Easy tuba songs for beginners
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Ten well-known songs that stay within about an octave and keep to simple rhythms, from the easiest up.
1. All My Ducklings (Alle meine Entchen)
A German children’s song. Six neighbouring notes, to , in B♭ major, moving only by step, in quarter, half and whole notes.
2. Lightly Row (Hänschen klein)
Five neighbouring notes, to , in B♭ major. Only quarter and half notes.
3. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
Six neighbouring notes, to , in C major. Only quarter and half notes.
4. Au clair de la lune
A French folk song. Six neighbouring notes, to , in F major, in quarter and half notes.
5. Mary Had a Little Lamb
Four notes, to , in B♭ major, moving mostly by step. Quarter and half notes, and three dotted quarters.
6. Aura Lee
The tune Elvis Presley sang as Love Me Tender. Seven neighbouring notes, to , in F major, mostly quarter notes.
7. Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Five notes, to , in F major, in quarter notes with some eighths. Each “E-I-E-I-O” starts a sixth up.
8. Jingle Bells
to in E♭ major, mostly quarter notes. The chorus stays on a few notes; the verse has some jumps.
9. When the Saints Go Marching In
Five notes, to , in F major, mostly long ones.
10. Frère Jacques
Known in English as Are You Sleeping. to in F major, in quarter notes with a few eighths.
What makes a song easy on tuba
- A small range
- On a B♭ tuba, mostly one octave, from to .
- Easy keys
- No sharps or flats, or up to three flats.
- Simple rhythms
- Quarter, half and whole notes. Hardly anything dotted, no syncopation, nothing as short as a sixteenth.
- No big jumps
- Each note sits close to the one before.
- A tune you know
- You hear your own mistakes, and a note comes out better when you already hear it in your head before you play it.
Tips for playing these on tuba
- Look through the piece before you play it: what key it is in and where the hard parts are.
- Start slowly, so slowly it feels awkward, and play every note right. Rushing only teaches you the wrong notes.
- You don’t have to play the whole piece every time. Repeating the bars you’re unsure of teaches you more.
- Breathe before you run out of air, not when it’s almost gone; in an easy piece it should never get that far. If breathing in time is still too hard, leave a beat or a bar of rest to breathe while you practise.
- Write down the fingering of any note you’re unsure of.
- Play the tune on its own first, then with the piano.
- Record yourself and listen back: on tuba you hear yourself differently from how others hear you.