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I've been playing Euphonium and trombone for over 40 years now, and have recently picked up a used BBb Tuba (YBB-321, with a Mt. Vernon 18T mouthpiece) to see if it's something that I want to persue. I'm getting fairly decent tone and I'm making what I consider good progress with the Tuba but have the following questions.

1) I started with an Embouchre that was about 2/3 upper lip, and 1/3 lower (lips placed low in the mouthpiece), today after doing some reading on Line I decided to try the other way with 1/3 upper lip 2/3 lower (lips placed high in the mouthpiece), and the lower register is about the same but I appear to have better upper register range this way. My question for those of you who play both Tuba and Euphonium what is your experience with mothpiece placement with the tuba mothpiece.

2) I seem to be playing OK on the 18T, which seems from what I've read to be a middle of the road Tuba mouthpiece, but as a doubler whose primary instrument will probably remain Euphonium and Trombone (I plan on using the Tuba mostly for Marching when our other Sousaphone player can't make it (the firedepartment I march for has a Conn sousaphone I'll be using for marching). With mothpieces being as expensive as they are I really don't want to do a lot of experimenting, but am I really doing myself a disservice by sticking with the 18, and not trying others that might work better in my situation.

1) At your level of ambition I would just go with what feels the best.
2) -//-

Radar wrote:2) I seem to be playing OK on the 18T, which seems from what I've read to be a middle of the road Tuba mouthpiece, but as a doubler whose primary instrument will probably remain Euphonium and Trombone (I plan on using the Tuba mostly for Marching when our other Sousaphone player can't make it (the firedepartment I march for has a Conn sousaphone I'll be using for marching). With mothpieces being as expensive as they are I really don't want to do a lot of experimenting, but am I really doing myself a disservice by sticking with the 18, and not trying others that might work better in my situation.

If it works for you, why change? "If it ain't broke, don't fix it ..."

About the embouchure...

I always played tuba with with my mouth low on the mouthpiece (1/3 from bottom 2/3 from top), but I know people who do the same as you and others who played close to centre on the mouthpiece. I'm no expert (or close to one anyway) so I guess what 'feels' right is good for you. When I play euphonium, I do about the same (more centred though). I would just experiment and see what feels best. YMMV

Good luck with Sousaphone!

Thanks for the feedback, I suspected it was mostly a matter of player preference, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't developing a bad habit regarding Embouchre that I would have to break later.