Posted by Bill on May 20, 2001 at 19:33:17:
In Reply to: Starting lessons with a young tuba posted by Justin on May 19, 2001 at 11:06:53:
The ideas, posted here, about singing and firm air control are essential to the production of good tone. Another thing, so far unmentioned, is the embouschure's firmness and postion. Play with 2/3 to 3/4 of the mouth piece on the upper lip and with the bottom lip fairly firm, unil you go below the staff. Many students let their bottom lips flap uncontrolled or lightly controlled and the pitch and tone really suffer. But, since you are dealing with a a middle school student, and I think, a male, he may not have matured enough physically to continuously control his lip. He may want to squeeze his lips together to raise pitch and this will never produce good tone.