Low Blows for Tuba Studies
for the development and maintenance of the low register.

As a way to break up the monotony of the daily routine I would often find myself improvising little melodies in the middle to low range in effort to add variety to my daily warm up.

These melodies are purely for your enjoyment as you develop and maintain your skills in the low register. Three skills are at the focus of development with these studies, but not limited to 1) wind flow, 2) musicality and 3) mastery of reading ledger lines.

Daily, you as the performer must continually strive to keep the flow of wind consistent with each musical phrase, perform each phrase musically and develop your ability to read ledger lines. This last skill will be necessary the more you perform contemporary ensemble literature that is being written with ledger lines below the staff instead of the older system of 8va basso. These studies will also provide a great balance in your performance skills as you continue to perform that next great piece of solo literature that's written with many ledger lines above the staff. --- Raúl Rodríguez