Heureka! Moving the airstream downwards made me find the right slot

[sidenius]

The second Corona lock down here in Denmark freed up some extra time to try out some of the good playing advices I have received in here.
Interesting things often happens when you have the time to experiment and not just trying keeping the chops in good shape!

In an earlier post I was asking why some players (myself included) are generally high pitched on their instruments.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=98705

Some of you suggested that possibly I was aiming to high - that is - slotting above the actual center of the tone.
I don't remember who gave me the advice to try out if I could bend the pitch of a tone as much up as down and thereby finding the right center of the tone.
Anyways: I have now used that advice and been coming to the conclusion that I was indeed aiming to high for the perfect slot.
I was not in the right center of the tone, so I tried to change the direction of my airstream downwards to correct that and thereby naturally receding my lower jaw to be able to do that.

It was a little inconvenient at first but I gave it some time - and boy what a difference that made!
Not only did I have to push my main tuning slide in (which is ussually pulled quite a bit) - but I also experienced some rather crazy things when blowing downstream with receded jaw:

My Cc tuba became significantly more in tune with itself and the annoyingly flat bottom staff line G - which I normally have to lipp up - suddenly came very close to perfect tuning WHITH downstream playing (which is rather the opposite direction of what I have been using when trying to lipp up the G!)
My flexibility was also significantly improved
Another crazy thing happened: These days I practice in a minor room fighting with bad resonance in the low register and the feeling of a demotivating room generated resistance down there (due to too low ceiling and generally not enough acoustic space).
But along with the new way of blowing my horn came a pleasant resonance I have never experienced in this room before.
Not perfect acoustics compared to my living room - but - absolutely acceptable for satisfying rehearsals.

So thank you very much for good advice in here! I fell like a reborn tuba player despite the fact that I (and others) thought I was doing pretty good in advance

If someone could enlighten me with probable explanations for this surprising change I would be happy to hear

Best
Bertil

[Doug Elliott]

There are different embouchure types - more than just upstream and downstream - defined by the mechanical way the face works when playing. A lot of players who are having trouble are either inconsistent with their mechanics, or playing consistently with the wrong type for their face.

Of course I have not seen your play, so I don't know specifics other than what you've written here. But it definitely sounds like whatever you were doing was incorrect for you, and now you have found something a lot closer to being correct.

If you were playing upstream (placed mostly on your bottom lip), it's fairly typical to have higher pitch and less control over it. That's not necessarily the case for someone who really SHOULD be playing upstream. There are plenty of players who have that embouchure and it's correct for them and works well. But when it's wrong, it's wrong.

[sidenius]

Thank you, Doug!