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Once you find that sweet spot where your slides should be to play in tune, that's pretty much where they should stay. There's honestly no cheating way to play high notes, other than strange embouchure positions, which will feel wrong anyways. The best method is always practice.

tubashaman2 wrote:It has been mentioned on this bored several times about playing high.

Regardless of what you do or what horn you play, you are still BUZZING the pitch and using the same air stream (we hope).

I think it is funny I have the same range on both tubas.

And we probably should have the same range on them!

Actually, I've noticed that my range is one note higher on my 5/4 CC than on my TINY F.... Don't know why.....but the F sounds way sweeter.

For a better high range, read this excellent post by Roger Lewis almost 5 yrs ago.



Developing High Range

Yes, pushing all slides in will help one play higher ... by 20-30 cents.

Doesn't make playing any easier and screws intonation all to hell, though.

TubaGuy753 wrote:I am trying to play higher notes on my BBb tuba with as little effort as possible. Is it true that if all slides are pushed all the way in, this will become easier? I am inexperienced with how much slides should be in.

The myth implied in the question may come from the horn world.

Farkas, who was 1st horn in the Chicago Symph during an era, where descant horns were less common, recommended removing the slides from the F side of the double horn, when playing high baroque stuff like the Brandenburg #1.

Some players for the same reason, weight reduction, remove the caps of their rotary valves.

The BBb tuba equivalent would be to remove the 4th slide and the bottom caps on rotors. I wouldn’t recommend either. The BBb is a contrabass and should not have its low range capacities reduced. And then removing slides and caps will give dirt an easy access to places, where it is not wanted.

Klaus

I recommend removing the nut behind the mouthpiece.

The biggest problem with high register is being able to hear the pitch, in your head, that you are required to play, before you play it. Ear training and sight singing are VERY important in your musical education. The building of the embouchure muscles also must addressed. However, from personal experience over my 30 years of playing, I found that my execution of high register passages got better if I could accurately sing the passage.

If you do NOT have perfect pitch, I offer the following technique, of my own design, to build your high register as well as train your ears.

Building High Register:

There are two factors in a good high register on a brass instrument. One is the building of strong embouchure muscles. The other is ear training so that the student is hearing the note they are aiming for before playing it.

This mouthpiece-only exercise works only for students without perfect pitch who can buzz a major scale on their mouthpiece. I will explain this exercise using movable "Do" solfege syllables.

On the mouthpiece, alone, buzz the lowest note that can be played comfortably and accurately. Using that low note as Do, the tonic of the key, buzz a major scale, in slow accurate quarter notes, up and down as follows:

Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si-Do-Si-La-Sol-Fa-Mi-Re-Do-Re

Hold the ultimate Re. Vocally, sing the pitch of the ultimate Re saying the syllable Do, thereby, establishing a new tonic in a new key. Buzz a major scale using the newly established Do, up and down as previously described, ending again, on Re. Again sing the Re pitch as a new Do and repeat the process until the top notes of the scale can, absolutely, not be buzzed with an accurate pitch to complete the major scale. ALWAYS, use lots of air when playing the mouthpiece. This will transfer to your playing with the instrument and build your sound. Do this exercise daily. It takes me about 10 minutes.

This exercise builds embouchure muscles by buzzing the mouthpiece, alone. It also trains the ear forcing the student to play an accurate major scale without the aid of the instrument. Since the student, without perfect pitch, cannot tell the actual pitch of the note he or she is buzzing, the names of the pitches of the highest notes being buzzed are not known. I have found many players, including myself, develop a psychological “ceiling” of the highest note they think they can play. This “ceiling” is reinforced by the visual cue of ledger lines in printed music. One sees a note higher than one thinks one can play and therefore, due to self-fulfilling-prophecy, cannot play it. In the buzzing exercise, the pitch of the highest note being buzzed is not known. Therefore, the psychological “ceiling” is removed and the student will probably play higher notes than ever before.