Posted by olituba on May 20, 2001 at 03:12:46:
In Reply to: Starting lessons with a young tuba posted by Justin on May 19, 2001 at 11:06:53:
You might also try to do some singing lessons with him, since trying to drop the tongue will prove to be a hard thing to do, as the tongue quite unwillingly reacts to conscious thought and will do the opposite of what you want rather than not. By singing youŽll involve speaking and related vocal concepts, to which both the tongue and the soft part of the palate react to quite willingly.
The aim in this is to enlarge space in the mouth without seizing up either your tongue or you brain or more frequently both. So, maybe find a singing teacher, have him/her do very basic voice lessons with your student and afterwards work with the kid on transferring the singing what he/she found out about space in the mouth to the tuba.