Re: A couple of problems


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Posted by Joseph Felton on February 07, 2000 at 11:40:22:

In Reply to: A couple of problems posted by Michael on February 04, 2000 at 19:16:34:

Without hearing you play I can only guess but what you have told us strongly suggests to me that you would benefit from focusing more of your attention on air usage. It just so happens that my current teacher plays very visibly off center and he sounds great. Also, I happen to articulate against the back of my upper lip clear up to the F above the staff with absolutely no degredation in sound. I actually feel that it helps because it keeps my oral cavity open and moves the whole sound producing mechanism as far forward as possible. Also, I have it on good authority that there is atleast one tuba professor with a reputation for having students that get jobs that has his students articulte in this way. It is my firm belief that good sound production and clean articulation will happen naturally regardless of embouchure and tongue placement as long is both are consistent(i.e. they adjust subtly and smoothly as you move throughout your range) and you have solid air support.
Please keep in mind that any attempt to describe how to play tuba is by definition never completely true. If you go to ten different world reknowned tubists they will all describe things slightly differently.. sometimes completely differently. I firmly believe that there is atleast a grain of truth in what every teacher has to say and the real key is to sort that out and fit it with what you already know. An example of this might be the idea of using the sylable TOH. The whole idea of using sylables, as any good education major could tell you, is that we are able to hook into a preexisting skill and make a connection between the old skill and the new one being developed. In reality TOH probably isn't *exactly* what is happening in your mouth otherwise everyone would have agreed upon that syable long ago and it wouldn't be a point of debate. Personly, I prefer to sing(there's that preexisting skill thing) OH and simply let my tongue bounce off the air collumn. I didn't get these ideas from any one teacher but
have pulled what I like best from each one. I once heard about a trumpet player that taught his students that the lips don't really buzz. While this is patently wrong physically his students actually sounded better than most. This goes to prove how much more important the mental side of the game is than the physical side. Sean really did say it best in his post.
Having said all that... it begs the question.. what would I do if I were you?
I would spend time every day playing Rochut in multiple octaves, scales slurred and articulated atleast two octaves, and a healthy dose of flexibility stuff. I absolutely guarantee that if you do this you will notice a marked improvement in your playing. I would also read the following books: The Inner Game of Tennis, The Inner Game of Music, and A Soprano on her Head. It would also be a good idea to tape yourself.
The most humerous part of this post is the fact that I may be completely wrong regarding my diagnostic ideas but if you do what I've suggested above you are bound to get better regardless. This is similar to your teacher taking credit for your cleaner articulation when in reality what most likely happened is that he simply made you aware of a deficiency in your playing and this awareness is what really corrected the problem. If that is the case then his attempt to change your physical playing has only gotten in the way of your progress.
For the record, I've posted this for my benefit as much as Michael's. I am open to any all comments and critques of my ideas. I'm hear to learn!
cheers!
joseph :)


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