1.                                                          Students

Grandstudents

and

Great-grandstudents

 

When looking back on my musical career and my connection with the tuba, the most gratifying and fulfilling aspect of my 70 years in the tuba business, is seeing the success of my students. Of course, my memories are rich with symphony orchestra concerts, films, television and recordings in the Hollywood studios plus my own solo performances and solo recordings. However, the most significant accomplishments for me were clearly the teaching processes with my students. Leonardo Da Vinci once said, It’s the duty of the student to surpass the teacher; I’m proud to have experienced that several times in my teaching career. It’s also the duty of the teacher to guide the student so that can happen.

                    

                    

 

A joke that I’ve made in the past is that how angry it makes me to listen to a student who has not studied with me for a long period of time, reappear in my life and sound stunningly better than the last time. The joke continues: How rude for a student to return after years of separation since the last lesson and to sound enormously better. I was thrilled last year when giving a lesson to my old student from twelve years before, Diana Cardona. Diana was a very nice girl (a tubist) I met on the Internet 12 years ago. She came to Japan occasionally to study and four years ago I had the opportunity to teach and to hear her again at the Italian Brass Week in Firenze, Italy. I was happily amazed that she had become a world-class tubist with the tone, technique the power and especially the musicality of a truly fine tubist. 

 

Diana is a Colombian citizen and she clearly had made the right decision 8 years ago to study in France, the first 2 years in the Conservatoire de Perpignan studying with Harumi Baba the next 2 years in the Conservatoire de Versailles with David Zambon. While communicating with her online for those 5 years I was impressed when she would tell me she usually practiced six hours a day; it abundantly paid off! I feel a little ashamed that I didn’t see that potential 12 years ago but that just points out that the learning process never stops, the teacher must always remain a student. 

 

I was thrilled this morning when receiving an email from Diana telling me that she had received her Masters degree from Universite de Paris and Consevatoire de Versailles, teaches tuba and euphonium in 3 different conservatoriesies plus conducts a youth band, plays in 2 brass quintets, has 2 symphony orchestra concerts this weekend and will perform Ein Heldenleben with another orchestra next month. This is a remarkable success story considering this is during a time when COVID-19 is causing many musical events to simply come to a stop. At this time and at any time, it’s a very good feeling to see a student successfully making their living centered around music and particularly with the tuba.

 

 

Certainly, I will continue to watch Diana Cardona. Subsequent to Diana’s lesson, I was fortunate to have another memorable learning experience. During a week of classes I gave at the at the Zurich Conservatory when Diana came to Zurich to visit and to take a lesson with the maestro Anne Jelle Visser. Not only did I enjoy hearing Diana play again but I was hugely impressed by observing my old friend and student since the early 90s in his present role as the highly successful tuba professor of the Zurich Conservatry.

 

 

 

 

                      Anne Jelle Visser and Roger Bobo

 

Naturally, it’s logical that the quality of teaching would also evolve with time; hopefully, that evolution will also surpass that of the teacher. I had the pleasure of observing the Zurich Conservatory tuba professor, 10 year member of the Zurich Opera orchestra and my student of 25 years ago, Anne Jelle Visser, teaching Diana Cardona. There was much more to watching and listening to this lesson than that both teacher and student were part of my teaching history. Anne Jelle Visser has become a true master teacher of the highest level and observing this lesson was a classical learning experience for me, it was the teacher learning from the student. 

 

There is a visible and audible connection from brass generation to generation and if I have been an influence in this evolution that is always in motion in our unique community, I’m proud and content. Things seem to be developing very well.

 

I’ve seen my grand students surpassing my students and I hope to live long enough to see my great-grand students surpassing my grand students

 

 

 

August 1, 2015, Firenze, Italia

 

Revised October 23, 2020, Oaxaca, Mexico

 

 

 

Friction

 

Some people call it edge; some sizzle, and some just call it energy. Many think it’s a bad thing, especially when it’s referred to as ‘edge’ and sometimes that may be correct, but this timbre, with its many names, is an essential enhancement to any brass player’s sonic palette. In seeking one appropriate word that describes this special timbre I have chosen“Friction”; technically it’s the correct word and it doesn’t have the negative connotations that we see in some of the other words used to describe the same thing.

 

Friction starts when our air passes between the lips and causes the vibrations to travel through the length of the instrument; the longer the instrument, the more friction the smaller the bore size, the more friction. Instrument makers and brass performers have been working for centuries trying to get that ratio just right.

 

There’s something magical about the high register of a brass instrument when it’s played strongly, we hear it in the sound of the single F horns of the Vienna Philharmonic, we hear it with commercial trumpet players like Harry James, Doc Severinsen and Maynard Ferguson; that’s exciting sound! Sometimes we hear friction in the trombone solo in Ravel’s Bolero when the player uses a smaller bore instrument, of course, if the instrument is smaller friction will start at a lower dynamic.

