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I haven't seen any forums about the Texas all-state etudes/auditions, but for all the Texan students participating in the region and all-state process, what are your thoughts on the etudes for this year for all instruments?

I really like the trombone etudes this year. I think they are really fun to play.
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The etudes are really easy for tuba this year (for me)

I think the real challenge for players will be seeing if they can put etude 2 (the slow one) interesting and engaging enough for judges.

Etude 3 con moto has to be at least above 80, and the sixteenth notes should be double tongued. (don't forget the valkyrian 8th!)

Etude 1 has to have all those weird partials that switch from D minor to F major and to some sharp keys all right down to scratch. And the dynamics should be spot on.

 

I really wish there were more tuba videos though for the etudes. 

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Coming from an alumni who has had relative success in this whole process, I can say that region, area and state are different competitions.

The region and area level competitions are MUCH more based on playing cleanly what is written on the page and rewards those who can practice efficiently and consistently. If you are able to get through every correct note and rhythm with a good sound and stable tempo (basically a clean performance with solid fundamentals) you will advance to the next round.

For some of the more competitive rooms, area gets much harder and you can differentiate yourself by moving the tempo up to prove better technique.

However when you advance to state, the competition changes in nature. Because you are given new music, (and a lot of it at that) and you have much less time to prepare it, this level of competition rewards those who can efficiently learn music at a high level. Having 3 weeks to learn between 18-30 cuts and to prepare them all well is TOTALLY different than spending 6 months on 3 etudes.

I’ve seen it multiple times, the couple of kids who do really well at region and area, but then flop at state because they aren’t accustomed to quickly preparing that many cuts. But I’ve also seen the opposite; that the kids who consistently win or come close to winning are able to do well at state also, because in my humble opinion, state is a better determiner of great musicianship, whereas region and area reward time and repetition because of the sheer length of those audition periods.

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I always made the mistake of spending too much time grinding reps on the etudes. I remember competing against almost 60 Euphos for region back in the day, and I knew if I made top 2, it would mean only competing against SIX for state (where again, you needed to make top 2). Missed it by 3 chairs my senior year. I found that each year I made region (and I made it all 4 years) I had probably spent more time on the etudes than practically everybody who had made it (putting in over a hundred hours from July-December), and one year I lost to a senior from Round Rock who didn't even start looking at the etudes till 2 weeks before the audition. I should've taken a much more methodical approach where my goal was to figure out what skills I need to develop in order to execute a "frame-perfect" run (to use a speedrunning term). There were many sections of the music where my issue wasn't because I hadn't practiced enough, but rather I hadn't developed the skills necessary to "learn" that section of the music. What I spent 10 hours on playing over and over across several weeks messing up again and again (in hopes I'd eventually get lucky) should've been spent on relevant exercises that made it so that mastering the actual lick should only take me a single practice session.

 

I remember in college competing against a guy for band placement who had spent the entire summer marching corps and didn't even look at the audition music until the day of the audition. He spent 45 minutes on the music and still beat me even though I had been practicing it for the past 2 weeks. Because if you're a super good player, you don't really need to spend a lot of time on the music. He also played his horn everyday all summer in corps, and I didn't. It's not always about who spent the most time working on the music, it's about who has spent enough time practicing in general.

Hence the good fundamentals I mentioned. Someone that can play the whole etude with mediocre dynamics but super even fingers and a steady airflow will almost always place higher than someone who uses extravagant dynamic contrast but seems to lack fundamental technique.
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The etudes are really easy for tuba this year (for me)

I think the real challenge for players will be seeing if they can put etude 2 (the slow one) interesting and engaging enough for judges.

Etude 3 con moto has to be at least above 80, and the sixteenth notes should be double tongued. (don't forget the valkyrian 8th!)

Etude 1 has to have all those weird partials that switch from D minor to F major and to some sharp keys all right down to scratch. And the dynamics should be spot on.

 

I really wish there were more tuba videos though for the etudes.

Hey I play tuba also what school do you go to?

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  • 3 weeks later...

the tuba etudes are pretty cool

 

the 2nd etude a feel is not challenging enough but i like the sound of it the 3rd has it’s challenging parts it feels as if the first and second halves are different etudes lol but 2nd half is definitely harder the 1st etude is definitely challenging getting every slur and dynamic change crisp and clear to the listener is going to be hard

 

if u want to follow my tuba account on insta it’s @simon.tuba

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the tuba etudes are pretty cool

 

the 2nd etude a feel is not challenging enough but i like the sound of it the 3rd has it’s challenging parts it feels as if the first and second halves are different etudes lol but 2nd half is definitely harder the 1st etude is definitely challenging getting every slur and dynamic change crisp and clear to the listener is going to be hard

 

if u want to follow my tuba account on insta it’s @simon.tuba

Bro I already follow you. I didn't know that you were Simon. I agree with the slurs I feel like getting the consistency though will be something to work on for the slurs and staccato triplets.
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