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Hello Folks,

I've been playing tuba for about 14 years (Tuba/Contrabass-Bugle) Since my Freshman year of high school. I joined one of the local mummer-string band organizations last year and I played tuba with them most of the year but had to switch to a baritone sax for their new years day competition. I'm having a hard time going back to tuba right after playing saxophone. I was hoping to do some mixed doubling this year in concerts. One song on tuba, another on Bari. Yadda Yadda..

I can go from tuba to the sax no problem. But going back to tuba. My slotting is all over, volume is non-existent for the first several minutes back over to tuba. I do a handful of slurs, and some scales and I'm back to powerhouse.

$64K Question... Will this get better over time, or am I trying to do the impossible? Any Suggestion on making this transition easier.

My Toys:
Olds O-99
Yamaha YBB321 (My Newest Toy)
Kanstul Contrabass Bugle Grande
Grassi Baritone Saxophone (Eb)

I'm not a woodwind player but I know some woodwind 'doublers' use synthetic reeds. They don't need to be wet to work.

I have no idea how to double on sax. When I had to play the bari parts I used my cimbasso. It worked very well.

In my first 2 years of hs, I was actually mostly a bass clarinetist, but doubled on bari sax and tuba. I never really had any problems going back and forth between them. The only thing I can remember doing in between was just stretching my mouth a bit (yawning worked) and moistening my lips. Then, I just looked at the tuba as its own instrument and played it.
What I would suggest is to do a bit of practicing from a cold start, without warming up. Get to where you can do that and sound good enough to get by, and then use that to finish warming up while you're playing.
You're lucky...I stopped being allowed to use a bari when the one I shared disappeared...and no one in college believes that I can play anything other than tuba or trombone...

Bob1062 wrote: How do you deal with a dry reed when going from tuba to saxophone?

Plastic reeds? Seriously, I love plastic reeds. "Bari" brand: relatively cheap, indestructible, clear plastic. Might not be the right thing for everyone, and works much better with some kinds of mouthpiece than others (and in fact for this reason I'm back on cane right now and might look at other plastic & plastic-covered reeds.) But in a typical ensemble situation it isn't nearly the liability that a cane reed can be when something goes wrong.

I don't have an answer for the original question. I actually have some problems there, to some degree, whether I play the saxophone beforehand or not, but I have been thinking it's because of facial hair, particularly on my upper lip. On the bright side, when you figure out how the bari is cramping your chops and what to do about it, you'll have a little better conscious understanding of the mechanics of playing, which could be useful later.

When you're playing bari sax, is your brain in treble or bass clef? If you're thinking in terms of treble clef, you're transposing, and if you have a pretty good sense of relative pitch, you may be (unawares) having difficulty "re-acclimating" to concert pitch when you go back to tuba for the first few minutes. In other words, the notes aren't where your embouchure thinks they should be.

When you become older, this specific problem will go away. Anymore, I refuse to double on any instrument that can't be carried inside my tuba case.

Good luck.

I noticed a very similar thing when playing sax and learning clarinet...it can really mess you up....

You''re also right, tuba to sax..not bad. Sax to tuba...weiiird.

I think it really has to do with which muscles work for which embrochure, after all sax and tuba have VERY different settings for your mouth. I am not totally sure that you can completely irradicate this, however you can minimize it by doing several things:

practice switching....a lot
warm-up on BOTH instruments before a performance where you are doubling. You may HAVE to take a second and play a few notes on the tuba when coming from sax as well since it'll take a bit for your lips to remember.
I know that when I was doing these kinda things, it was tough..so no real solid advice. Just that you need to experiment a bit and see what works. I don't see any harm in giving extra time between songs....after all, I'd rather have a longer wait where someone makes lame jokes to stall than hear a player shoot him/herself from cracked notes and crappy tone.

As you work this stuff out, share what ends up working or doesn't work.

I use cane reeds 2's I think I'm going to step up to something a little harder 3's or 3 1/2's. I'm a drooler so dry reads never stay dry...

BARI reeds .... Um First Time I tried one I shattered it. Maybe because I'm kind of an animal on Bari. I play a Bari like I would my tuba or a bugle. I try filling a 12" bell with a 21" worth of power.

I think doubling will start to come through more I get used to doing it. Reeds aren't my normal bag. I've only been playing bari since September..

As for hearing/playing different keys... Tuba BBb (Non transposing Bass Clef) Baritone Sax Eb (Transposed Treble Clef) Here's the other Kicker..... Contrabass Bugle GG (Transposed Treble Clef) I've seen professional musicians get SO Frustrated trying to play bugles.. I guess playing them since 1998 I'm used to it.. LOL

Playing different horns isn't unfamiliar, if I leave one of them alone for a while (Couple Weeks) it takes me about 10 minutes to get my bearings again. Cost of playing different stuff all the time.

Tonight was my first time at a rehearsal back on a Tuba in months. Had my "New To Me" Yamaha Tuba. Man I love playing on a Big Bore Tuba again. My Olds is nice but the Yamaha plays more like my Kanstul.

BTW: Howard Johnson (of HoJo tuba fame) plays almost as much bari/bass sax as he does tuba so it can be done at a high level.

sonofjabba wrote: Maybe because I'm kind of an animal on Bari. I play a Bari like I would my tuba or a bugle. I try filling a 12" bell with a 21" worth of power.

If you can cure that, I expect you'll sound better on bari and have less trouble switching back to the tuba.