 

Frequently, for the sake of security, many players choose to use a higher pitched (shorter) instrument, which in most cases proves to be a prudent decision, but sometimes something is lost by doing this. I have two personal examples that point this out very clearly. In the mid 50s, when I first started to perform the Vaughan Williams Concerto I learned it on a CC tuba and it wasn’t until the late 70s that I started using an F tuba. Of course, the results were better on the F, the Vaughan Williams is written in a tessitura that is far more idiomatic for F tuba. But in the Romanza, the 2^nd Movement, I missed the friction I was accustomed to on the CC, it sung, it projected and it had a rich intensity. I had a similar experience with the Encounters ll by William Kraft; the power and drama I could get on the CC tuba just wasn’t there when I relearned it on the F. The very thought of the Bolero trombone solo played on an alto trombone would be a very clear example of the same situation; the excitement would just be gone.

 

Perhaps the Vienna Philharmonic, with their tradition of playing everything on single F horns, is one of the best examples of friction. Everyone agrees that is an absolutely exciting sound, which usually functions beautifully. Now the question is evident; is it better to play a higher pitched (shorter) instrument, Bb horn instead of F for example, for security issues? It’s a very personal decision that needs to be made by every player, and every section for every situation.

 

And a more polarizing question is the option of changing to instruments of different bore sizes in order to achieve the quality of friction. Again, this is very personal. Concert halls also have a huge influence on friction. Most players try to achieve friction in some way and many times that way is simply by playing louder. The dynamic level that results in friction is very influenced by the halls we play in. The New York Philharmonic performing in Avery Fischer Hall with sometimes problematic autistics has to play at a very loud dynamic to achieve friction, while the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, playing in the extraordinary Concertgebouw, can achieve the effect of friction at a much softer dynamic and therefore is able to use equipment considerably smaller than New York.

 

Friction is an aspect of brass playing that many players fear, especially when we refer to it as “edge”. It exists in all instruments including voice and it’s a powerful and essential tool in music making. Too much of it is ugly and too little is boring, but when it’s just right it’s beautiful.

 

Tokyo. Japan, October, 2007 

Revised, Oaxaca, Mexico, September, 2020 

Teaching and Travel:

My Passions

Since 1989, when I resigned from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, I have been extremely fortunate to reside in Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan and Mexico. And from those locations as my centers I have literally been privileged to teach all over the world.

I was very happy with that situation until the arrival of COVID-19. Now, for the foreseeable future it seems travel is no longer an option, even today I’m feeling the frustration having had to cancel a week of teaching in Taiwan, which I was very much looking forward to.

Fortunately, the Internet provides me with the facility to continue my passion for teaching with the extra benefit of enjoying an international enrollment.

If any of my readers are interested in taking lessons with me, I would enjoy meeting you, hearing you, and getting to know you. You can contact me on Facebook Messenger or on my email, bomaestro@gmail.com.

Roger Bobo, July 1, 2020

Tubists Online

A good friend of mine, while we were having an intercontinental online chat, asked me, “Why are there so many tubists playing online?”

Reviewing the online activities of the amazing number of unemployed musicians, who have discovered the Internet post COVID19, is almost the only outlet where there is a possibility to perform. Both My friend and I had noticed that there seemed to be a disproportional amount of tubists, frequently amazing tubists, compared to other instruments. There could be two reasons for this.  

1.        (The easy answer): Both my friend and I have a huge number of tubists friends. And

2.        Tubists, long before the COVID 19 plague arrived, had developed and promoted our instrument through the last century to the present, in a way that has no precedent in music history.  

(When I speak of tuba and tubists I’m including the euphonium. The euphonium is, after all, a tenor tuba and euphonium is just too difficult to type every time I want to refer to our very special community. We are of the same family.)

Harvey Phillips, who was the spearhead of much of our historical evolution through the last century, would be proud.

What is it in our tubist DNA that has driven us to develop our instrument to this historical and high profile visibility? Is there something in our character that led us to choose this instrument or was it our association with this instrument the led us to the collective need to evolve. It’s an ancient question: Are we the result of heredity or environment?

Recently, I assisted Scott Sutherland in a virtual video project with 100 tubists from around the globe, playing Scott’s arrangement of Nimrod from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar, (which can be seen and heard in my previous blog.)Today we were surprised and delighted to see that the Nimrod video had surpassed 60,000 views. Scott and Phillip Broome deserve an enormous ovation for their work in coordinating 100 separate videos from the 100 superb tubists from around the world into one unforgettable virtual performance.

I would also like to thank those 100 tubists for their generous time and talent, which made the mega event possible.

I’ve been listening to the tuba for 70 years; I’ve never heard anything like this before.

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Roger Bobo, June 7, 2020, Oaxaca Mexico