Posted by John Szkutko on February 13, 2000 at 18:57:38:
In Reply to: Re: Low Register posted by Jay Bertolet on February 13, 2000 at 10:31:36:
I agree with Jay here. Years ago on my Eb, I had a 3 1/2 octave range all on the one embouchure, Eb 2 ledgers above and Bb 6 ledgers below. This came about from consistent practice. I honestly can't remember what I did except for Bordogni's down the octave. Now days I play a B&H 994 BBb tuba and when I first started, the C's (5 ledgers below) and lower notes required movement of the mouth. This totally annoyed me as these notes werenever a problem before.
Long story short, I've been playing BBb for almost 4 years now and things are just about right again. I can, with out hardly any movement, do a Bb scale down then up again quite smoothly with a consistent sound. 2 Things that helped achieve this, The first routine in the Stamp Trumpet book and playing scales down then up, moving down chromatically until I get down to that Bb (smoothly of course).
The less "work" you have to do, like not having to move your embouchure, means you are more relaxed and can spend time on more important areas of your playing, like sound and musicianship.