Tuba Vs Trumpet easy or harder to get a sound

[windshieldbug]

Embrouchure is just as critical to playing the tuba; its how you make a sound, and what kind of sound you make. Is it more "forgiving"? It depends on what caused your lips to swell with the trumpet.

If it was too much pressure, then the tuba mouthpiece will just leave a bright red ring. But for many things, the tuba mouthpiece will cover it (it actually helped me to lose the bad habits I learned on a trumpet).

What I'd recommend is to try a tuba for a few minutes, and see what happens. Just borrow a horn. Don't worry about what notes you're playing, and don't push. See if the bad stuff shows up again.

Even if it does, its fixable, if you're still up for it. I know a bass clarinet player who plays tuba in a university's marching band. If it seems better, still get somebody to start you out the right way, and enjoy the "most noble of instruments". The fact that you're even asking for help indicates you'd be better off with a tuba than a trumpet!

[imperialbari]

I have been around all brasses from piccolo trumpet through BBb basses (sorry, I never came to DCI G-contrabasses even if I have 4 other G instruments).

If one is able to establish a high compression of air, then the smaller brasses are easier. If one is able to establish a steady high volume stream of air at a lower pressure, then the larger brasses are relevant.

As an ensemble leader/-arranger-type I have loved each and every of my brasses. However, if somebody knocked me over and jumped on my stomach to make me confess, which instrument I ever loved the most, then I would admit, that it is the euphonium.

That instrument is extremely efficient, when it comes to creating sheer aural beauty. All of my basses have been measured by the playability of my Yamaha YEP-641. They obviously have passed that test.

The flip side of the coin is, that there is a very small amount of specific euphonium literature, which can claim any degree of general musical relevancy. The euphonium is a band instrument, which is all fine with me.

And if you are a swing player like me, who can read all transpositions and clefs, then the euphonium is extremely versatile. If there were missing players in my small local band, I was given parts from horn through contrabass tuba to fill in important stuff. Sometimes I just did it by ear.

I also love bass- and contrabass tubas. Only they have a not so pleasant factor to negotiate: transportation.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre

[SplatterTone]

With the lower brass, you can get away with "brute force" playing more than on higher brass. I think that is the main reason the tuba has a joke reputation among the uneducated masses -- there are too many brute force tuba players running around. My experience has been that it is much more difficult to get a correct and efficient embouchure with tuba than with the higher brass. The tuba is a bitch and a half to play correctly.

I'll second the earlier vote for euphonium. Truly a lovely sound when played right.

[GC]

A friend of mine who is a VERY successful band director has a history of having large, strong tuba sections (he marches King 2341s), and about half of his players usually are girls who converted from clarinet. He says that there's something about the muscle development in clarinet embouchure that makes it easy for clarinetists to get a good sound on tuba. His results speak for themselves; his bands are always excellent, and the tuba sections have a really nice, solid sound.

[MartyNeilan]

FWIW, when I went through music ed and had to take courses on each group of instruments, the hardest instruments by far were the half-semester I spent on clarinet in the clarinet-flute-sax semester and the half-semester of bassoon in the oboe-bassoon semester. Everything else wasn't too bad. Of course, going from clarinet to tuba may be a whole lot easier than going from tuba to clarinet.
Plus, there is this guy in the midwest that plays a big silver tuba but still likes to play clarinet on the side.

[tubatooter1940]

I bought my son an alto sax and I couldn't get a sound out of it for a very long time. That's O.K., I hate everything about alto sax.
I played trumpet/trombone and was used to the mouthpiece differences after only a few weeks. I can't imagine tuba/trombone doubling to be any worse. But playing tuba bass lines witha 12 bar trumpet solo somewhere in the middle of a song is a real pain to me.
The size difference between my 24AW tuba mouthpiece and my Olds 3 trumpet mouthpiece is huge-requiring different muscles in the embochure.
I start improv at midrange on the trumpet-just to see what tone comes out at first. I adjust to what comes out-hoping to chromatic up to a relavent harmonic and wing it from there. Most times I'm lucky but when it goes in the crapper, it goes in loud.
The boys in the band are willing to endure the occasional splattering it off the walls to have the change-up in the sound of our trio.

[eli]

Hello all I'm a clarinet player but am a little interested in the tuba. What a contrast. Anyway I tried playing the trumpet but I had a lot trouble getting a sound out of it because my lips would swell after a few minutes of playing and then I was done practically for most of the day. Is the emboucher as critical for the tuba or is it more forgiving? Thanks in advance.

Also has to do with chops physical size. As a "casual" tuba player, I got here through my best friend in high school who started on trumpet but had to drop to baritone when he got braces. He had both horns, and while I could make a passable sound on a baritone, I simply could not fit my face into a trumpet mouthpiece -- my lips are quite simply too big.

When I first got my mitts on a tuba later in high school, it was just so natural. Been a low-note junkie ever since.

[Tubatoad]

One Christmas when all the nephews and nieces were over at my house, I let them try my tuba. I had them blow a nice juicy raspberry, then do it again into the mouthpiece. Instant music! Ok, it's only one note, but the sound was actually pretty good. Yes, there is a lot more to making music than making potty noises into the mpc, but once you start, it's addictive!

Gopher it!

[Shockwave]

I play tuba and trumpet regularly, and they are quite a bit different. Trumpet is a tiring instrument, and the music has a lot of notes, but it's an agile instrument and get's a nice, clear sound with little concentration required. Unfortunately, tooth structure is quite important for trumpet and there is definitely a caste system of trumpeters with good teeth who have range and ease and players with bad teeth who will always struggle.

Tuba is an effortless instrument, and it is easy to make a sound on a tuba, but it is difficult to make a good sound. To sound good you need to have a steady airflow with almost nothing to blow against, and you need to buzz the pitch the tuba is going to want to play or the note will bubble. Playing tuba requires more thinking ahead than trumpet because you need to hear the pitch in your head before you play it in order to get a good attack, and because breaths are taken so frequently. A trumpet player can simply wait for a beat of rest to take a breath. An oboe player can wait until the piece is over!

-Eric

[iiipopes]

And, as far as I'm concerned, a bassoon player can just wait.