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Our community band’s brass ensemble is programming “I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas” for our holiday concert. It’s a tuba feature, and tubas play the melody through most of it. But one thing has me puzzled. It calls for something called an “elephant whinny”. Now, besides the mystery of why one would want an elephant sound in a song about a hippopotamus, there is also the question of how to make the required sound. It is notated with a non- pitched (x) note way below the staff, with a glissando up to a non- pitched (x) note way above the staff, then glissando back down to the original “note”. Would you just make a screaming-singing noise using your horn as a kind of megaphone, or would you depress valves half-way and try to make your embouchure do something like the horse whinny in “Sleigh Ride”, or something else I haven’t thought of?

An elephant sound is usually called a "trumpet". Best way I know, is put a snare drum over the bell of a French Horn/Baritone/Euph and give it all you got. You can do it without the snare but it's more realistic sounding.

Let me be more clear. This elephant whinny is written in the TUBA part and tubas are the ones expected to do it.

Based on the description I’d either wiggle my valves creating a half valve effect, or just do a half valve glissandi

That's fun, wonder if it's the same arrangement I played with a British Brass band once. Does it have a cadenza going up to a high G? I would do any "whinney" half valve as in sleigh ride, yeah.

LOL...
The church gig video I linked up a couple of days ago...
Scott was playing first trumpet in that quintet.
Check it out and you'll see that it's him.

I think I can make an elephant noise on the tuba if you're really serious. We used to do it all the time to annoy our band directors, along with similar noises that were the same types of noises but didn't quite sound like elephants.

I have to type up some crap tonight, but maybe I'll record it for you tomorrow. Don't expect a Scott Moore tutorial.

I'll never forget making the elephant "call" back in high school. Two sousaphone players facing each other hold the bells tight together and blow like hell. It is glorious! I guess we invented that version, as I had never seen it before,

TJ

Most people are familiar with the whinny in Sleigh Ride, and I think many trumpet players figured it out at a pretty young age. But on a (French) horn one really can sound quite a bit like an elephant by stuffing a hand way up in the bell and blowing like crazy. Tuba -- I'd think it would be the half valve trumpet thing that would produce the desired result. And now, (she said,) I have to go try that.

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I was offering to do a video, but why copy a tuba copying the sound when you've got the sound right here?

My suggestion is to mash all the valves down and copy this sound while also blowing the effing sheeet out of the tuba:

I have been doing this for many, many years. Try imitating the sound of the elephant just using your voice away from the tuba. Now put the mouthpiece up to your mouth and do it again.