Posted by Klaus on June 22, 2001 at 13:18:32:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Eb with a German sound? posted by Mary Ann on June 22, 2001 at 12:06:20:
No one should attempt to act as a smart a** across the pond and net distances. And yet this is exactly, what I am going to do:
You have a pro education on the violin, you have played a lot of stuff on the horn, you have no problems in reading-analysing-understanding-hearing-expressing musical structures, and you most likely have the highly compressed time schedule of a pro person.
It is just so tempting to rush ahead and try to make music on an instrument, where the basic logistics in form of the fingerings and the (pre-)hearing of the notes are easily mastered by you.
How much time have you spent with your tuba with no other objective than finding its soul? By modulating all notes in regards to intonation and dynamics?
On the problematic notes have you tested whether their centers of intonation are slightly outside of the ranges, where a trained musicians ear would expect them to be? You have to get the note before you can start working with it.
I have posted on my attitude towards basics under the Warm-Ups thread on the 19th of June, so I will not repeat myself here on that point.
Only tried a German F a few times, a B&S 5 valve model belonging to an older amateur friend. Even way back when I used the Conn Helleberg on my then only "tuba", the Conn 26K, I had no problems with getting the low notes on the B&S. I am quite sure that had to do with my relaxed and open, but still controlled airstream, which I still fight to master. On a daily basis.
Speaking in horn terms it might inspire you tubawise to imagine the diaphragm work, combined with an open throat, necessary to play the low 4th horn passages in the last movement of Mahler 4. I have been there, and no one wanted to swap parts with me.
Klaus