What can I do at home to be a better tuba player if my tuba is getting a service?

Answer 1

Mouthpiece exercises

Answer 2

Although I'm not a tuba player (flutist actually), here's a list that I have:

Instrument Specific
liptrills/mouth piece stuff
fingering combinations--work on ones that give you trouble
breathing coordination
practice visualizing on performing well in front of an audience. You can mentally "perform" the piece by fingering, breathing, and buzzing through the entire piece w/o stops.

For Fun (but also educational)
listening to other tubists or works using tuba for your own ideas on playing the instrument
join a tuba/low brass email list to learn new things about what's happening in the low brass world
Go hear other instrumentalists perform. Great musicians don't keep their listening repretory to just their instrument. They incorporate what they hear from other instrumentalists into their own playing as well.
Take a trek to a music library (if one is nearbye). Look through old issues of brass magazines to see how teaching of the instrument has changed over the years.
Read books about famous instrumentalists

Music Wise
Finger through tricky spots in your repretory
Ear-training exercises...learn to hear your part (and others) in your head. better yet, sing them
Music history--learn about the work in terms of what was happening historically with the music, composer, and instrument
Music Theory--break down the piece into different chords, study the modulation of keys, etc.
Form/Analysis--fiind what type of form the piece is in. Which sectioins are similar, which are different, which are transitory, etc.
Compare/Contrast several pieces of repretory..use as a guide to help you determine how YOU want to play the work(s).
Rhythm--work with a metranome if you struggle in this department

When all else fails, take a few days off from practising until you get your instrument back...or see if you can borrow one somehow in the meantime.

Answer 3

What a great question!
Mouthpiece exercises, as mentioned above, are a good way to keep your chops in shape. There are lots of mouthpiece things you can do:
*buzzing exercises
*playing scales on your mouthpiece only
*playing music on your mouthpiece only (scales or music, you can finger along as well)

Breathing exercises, aka "The Breathing Gym"

Answer 4

Visualise! anything! The fingerings to your pieces anything, your mouth form anything that will help you! You could also try and see if your teacher has a spare one! Quite often they have spare instruments lying around.