, which means loud, and as they add F's. FF - fortissimo - really loud. FFF, blow your brains out kind of loud. But at any rate, there's a lot of different diversity in the volumes that a tuba can convey, and in many ways, as I think I sort of mentioned earlier on, was that playing softly is, in a lot of ways, more difficult than playing loud. Because this is a big instrument, playing delicately, what you want is to just make sure to play softly is that you keep your air stream going, because as I said also before, some people might think well I don't have to play too loud, so I don't need to breathe that much. That is just flat wrong. You need your air for support. So, the stronger you feel your diaphragm taking in that air, and the more pressure, and the better air stream you've got going, the better you're going to play soft stuff and still keep that nice, big round sound that a tuba has.