8 Learning & Playing Tuba/Trumpet/Euphonium/Baritone/Flugelhorn/French Horn/Cornet

In this video, Brett Youens describes two steps of the learning process - "thinking and knowing" - with the tuba used as an example.

http://www.geocities.com/freewillyb/

(Transcript)
Hi. Lets talk a little more about valved brass instruments and how they work. As you can see, this is not a trumpet, and its also not a euphonium, or a French horn, or a cornet, or a flugelhorn, but it is, in fact, a tuba. Although all of these instruments work on the same principles.

In previous videos we have talked about the principles on which valved brass instruments work. In this video we will do the same, but by taking an example from valved brass instruments to explain a principle with much broader applications. Its a principle of learning we might call thinking and knowing.

Lets start with an example. Lets say we want to learn to play a portion of the chromatic scale very fast, and that at the present we have no idea how we would do that and we dont even know what a chromatic scale is.

Well, the first thing we should do is not to start blindly memorizing something we read in a book or see in a video, but to understand what it is that we want to do. We want to play a chromatic scale, so we should know what a chromatic scale is. Otherwise we wont even have any way of checking whether we are doing it correctly, right? So, a chromatic scale is the scale that incorporates all the keys on a piano. And it might be a helpful as a memory aid to know that chromatic comes from chroma, which is Greek for color as all of the colors, or at least all the keys of the piano, are in this scale.

Ok, now we have a basic understanding of the task at hand. Lets see how that works on the instrument. So if we start with an open fingering and descend a half step then we would have to depress the Baby, right? And another half step would be the Dad, and then the Dad and the Baby, and then the Baby and the Grandfather, and then the Dad and the Grandfather, and then the Dad, the Baby, and the Grandfather, right? So now we know how that will work on our instrument.

So now weve definitely understood the task at hand, so lets try it fast: Open, Baby, Dad, Dad/Baby, Baby/Grandfather, Dad/Grandfather, Dad/Baby/Grandfather. Even faster...Ok, you might have noticed, this is not working. As long as Im having to compute every single halfstep, Im not going to be able to play this fast. Thinking and understanding has brought us this far and were almost there but it cant take us the rest of the way. For that well need knowing.

What we need to do is to put this information in a form that can be immediately digested, so that it is at our fingertips for any song, symphony, or Sunday afternoon. Take a look at this picture: Imagine that these fingerings are a house. You see a roof, an upstairs area, and a downstairs area. And youll notice that Upstairs and Downstairs are exactly the same with the exception of the presence of the Grandfather. These gray circles indicate that that valve is depressed, just that thats the only difference between the Upstairs and the Downstairs. So youll see we have here stairs going down to this floor and stairs going down to this floor. So lets try that out.

We have the roof, and then the stairs, and then the stairs with the grandfather. So if I do that slowly one time for you. Roof, and then Baby/Dad/Both and then Baby/Dad/Both with the Grandfather depressed. So that looks then like this. Roof, Baby/Dad/Both, Baby/Dad/Both, right? And then you can do it fast, right? So lets try it out.

Now watch this...Now how did I do that? Well, I didnt do it by thinking. And I certainly wasnt thinking about the longer the lower or you get what you give or sing it, buzz it, play it or any other principle. In fact, I wasnt really thinking about anything at all. The only picture in my mind was of a house. Nothing clever or insightful, just something easy to remember.

Now watch this...Now how did I do that? By not thinking of anything at all.

So now you know a little more about valved brass instruments and how they work, and two important steps of learning: thinking and knowing.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• learn
• tuba
• trumpet
• euphonium
• baritone
• flugelhorn
• cornet
• how
• to
• play
• brass
• instruments
• thinking
• knowing
• chromatic
• scale

[TVFILMBUFF]

Damn, I thought this was a potato.

Anyone else sad that the Grandfather was depressed @ 5:36. Hopefully a bit of knowing will cheer him up.

[PianoWallaby]

@TVFILMBUFF Thanks for the potato. It cheered up Grandfather. ;)

[MrKomKast]

so knowing is not thinking after you thought of a way to think? i think i get it. thanks

[PianoWallaby]

Exactly. On the one hand, you need a way to get to the answer without having to "just memorize everything". On the other hand, you don't want to have to "think" about it everytime you want to play another note.  Without the former, you are helpless without a teacher. Without the latter, you can not play fast pieces in tempo. In order to be able to do both, you learn both. Thanks for the comment.

[sakuravsino123]

Thank you for showing this, after you showed us the house thing and hwo grandpa doesnt like to climb stairs I thought hmm no he would rather take an elevator, haha thats how I remember but thanks :)

[kyle7447]

I play trumpet. you are great.

[Morahman7vnNo2]

At least you weren't trying to buy Baritone!

[PianoWallaby]

You are right about that...

[Morahman7vnNo2]

Yeah, but saw you had what looked like a new one in a later video. That must cost a pretty penny!

[PianoWallaby]

I certainly would not say it is a positive thing to have dents. Having holes in your instrument would be worse, though.