Lower range development?

[dopey]

I am currently having a problem with my lower range. I cant' seem to get a pedal Bb out. When I attempt this a E comes out of my horn. I have tried adjusting my embrochure but most I can get it down to is around a D I believe. its quite odd and very annoying.

My upper register seems to be doing just fine as well as my mid but my lower seems to be screwy.

How would one go about developing, not strengthening their lower range? I can't exactly play in the low range to increase it, since the notes dont' come out (pedal Bb....).

I can play low F very easily, and get to around a D or C, however I believe the fingerings im using for these may be wrong thus prolly adding to my current embrochure problem.

Any suggestions are welcomed, I play on a cerveny 681 with a helleberg mpc

[tubaman5150]

Here's my method for pedal notes:
I anchor my bottom lip on the bottom rim of the mouthpiece and shift my top lip down as well.
Then I use my top lip to provide the lions share of the vibration. I also use more of an oval shaped aperture here, in lieu of a more "O" shaped one. Make sure you get your tongue out far enough and use lots of slower moving, but higher volumes of air. If you overblow, you won't be able to get it in tune.
Done properly, it should feel like your top lip is "flapping" a bit.
This can be used for pedal Bb and below. I have used it above that (up to a low D), but with lots of valves depressed, it becomes difficult to maintain air pressure.

[Roger Lewis]

to low register playing. The physics dictate that you need to have soft tissue vibrating against other soft tissue. The easiest way to for the correct embrouchure (in my playing) is to do this exercise:

Sit in a chair and focus your vision on a fixed point across the room so that your vision line is parrellel to the floor (assuming that the floor is close to flat). Now, hold your hand out at arm's length with your palm facing towards you and place it approximately 6 inches below your "sight" line. Now, WITHOUT MOVING YOUR HEAD - blow air at your hand. Move your embrochure around until the air is hitting the palm of your hand. Getting the air to the hand by moving your head defeats the value of this exercise so make sure you use the lips to get the air going in the proper direction. Once you have the air hitting the palm of your hand directly, feel how you have your lips set. The way they are at that moment should be the perfect setting for low register playing. Now if you buzz the air to the same point on your hand you will find that it is a slow vibration buzz = low register.

For mid register move the hand 6 more inches down and repeat the process of getting the air to your palm without moving your head. Buzz again and you will find that you have a solid mid register vibration.

For high register playing place the palm of your hand on your chest facing upward and again, without moving your head, blow air at your hand. Once the air is hitting the hand then buzz so that the air from the buzz is hitting the hand as well and you will find that you have a high vibration buzz, perfect for high register playing.

All points in between will garner faster or slower vibration based on the location of the hand and hence the direction of the air stream.

Remember this exercize is to show how the lips need to be formed and the importance that air direction has in helping to set this up.

One of my adult students worked on this and found that another concrete visual aid made it a little easier for him to grasp. Hold a mouthpiece up so that, if you are facing West, the mouthpiece is facing North to South. Point to the area on the outside of the mouthpiece just below the throat of the mouthpiece, at the bottom of the cup, and this is where you will blow air for low register (when the mouthpiece is on your embrouchhure, of course). Point at the side of the bowl of the mouthpiece and this is where you blow air for mid register. Point at the section at the top of the bowl, just under the rim and this is where you blow air for high register.

It's that simple. Remember - babies and monkeys can buzz their lips - what we're doing is NOT rocket science and it isn't hard!

Just my observations.

[gdthetubaman1291]

Just thought I'd bring this back from the dead.

I found Roger's post very helpful and I'm sure others will too.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

I'm also a "single-lip" pedal player, but I anchor my top lip against the top rim of the mouthpiece and allow the lower lip to "flap." This has allowed me to produce very strong pedal notes all the way down to Gb below pedal C. Another advantage to this method (to me) is that pedal tones produced in this manner seem to require less air.

Lately, I've begun working harder on extending the single-lip method upwards as far as possible...I can now play securely up to the F four ledger lines below the staff. This technique makes it somewhat easier to manage the Rochut exercises in the basement and has also proven useful for power in the notes just above the pedal. I think this technique was used by Tommy Johnson and was known as the "pedal shift" method.

[TubaNerd88]

Good to see you've kept up with your playing, Jacob!

For my pedal register playing, I always let my top lip do most of the work while having my bottom lip against the bottom rim of the mouthpiece. This creates the "flapping" sound that many of the previous posters have mentioned.
Also, relaxation is a very good helper when developing pedal register playing. You should feel as though you're "sighing" into the tuba, more or less, and you should achieve your goal within a short amount of time.

Keep up your playing. I remember how well you played during the high school years. You've still got it in you!

- Matthew "offering advice and words of encouragement" Gray

[Tubadork]

https://encoremupub.com/Tuba/LowReg.htm" target="_blank
This will take you from low F down to the pedal register in a clear systematic way.
Bill

[jonesbrass]

In the beginning, I also used an single lip embouchure to play my pedal BBb back in HS. Within a year of this, though, I was able to use both lips in my standard embouchure to hit the pedals. For me, I think it was simply training the dominant lip to vibrate at the right frequency. Once I had it, I could use both lips. Of course, YMMV.

