davewerden

Readers of this blog certainly have a clear idea what a euphonium is. Granted there is some confusion about the difference between euphonium and baritone, but our conceptions are pretty much in the same neighborhood.


However, there is an instrument that predates the baritone/euphonium by about 50-100 years. It was invented by Ernst Chladni and consisted of glass tubes of different lengths. It operated on the same principal that causes crystal glasses to ring when someone rubs ...

Wind players must always deal with the issue of breathing. Actually, all musicians must breathe in order to stay alive, but for wind players and singers our breathing must be fit around the music. This is fairly easy in many solos in quite difficult in others.


A common tendency with low brass players is to take too many breaths because we are trained to take in air whenever we have the chance. While this is good practice, one has to be careful not to disrupt the musical flow while ...

Nick Etheridge

One Clear Call - New Music with Tuba

This album is part of a larger project by the gifted tubist Nick Etheridge to record a variety of music that features tuba. He is not limiting himself to the usual concerto-type, sonata-type, or variations-types of compositions, but rather is using creative arrangements and compositions to create many different moods and textures. On this recording the instrumentation uses mixed ensembles including (on different tracks) ...

As I look over the euphonium discussion topics on my forum I see a lot of talk about valve action and valve oil. But in the early days of brass instruments, this was not a problem because the first brass instruments had no valves. I'm leaving trombone out of this discussion because I think most readers are very familiar with the instrument already.


Early French horns were made with no valves, for example. They usually had various crooks (like our tuning slides) that could be used ...

Many players I hear don't seem to be very concerned with really observing the dynamics written on their music. Sections marked p are usually played somewhat softer and those marked f are played louder, but the range is not large and the in-between dynamics are not well defined. And when they encounter a ff or pp they don't seem to make a full effort. I nag my students about it and myself as well - it's all too easy to get lazy if we aren't careful.


But let's make the challenge ...