Posted by Jeff Miller on October 05, 1999 at 18:13:25:
In Reply to: switching horns+mouthpieces(help, pros!) posted by jon schultz on October 01, 1999 at 14:56:27:
John,
I do a lot of doubling/tripling on various tubas, bass trombone, and euphonium. You may not want to hear this, but the answer to your articulation problems is concept of sound and practice. Do 5 - 10 minutes of scale studies every day for a few months, concentrating on getting the sound/air bouncing away at the very beginning of each note. Alternate wind attacks (a.k.a. breath attacks) with tonguing, and strive to make them sound exactly the same.
Moving to a smaller/tighter mouthpiece will just choke down the amount of air you can move through the tuba. I change mouthpiece sizes alot, but never to improve physical drawbacks in my playing. Think of the mouthpiece as a paintbrush; sometimes you want one kind of brush stroke, sometimes another.
Hope that helps.
Jeff