PLEASE HELP! How Do I slur on the tuba?

[tubaxanperks]

Dear TubeNet,
I am an undergraduate Tuba player, 20 years old, and have recently discovered that I slightly engage my vocal cords when I play; especially when I slur. Has anybody had to overcome this bad habit as well?? I've tried to fix it by buzzing, just using wind patterns, very slow slurs, using just air as an attack etc. and I haven't experienced any progress!! PLEASE HELP ME! I want to become a professional player and this is definitely slowing me down and is quite discouraging!

[swillafew]

PM sent

[kontrabass]

Back to basics with you son! slur technique starts on the mouthpiece. Do slow, deliberate glissando on the mouthpiece, start small only a semi-tone, and feel the movement in your lips. Focusing on relaxing your throat and keeping your vocal chords disengaged.

remember too that a slurred note needs air support just like a tongued note. Try playing a scale with air attacks, as loud as you can, and get used to the idea if air behind every note.

Lastly two important bits of advice:

1. Be PATIENT. everyone has elements of their technique that have to he relearned from scratch. This could take you a few YEARS to master, but it'll be worth it. But there are no shortcuts.

2. what does your teacher say? you're an undergrad - you must have a mentor that you can trust? Your growth should be a shared challenge. Your teacher should be giving you the best guidance on thus, since they know you and give you hands-on, real time feedback.

[Roger Lewis]

Lip slurs are not that hard once you understand the principles behind it. In a traditional embouchure where the upper lip vibrates against the lower lip, the upper lip is the drum sticks and the lower lip is the drum head. The upper lip is the worker, BUT the LOWER lip is THE BOSS. The upper lip can only vibrate as fast as the lower lip is SET to ALLOW it to vibrate. If the lower lip is set soft then the upper lip HAS to vibrate slowly. If the lower lip is firm, then the upper lip HAS to vibrate fast.

If you want to slur up, firm the lower lip. If you want to slur down, soften the lower lip. Both lips are going to change the tissue involved in the creation of the vibration as it helps to have firm upper tissue vibrating against firm tissue in the lower lip for higher playing and soft upper tissue of the upper lip vibrating against softer tissue in the lower lip.

I spent 30 days working on lip slurs 'way back when, as I had had no formal instruction on it. I was practicing lip slurs for quite a few hours every day. On day 30 I stunk just as badly as I did on day 1. On day 31 I went into the practice room, expecting to stink at lip slurs for another long period of time and after warming up, all of a sudden I was all over the horn like a bad smell. Everything was amazingly easy. About 20 years later I thought back on that experience when I realized that a change had happened not in 31 days, but overnight. What it was was that my brain had figured out that you can't speed up the upper lip by itself, the lower lip has to make the changes.

When I tech it this way to my students they get the hang of it pretty quickly. All they need to do is learn how much movement is necessary for the interval they are working on.

It's really not hard, but it helps to understand what is going on.

Best of luck to you.

Roger