How does playing low help our high range?

[MaryAnn]

What's interesting is that I seem to have a "full range" on tuba, but for years now I've been listening to all kinds of advice, and getting lessons from all kinds of people, on how to play the high range of the French horn. I can play below pedal C on the horn, so low range is not a problem; I'm something of a low horn specialist (prefer 2nd and 4th parts) and have never had more than the "occasional" high range.

So I'm very sympathetic to the original poster's dilemma. I've tried Roger's techniques for high range on horn (he says it works on any brass insrtument) ... and nada, nothing. Squeaks at best. If I work on high range, it gets worse, not better. I feel lucky to have a G on top of the staff, but if I try to play 1st horn in a group (which is sometimes requested because of my other skills) it kills me but quick. I think there are three things required: 1) proper embouchure 2) proper air supply/flow and 3) proper musculature. People for whom lifting 50 pounds is easy, don't understand those of us who can do it but it uses 100% of our capability; the former can lift 50 lb bags of cement for a couple hours, and the latter can do it once. I think some of the high range is in that category....some people have the musculature to do it, and others don't.

MA

[Leland]

There's a trumpet book called something like "Double High C In Thirty Days" that has probably half of its exercises well below the staff.

I really don't know the name for sure, but I swear that I saw such a book, and I was definitely surprised by how much of it had multiple ledger lines below the staff.

[Dylan King]

It is more in the ear than one might think. Try playing the same note on a trumpet or trombone, or even on a piano. A player must "know they can do it" before they can be proficient. Imagine the sound of another tubist playing, and play exactly that. Even better, imagine your sound and play it.

Hear the note. Here the tone and timbre of the sound. It seems to me so many people work so much on high register "feeling right", and having it right in the chops, that they forget the music, forget the sound. The sound, and your confidence in that sound is key!

Hear first. Go for it. If it doesn't work, hear again. Experiment. Try different emouchures until it works. If you can really hear it, you will be able to play it!

If you can't ever hear it, you might as well look like a hippy and play guitar or something.

[corbasse]

.....
So I'm very sympathetic to the original poster's dilemma. I've tried Roger's techniques for high range on horn (he says it works on any brass insrtument) ...
MA

When I started tuba I was shocked by some of the advice given to me to accomplish certain things.
There were quite a few things that I'd been expressly forbidden to do on french horn, and I had spent a lot of time unlearning them when starting that instrument. Now I'm trying to re-learn them, and not letting them get in the way of the horn playing.

[nimrod480]

Well, i've just read it all, and I too am looking to increase my range.
i can now play up to a Bb to and up to a G to sound good.

two years ago i couldnt play and sound good above the C then i did this kind of practice.

i went two octaves down from my highest note at the point and started playing long notes and going up a step every time i run out of air.
i did it every day for about 10-15 minutes and after about a month or so i got to a High F to sound good.

now i want to extended a little further my range so im going to do the same, i hope it'll work for you too.

[Lew]

Does this mean playing high will improve my low range...

I find that all my playing sounds better, at least to me, when I play high.

[Donn]

I'm relatively new here. Please permit me this one stupid question: what does "high G" mean?

The highest note I think I have ever seen in ordinary band parts is an Ab at the top of the bass clef, and it sure seems reasonable to me to call the G right below it high G. Of course any G above that would have to also be high, but it seems to me immaterial whether one could play that on a tuba, because there wouldn't be much call for it?

[David]

"High G" in this case, is just what you guessed: g just below top of the staff in the base clef

[Donn]

Thanks! In that case, if I can make an observation from the very amateur perspective --

I think of my tuba playing career in two parts. The first one ended with me burdened with two really big Bb tubas that were not a lot of fun to play, at least in a practice type situation, and some saxophones that I played a lot better and enjoyed more. The second began recently with purchase of a $200 very used Italian Eb tuba that is a kick in the butt to play. And subsequently an old F helicon that is also fun and maybe more useful.

Naturally, these high notes are easier to play on these horns, even with the same mouthpiece, because there aren't so many partials lurking nearby. But to my surprise, when I go back to the remaining Bb tuba, I think I notice an improvement there too, where I used to find these notes really frustrating (or even lower, towards the end of a show.) Basically, it seems to me I finally am taking the easy and fun route to learning to play high. I wish I had started with a small Eb tuba.

[MaryAnn]

Well, we had a fairly impromptu meeting of the horn club last night; by luck and preference I ended up on the 5th (lowest) horn parts for most of the evening, so I got to blatt in the tuba range for an hour and a half, with occasional excursions into the treble clef.

Then when we were done, I blasted out a couple of high C's for my good friends, to show them that I could indeed also play this note that they had been screeching away at all evening. So for me, playing only the low range all night helps me to still have a high range at the end of the night. I can virtually guarantee that playing only the high range all evening, will not help me to still have one at the end, although I do find that I will still have a low range no matter what I've done all evening.


MA