How to Slur on Tuba

Video Transcript

"Hi everybody. Kevin Smith here, TubaLove and I'm going to be talking about slurring as the first part of a typical practice session. And I would say that no matter what you intend to do over the course of any given practice session, that slurring really is a vital part of the process and really where you should begin the practice session. I'll show you what I mean by slurring in just a second but it's like if you're a runner, if you're doing anything physical, you don't start out really strenuously. You want to start out softly. You want to not overwork your body too much because it's going to completely burn you out for the rest of the time. So slurring is a way that you can just get the lips worked up, get that air going. When you're slurring what I'm talking about is just starting and also just start in what I call the mid range of the instrument. This note here on my horn, which is a C horn open note meaning no valves used. This is a C. So when I slur I start by going down a semitone or a half step and this is as you learn notes more, it will all become second nature to you all also. But down a half step to a beat and then each time just keep adding semitones. From the next open note just keep doing the same thing. And then you can just reverse the order and go back up but start in the middle, start softly. Again, you know, it requires more lip stress to be playing really loud or really soft so if you just kind of start at what is a good, you know, relatively soft but not too soft level for you and the slurring especially down will give your lips time to moisten up and time to expand and really, the few minutes you spend doing these slurring exercises is going to give you a lot more strength for the entirety of your practice session."