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Help me out here. When I have the "big deal" first note of a piece I have a lot of trouble hitting the pitch dead on. How does a player come in exactly on pitch when there is no reference pitch in his/her (my)head? How do you hear it in your head before blowing the note (so that you don't blow the note)? Stealthily pull out a pitch pipe?

If you practice scales and intervals all through your range you will build a complex memory combining pitch, sound, embouchure position, and air support (as related to actual dynamic level). With experience you will be able to imagine the ensemble chord and your position within that framework. You have to listen actively and to learn from your errors.

Even fairly lately in my life with brasses I experienced this type of problem. I mostly played instruments in tenor Bb, and when I took up the Eb sousaphone my still adjusted-to-Bb ears had me shooting too high on the opening notes, when playing my first performance on the Eb bass.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre

imperialbari wrote:If you practice scales and intervals all through your range you will build a complex memory combining pitch, sound, embouchure position, and air support (as related to actual dynamic level). With experience you will be able to imagine the ensemble chord and your position within that framework. You have to listen actively and to learn from your errors.

Even fairly lately in my life with brasses I experienced this type of problem. I mostly played instruments in tenor Bb, and when I took up the Eb sousaphone my still adjusted-to-Bb ears had me shooting too high on the opening notes, when playing my first performance on the Eb bass.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre

My experience mirrors Klaus. I played trombone for almost 50 years before I ever picked up a tuba. I think the answer lies in his first sentence. Lots of interval studies. Build up the mind muscle connection that will enable you relate a pitch in your head to one at the mouthpiece. I can pick a note out of thin air on trombone but I break out in a cold sweat if I have to do it on tuba. I've been working for the last five years on intervals and I have made great progress. I'm still not where I want to be but Rome wasn't built in a day.

Bloke is right as well. If you don't hear the pitch in your head it's really tough. I have played the opening pitch for the next tune while the clapping was going on for the last and then hummed it until it was showtime. You do what ever you gotta do.

I hum or sing the pitch during the time between the last piece and the 1st note. I had a band director that used to always say "if you can't sing it, you can't play it".

Although I am neither blessed nor cursed with absolute pitch, I have found that WITH DAILY PRACTICE I can remember the "feel" of a note. For example, I had to start a concert with the Dukas Fanfare from La Peri, which starts on a rather difficult high Ab in the tuba part. I made that my first note every day, and eventually got so I could nail it dependably. Since then I have worked my way up. I try to remember what each of my students can manage as a first note, and ask each of them to start off each lesson with a moderately challenging first note. The flash cards mentioned above are also a good idea.

Pitch memory.

Play enough so that you HAVE a good idea, know what you're shooting for, and practice doing it cold every time you put the horn up to your lips.

I agree with previous comments about singing those notes, either aloud or in my head.

I get good results after practicing buzzing--passages and scales--with a tuner clipped to the mouthpiece.

Regarding high range, when picking up a cold horn, I attempt a note above the staff, such as middle C, which I hit about 90% of the time. One of these days I plan to gain the skill to creep up to and nail higher initial, cold notes.

On the other hand, low range notes (fourth ledger line F and below) are nearly impossible me to nail cold. I have to buzz and get warmed up before my low range starts working.

Art Hovey wrote:Although I am neither blessed nor cursed with absolute pitch, I have found that WITH DAILY PRACTICE I can remember the "feel" of a note. For example, I had to start a concert with the Dukas Fanfare from La Peri, which starts on a rather difficult high Ab in the tuba part. I made that my first note every day, and eventually got so I could nail it dependably.

Art's story is identical to mine, right down to that high Ab in the Dukas. I worked that opening note so much that even as I was reading Art's words, that note popped into my head.

I find that when I practice stuff to the point where the pitches are completely non-mysterious (as evidenced by my ability to sing them), I don't have as much problem as when I don't. I seem to recall reading something similar a while back on Tubenet. "Bloke" was at the top of that one.

If a note is so weird in its context that I can't seem to remember the pitch properly, I have been known to cheat and play it to myself during warmup as a reminder. I've even been known to "accidentally" play the note very quietly an octave down during the applause for the previous tune. Hey, it was an accident; I was blowing water out the water key and the buzz was unintended. The more I practice it, though, the less I need.

My current pitch challenge is the interval from the low Db to the high Bb in Variations on a Korean Folk Song. I can hear it in my head clearly, but my chops are just not reliable enough on that big an interval at my current state of (non) practice.

Rick "who can often play pitches back in his head but loses them as soon as the buzz starts" Denney

Rick Denney wrote:Rick "who can often play pitches back in his head but loses them as soon as the buzz starts" Denney

Oh, has there ever been a better illustration of the saying “the proof is in the pudding”?

Of course one might add “ - and often nowhere else!”

K

Set your embouchure before you put it to the mouthpiece, not the other way round.

I have noticed this in myself and a bunch of players, this is a huge no-no and gets called out on trombone and trumpet all the time. Players sit down, breathe, stick the mouthpiece to their face, then scrunch the embouchure inside of it... not only is the suspension of the breath bad enough, but we are setting ourselves up for failure in other ways.


I understand the "hearing" it part. I also think that having the embouchure set to the range you will be playing in, removes most doubt past that "musician in your ear".

If I recall my Claude Gordon, he contends that each pitch requires its own unique physical placement of chops and tongue.

When you warm up, you may benefit if you include as part of your routine occasional single notes - in various ranges and harmonically/melodically unrelated to one another. Identify a single target note, then play it with a robust, characteristic and musical tone. Don't fluff this off. At first, stay within your comfort zone, whatever it may be. (Typically the higher you go, the riskier.) Then work out from there over a course of weeks or even months. It builds muscle memory. Anyway, I had somewhat the same problem earlier in my career and that is what I did. And that is how I re-calibrate my chops to my Eb whenever I come back from a long time not playing it.