Posted by Mary Ann on June 24, 2003 at 12:36:50:
In Reply to: Smiling Embouchure posted by Not Happy on June 24, 2003 at 05:56:52:
On the assumption that you were asked to change because you are getting a lousy sound...use a mirror to see what you look like, with the help of your teacher, on one good note done correctly. I mean it...one good note.
Then make up an exercise in which you move from this one good note, to nearby notes, slowly, slurring, looking in the mirror and keeping that same look and feel. Think of it as starting to learn an entire new instrument, instead of "changing your embouchure." Like, you're learing to play "dark tuba" instead of "bright tuba." Don't play _anything_ at all except what you can do right. YOu will need a lot of patience!! When you have enough range with your new look (sounds like a fashion re-do, huh?) that you can play the tunes in a beginning book, start to do that, always remembering to play your new instrument instead of your old one.
You should be able to completely make the switch in a couple of months if you approach it carefully like this. (Yes, I have been there and done that, more than once. Actually embarking on more or less the same thing, myself, on horn, again, with a larger cup that will allow me to stuff more lip in it.)
Now for the theory part, for those of you who are still reading. I think a large part of tone quality is what is doing the vibrating; rubber tubing can be used to form an artificial "embouchure" and play a brass instrument. With rubber tubing, airflow is only going to affect the sound to a certain extent...and the rest is due to the rubber tubing itself. Embouchure is your own personal rubber tubing, and how you form it has a lot to do with your tone quality. People with fairly heavy lips, with a lot of flesh in them, can get away with a less puckered embouchure than people with thinner, less fleshy lips. With my thin lips, I have to pucker a lot more, stuff more lip into the mouthpiece, to get the same mass of lip in the cup as someone with more fleshy lips would, without having to pucker as much as I do. So....if you're getting a thin sound, you need more lip in the cup; if your sound is thick and woody, you need less lip in the cup. Most people err on the side of too little lip in the cup, while very few err the other way.
MA