[imperialbari]

Can you do downwards glissandos on the mouthpiece alone?

Do you think in terms like ‘body resonance’?

Klaus

[Raul I. Rodriguez]

Slow your airspeed down.

Raul

[pattonsj]

I can not play with a fuzzy face.

I'm the opposite. I can't play without my mustache. I have shaved it off one time since it started growing in the 7th grade, never did that again. The only time I shaved it off was my senior year in HS right before a performance. That was a rough 5 days waiting for it to grow back fully. After HS grew a goetee to go with it and now I just trim it.

[imperialbari]

I can not play with a fuzzy face.

I'm the opposite. I can't play without my mustache. I have shaved it off one time since it started growing in the 7th grade, never did that again. The only time I shaved it off was my senior year in HS right before a performance. That was a rough 5 days waiting for it to grow back fully. After HS grew a goetee to go with it and now I just trim it.

You must save big time on mouthpiece brushes.

Klaus

[pattonsj]

You must save big time on mouthpiece brushes.

Klaus

Yep, Dont even own one.
I just grow it until I can't get a good seal between mouthpiece and lips. That means it's time to trim it short. Now I can't stand the thoughts of how it would feel for the mouthpiece to touch skin. I guess we all have our quirks but that's a can of worms that should be left closed.

[imperialbari]

How does your embouchure work when playing Hitchcock selections, I mean the kind of music that is supposed making all of your hair standing on end?

K

[pattonsj]

How does your embouchure work when playing Hitchcock selections, I mean the kind of music that is supposed making all of your hair standing on end?

K

Each hair amplifies a different overtone...

[imperialbari]

Is it you or your tuba that becomes a puppet on several strings?

K

[pattonsj]

Is it you or your tuba that becomes a puppet on several strings?

K

You have it all wrong. Thats a totaly different process. The effects that I experience are from the positively charged ions from the mustache and the negatively charged ions from the horn combining, resulting in complete neutrality, thus creating the sound that is as full of it as I am.

[BopEuph]

to low register playing. The physics dictate that you need to have soft tissue vibrating against other soft tissue. The easiest way to for the correct embrouchure (in my playing) is to do this exercise:

Sit in a chair and focus your vision on a fixed point across the room so that your vision line is parrellel to the floor (assuming that the floor is close to flat). Now, hold your hand out at arm's length with your palm facing towards you and place it approximately 6 inches below your "sight" line. Now, WITHOUT MOVING YOUR HEAD - blow air at your hand. Move your embrochure around until the air is hitting the palm of your hand. Getting the air to the hand by moving your head defeats the value of this exercise so make sure you use the lips to get the air going in the proper direction. Once you have the air hitting the palm of your hand directly, feel how you have your lips set. The way they are at that moment should be the perfect setting for low register playing. Now if you buzz the air to the same point on your hand you will find that it is a slow vibration buzz = low register.

For mid register move the hand 6 more inches down and repeat the process of getting the air to your palm without moving your head. Buzz again and you will find that you have a solid mid register vibration.

For high register playing place the palm of your hand on your chest facing upward and again, without moving your head, blow air at your hand. Once the air is hitting the hand then buzz so that the air from the buzz is hitting the hand as well and you will find that you have a high vibration buzz, perfect for high register playing.

All points in between will garner faster or slower vibration based on the location of the hand and hence the direction of the air stream.

Remember this exercize is to show how the lips need to be formed and the importance that air direction has in helping to set this up.

One of my adult students worked on this and found that another concrete visual aid made it a little easier for him to grasp. Hold a mouthpiece up so that, if you are facing West, the mouthpiece is facing North to South. Point to the area on the outside of the mouthpiece just below the throat of the mouthpiece, at the bottom of the cup, and this is where you will blow air for low register (when the mouthpiece is on your embrouchhure, of course). Point at the side of the bowl of the mouthpiece and this is where you blow air for mid register. Point at the section at the top of the bowl, just under the rim and this is where you blow air for high register.

It's that simple. Remember - babies and monkeys can buzz their lips - what we're doing is NOT rocket science and it isn't hard!

Just my observations.

I'd like to commend Roger's post. This helped me tremendously.

I play a Conn 12J, and there was a sousaphone audition at Disney today. I borrowed a fiberglass Yamaha so I wasn't going in and sharing one of three horns with over twenty other tuba players auditioning and getting way too little time to familiarize. I got the horn on Monday, and couldn't play anything below a Bb below the staff, and even that note felt like my first day on the tuba. I knew there was nothing wrong with the horn, so I went searching for an answer for a fix that I needed as fast as possible.

This did the trick. After an insane amount of time in the shed this week (upwards of about 40+ hours), I was extremely comfortable on this strange horn and could play the range. Low F's were still iffy for grooves and walking, but I was able to get through enough to surprise a lot of locals who didn't know I even played tuba; and, at the very least, advance to the final round.

I'll probably find out next week how I did. I'm really just hoping for a sub spot.

Thanks, Roger!