Posted by been there on July 26, 2001 at 10:52:44:
In Reply to: Ready to throw my horn posted by in the river on July 25, 2001 at 22:18:10:
a bunch of things:
1st: the reason for buying an F. It doesn't "fight back" as much as a CC because of the shorter tubing. Trust me, this is true. At least go playtest one.
2nd: try a narrower mouthpiece, that still has the depth to give you the tone you want. It will support your embouchure like the Tbone mpc does. On tuba, if you can't "free buzz" a note, and you are using a very wide mouthpiece, you're not going to be able to play that note.
3rd: Fred Fox wrote a book about brass playing, and in it he talks about the "diaphram bump." OK, we all know it's not the diaphram, but let's just use his terminology. He says to "bump out" the part of your abdomen below the belt, on the highest note in any phrase. It works. To get the coordination going, learn to do it on the highest note of an arpeggio.
4th: take a look at the Maggio Method; it teaches you to use your "low embouchure" plus air, to play high. It also works.
5th: are you pulling in your corners to go up high? Are you pressing your lips together? You have to experiment on the combination of these that works best for you. People who are good at playing low but not high often have floppy corners.