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Are Tubas Hard To Play? (Explained For Beginners)

If you decide to start playing the tuba, it will take some time to master, but learning the instrument can be an incredibly positive experience!

Let’s take a look at the tuba and how hard it is to play:

Here’s How Hard it is to Learn to Play Tuba:

Like any instrument, it will take time to develop the skills to play the tuba. Playing tuba can be challenging because it needs much more airflow to make sounds. New players should also be prepared for the challenge of its weight, as the tuba is the heaviest of all the wind instruments.

How Long Does It Take to Learn to Play Tuba?

It isn’t easy to learn a wind instrument quickly.

Learning even the basics of tuba playing can take years of practice.

Most tuba players begin playing in late elementary school or early middle school. Their first year of playing is dedicated to the basics.

They learn how to buzz on their mouthpiece, hold the tuba, and make basic notes.

It’s recommended that beginners spend at least thirty minutes a day practicing. An entry-level tuba player needs to be excited to practice new techniques on their instrument to see great results.

It is a slow, steady process. Tuba players cannot master their instruments in a few hours.

New players will improve slowly over years of practicing and usually will be at an intermediate level when they are in high school.

How Long Does It Take to Become An Expert?

Generally, most expert tuba players have spent at least ten years honing their craft.

Becoming a great musician doesn’t happen overnight. Beginner musicians take a few years mastering the basics, move to an intermediate level for a few more years and eventually become an expert after enough time.

It will take many hours of practicing to become an expert tuba player. If you are looking to move to this level, make sure that you practice multiple hours daily. The more you practice, the better you’ll be.

However, these practice hours need to be productive. Many experts say that you’re doing it wrong if you are practicing more than 3-4 hours a day.

Target the specific areas where you need to improve.

It also helps to have a lessons teacher. Find an expert tuba player who can teach you.

It will take much more time if you are learning expert techniques all by yourself.

How Many Hours Does It Take?

There’s no way to say the exact amount of hours it takes to master an instrument.

Learning an instrument is extremely subjective, and everyone will have a unique experience. In general, if you continue to play tuba to the college level or beyond, you have a mastery of your instrument.

This will likely take thousands of hours, but who’s counting?

Is the Tuba Harder to Master Than Other Brass Instruments?

On any instrument, beginners will face challenges.

It’s difficult to say whether the tuba is harder to learn, but there are unique techniques to master.

Tuba can be more difficult to master because it needs much more airflow.

Since the tuba is a much larger instrument, a tuba player blows a lot of air through its pipes to play a note. On other brass instruments like trumpet, you can get by with less airflow.

The tuba naturally makes more lower-pitched sounds. It can also be difficult to hear the pitch of these low notes. Because of this, beginners can struggle with finding the correct intonation.

Can You Teach Yourself To Play Tuba?

Although it is much more difficult to teach yourself an instrument, it is possible.

With the many available resources online, anyone can master the basic skills required to play the tuba. However, it’s better to learn from a professional when it comes to intermediate and advanced techniques.

You don’t have to learn from a band director. You can hire a lessons teacher and have a more one-on-one learning experience.

This way, you don’t have to teach yourself.

Any Good (Free) Resources Online?

Most beginners learn wind instruments in their school.

It’s easier to learn from an in-person teacher like a band director, but there are online resources to help your at-home practicing.

Khan Academy offers this great tuba lesson from a player in the US Marine Band:

In this lesson, a professional tuba player offers advice on how to become a better musician.

He describes daily exercises to master breathing, relaxation, flexibility, and intonation.

YouTube is a valuable resource for musicians. You can find good instruction from professional musicians, and it’s completely free!

SmartMusic has a video on early tuba playing:

If you are unfamiliar with something about your instrument, don’t be afraid to google it!

There are plenty of YouTube videos and articles that would greatly benefit your tuba playing.

Can Anybody Learn to Play the Tuba?

Anyone can learn the basics of tuba playing.

Some physical characteristics might help you, though. Some band directors believe that having thicker lips is beneficial in playing the tuba.

Since it has a large mouthpiece, it can be easier to fill the mouthpiece with larger lips.

It also helps if you are taller. Tubas are large instruments, and you’ll need to be able to reach the mouthpiece. However, there are smaller tuba sizes for beginners.

Students with braces sometimes have a better experience with the tuba. Smaller brass mouthpieces can be more painful for beginners wearing braces.

With enough dedication, anyone can learn the tuba. As long as you have an instrument and a lot of patience, you’ll be a great musician.

7 Tips to Make It Easier to Learn the Tuba

1. Practice with Good Posture:

Tubas are very large instruments.

It can take a while for a new player to get used to holding it. It’s important to develop a good posture.

If you don’t practice with good posture right away, you’ll develop bad habits that will affect your playing.

Any band director will tell you that slouching is not great for playing a wind instrument.

2. Breathing Exercises:

Since sound is created by air, you need to have space for your lungs and stomach to expand and fill with air.

Make sure that you are sitting up as straight as possible to get the most air intake. The tuba requires a lot of air.

It is a large instrument, so you need to move more air to make sounds.

There are breathing exercises that you can do to help you with this.

3. Listen to Professionals:

You won’t know what a good tuba player sounds like until you listen to professional musicians.

The more you listen to tuba players like Arnold Jacobs or Carol Jantsch, the more you learn what a great tone sounds like.

You might even start to sound like them!

4. Work with the Mouthpiece:

As a beginner, the most unfamiliar part of playing tuba will be the mouthpiece.

To play a brass instrument, your lips vibrate together inside the mouthpiece. Tuba players have the largest lip vibrations.

You can practice your embouchure with just your mouthpiece. You can do various exercises, possibly starting by blowing air through the mouthpiece and then starting to practice buzzing.

Once you become familiar with the mouthpiece, your tuba playing will become much better.

5. Practice the Rhythm:

Tuba players are the heartbeat of any ensemble.

They don’t play a wide range of notes, but their music can have challenging rhythms for beginners.

You can use the clapping technique to help just by clapping the rhythm of your music before you play it.

6. Record Your Music:

Beginners usually don’t think to record their playing.

It’s often hard to hear exactly what your tone sounds like, but a video recording picks up all of the mistakes that you miss.

7. Take Proper Resting Periods:

Learning a new instrument takes a lot of practice time, but it’s also necessary to take breaks.

A tuba embouchure gets tired easily, especially for beginners.

You should take a rest period for every two hours of playing to avoid any muscle fatigue and swelling.

Which Tuba Is the Easiest Option for Beginners?

Most beginners start playing when they are young.

In elementary or middle school, children can be too small to play a regular-sized tuba. Because of this, there are 3/4 tubas.

3/4 tubas are smaller than full-size tubas.

Younger players find it easier to hold this tuba and learn the proper posture with a suitable model suited to their age.

Final Thoughts

Many people do not choose the tuba as their first instrument because of its size and difficulty level.

More beginners should consider the tuba because there are smaller tubas designed for their size. Plus, any instrument is going to be challenging at first.

Although it takes more air to play the tuba, beginners shouldn’t be afraid to try it out.

It will take many years to master tuba playing fully. This will be a lot of hard work, but it can be incredibly rewarding.

Tuba players are essential in any ensemble, so you will always be needed if you choose to play the tuba!

Sources:

Five Strategies for Playing the Tuba

Four Tips to Help Beginner Tuba Players