Air support and intonation

[Roger Lewis]

20 cents, we're talking about 3/4 of an inch on each side of the slide, adding 1 1/2 inches total. This should be more than sufficient without getting the slide too low and interfering with the stand,chair, etc.

Just an observation.

Peace.
Roger

[MaryAnn]

Well...I'm clearly not one of the high level players here. But....if the equipment isn't working for you and you know of equipment that does work for you (i.e., what you said about the 188)...why fiddle with trying to make a bad match a good match? Just switch.

MA

PS to bloke: the tendency to focal dystonia is genetic; people end up losing their careers because when it first starts to manifest, knowledge of how to avoid it getting worse is lacking, and people do the wrong thing (try to fix it with more concentrated practice, which makes it worse.) I've nearly overcome mine, but it took two years and the process is not yet complete although I'm back to a good 80% of where I was. Wouldn't be good enough for a pro but I'm not a pro; also I had to figure it out for myself and everything would have gone a whole lot faster if I had had knowledgable help. If anyone is interested in what I've learned in how to overcome dystonia, PM me and I'll point you to my blog where I have some articles about it.

[Allen]

Roger and Joe (bloke) have made excellent suggestions. I had the same problem (with a MW 32), and it was solved by getting what the manufacturer called the "long" main tuning slide instead of the "regular" one.

Since my day job is engineering, I took an engineer's approach. First, I determined the resonant frequencies of the tuba: Set up your tuner, then close your eyes. Play an open note and use your chops to bend the pitch up and down until you feel the pitch that has the most resonance. Now, open your eyes and look at the tuner. Now, you know the pitch of the instrument itself. Repeat for other open notes. If the open notes give you consistently sharp of flat readings, you now know that the instrument itself is sharp or flat. [You may want to repeat this with alternate mouthpieces.]

After I determined that my tuba itself was sharp (even with the main slide all the way out), I did an experiment. I set my tuner to the common European pitch of A=443 and retuned my tuba. Now, it was well in tune with itself and with A=443. After my new "long" main tuning slide arrived, I tuned the tuba up to A=440 and everything worked well. The only adjustment I do while playing is a little bit of first valve slide adjustment for some notes, for which I had the first valve vented and the slide lapped.

My advice: You should either follow Roger and Joe's advice, or use my testing method then follow Roger and Joe's advice.

Cheers,
Allen

[Roger Lewis]

rules of thumb. The way you play is - the way you play. If you have to change what you are doing to get the hron to work k for you, then , you are "going to the horn". For best results the horn "should come to you".

As I've said in the past, the horn has to like what you do to it. It should complement your skills sets and not require you to change what you do to get it to work the way you would like it to.

When we first sit down with a horn that we have not played before, a receptor site opens in the brain that anticipates a specific feel and sound. When the horn gives that receptor exactly what it is waiting to hear and feel, then your whole body will relax and you'll just play. If that receptor doesn't like what it gets, then you immediately start changing your jaw position, your embouchure, your air flow, etc, trying to get it to do what you want. This happens almost immediatley and then you are "chasing the horn". You should know right away when the horn gives you what you want it to.

Just an observation.

Peace.
Roger

[Levaix]

Didn't you say that other people could play your horn in tune? If other people can play it in tune without extra effort, then I would guess the problem isn't the horn. Not that I'm an expert, but it sounds like you're squeezing. Have you ever done any exercises with a breathing tube?

[brianf]

sounds like you're squeezing

Now we're getting somewhere. I'd bet that you are thinking of air as air pressure and not air flow.