Re: Achieving goo attacks


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Posted by Jay Bertolet on January 27, 1999 at 16:12:26:

In Reply to: Achieving goo attacks posted by John Hreha on January 26, 1999 at 18:10:36:

I mostly agree with what's been posted so far, though I'm not REALLY sure how much a "pb&j" will help. Anyhow, here's my suggestion.

I've always been taught by my teachers that "missed notes just happen, learn to accept it". And I played like that for a long time until I started to focus my efforts towards really centered sounds and embouchure. I used to move my embouchure way too much and, as a result, I was playing many pitches out of center. It really is true that the tuba is nothing more than a loudspeaker, amplifying what you put into it. The problem is that when you're fingering one frequency and putting in a different frequency through the mouthpiece, you get a problem. Usually this results in a broken attack or a "fracked" note. After you frack a note a few times, maybe you become tentative when you play that pitch and, like your body reacts to pain, maybe your embouchure twitches when you play that note. Also, because you're tentative, maybe you lay back on the air in hopes of not overloading the note, thinking it to be unstable, and missing it by being too agressive.

The thing to do is to make sure the embouchure is steady and correct. You don't need to move your embouchure around much when you play. Try to watch yourself in a mirror when you play and see for yourself how much you do or don't move. I believe it is too much motion, putting your embouchure out of position, that causes most fracked notes. If the embouchure is steady and in the correct position and you attack the note in the center of the pitch with proper air support, my guess is you won't miss much. Everytime I miss a note, I can mentally trace it back to an embouchure movement. When I adopted this philosophy, I cut back on my missed notes dramatically. One exercise that I do is to slur up and down a major or minor arpeggio for 3 octaves in 1 breath. I start on pedal Db and go up chromatically from there. By slurring the whole 3 octaves in one breath, I keep the mouthpiece on my face and force myself to make centered sounds, through 3 octaves, without moving my embouchure significantly. I would encourage you to make up your own exercise that accomplishes the same goal.

I hope my suggestions help you. In my mind, learning proper control of the embouchure is one of the hardest aspects of good tuba playing. I hope my suggestions don't offend those of you on this BBS who have posted messages about not thinking about embouchure mechanics but instead focusing on the end product. I think a successful combination of the 2 approaches works best. My opinion for what its worth...


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