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Hello Tubenet,

This is my first actual post on the forums. I've been here quite a bit just reading and observing what's to be said. However, I do actual have an actual question and would like some advice. I'm a college student working on my bachelor's degree in music education. I feel like I am getting better at tuba each time I play and practice. However, I don't feel as though my high range is progressing as much as I like or as much as I think it should. For about a year or two now, the top point of my register has been about a Eb E and the F above the bass clef staff (The F isn't comfortable yet and those Eb and Es aren't always consistent) Does anyone have any advice or exercises that'd they would care to share with me to help make it easier? Any more information you'd like to know please feel free to ask!

Thanks!

For me, when I play in that register, I angle my airstream downward. My tuba professor in college made the analogy of making a little bit of a "beak" with your lips to direct the air just slightly below the bore of the mouthpiece.

As you know, it will be different for everyone, but this is how I play in that register. I also have to remind myself to stay relaxed up there and to not think of the notes as "high" but just in a different register of the horn. When I start getting fatigued, I "look down" on the pitches as I aim for them so I don't feel like I'm reaching to get them.

Air and relaxation. Never force it, but lots of air and relaxation.

It's hard to be relaxed before the muscles are developed, and as for blowing down/up depending on register, I left that one looking more on is as a way of cheating ones way to a few exstra ( not particularly good sounding) notes.

Long notes and slures...Hymne books one octave up etc....
Going an octave above that again (and above) I admit to use the 'cheating over-bit)

Lectron wrote:It's hard to be relaxed before the muscles are developed, and as for blowing down/up depending on register, I left that one looking more on is as a way of cheating ones way to a few exstra ( not particularly good sounding) notes.

Long notes and slures...Hymne books one octave up etc....
Going an octave above that again (and above) I admit to use the 'cheating over-bit)

The muscles will develop more easily if the body overall is as relaxed as possible. The OP didn't ask for instant success, just hints on developing. That's the easiest and best advice in this situation.

Cheating? Nope. It's a method of allowing the muscles to work more efficiently, both in development and in eventual consistent use. It's little different than pulling valve slides in terms of rudiment.

eupher61 wrote:

Lectron wrote:It's hard to be relaxed before the muscles are developed, and as for blowing down/up depending on register, I left that one looking more on is as a way of cheating ones way to a few exstra ( not particularly good sounding) notes.

Long notes and slures...Hymne books one octave up etc....
Going an octave above that again (and above) I admit to use the 'cheating over-bit)

The muscles will develop more easily if the body overall is as relaxed as possible. The OP didn't ask for instant success, just hints on developing. That's the easiest and best advice in this situation.

Cheating? Nope. It's a method of allowing the muscles to work more efficiently, both in development and in eventual consistent use. It's little different than pulling valve slides in terms of rudiment.

I know I know.

If my post sounded harsh, it is something that got added in translation.

I can only relate to my own experience, and that is when "over-bit" instead of actually pushing the chin
further out to maintain parallel lips I do get a few extra tones 'for free', but it stops there and it makes it
harder om fast passages over large intervals.

The register also (for me again) gets much less affected on the rim size of the mouthpiece.
33.5 or 32, I play just as high, but with different character. (down deep is another story)

But hell yeah. "The muscles will develop more easily if the body overall is as relaxed as possible."

It's all right here:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4051&p=29149#p29184

Your post is a common question and from a common position, ie somebody who is apparently not aiming for the top 1/100th percentile of performers wanting to do what THOSE players would be capable of doing.

I VERY much doubt that you are doing 4 to 6 hours a day practice under the supervision of a top level teacher. You state you are doing a BME level course.

IF that is the case you should be concentrating on perfecting the "basics" and your private instructor should be able to adequately guide you.

A prospective educator should be learning "how to make and teach MUSIC, not waste time trying to do sonic pyrotechnics.

Talk to your private teacher. IF he and you agree that you should be chasing the extreme registers, PM or email me and I'll gladly correspond based on my experiences and "insights" gained from studying with the likes of Harvey and Jake.


In the meantime, concentrate on the MUSIC.

I've also been working on this a lot lately - a few things I'm finding help me:

- Always balance high playing with low playing. I get the point behind playing studies and stuff up the octave, but I found it tiring to the point that I was actually not increasing my range anymore. It has a place in developing the muscles and improving the quality of the notes you already have, but in my experience it has been counter productive in adding notes. So by balance I mean 2-3 bars of high stuff, 3-4 bars of low stuff. (My favourite exercise starts on a bottom line G, play up the first 4 notes of the major scale, relatively slowly, and hold the top note for as long as it sounds nice. Then start on Ab, A, Bb, C. Then go down to Bb below the staff and do Bb-A-Bb-pitch bend down to A-Bb. Repeat down a step. or two. Then pop back up to the C where you left off, and go up a few more tones. Pop back down, etc. Until you're up nice and high. You don't have to go super low into the pedal range, just as long as you're going back down to where it's considered low. You get the idea.)

- Also, sometimes taking a few days and not working on high range at all - focusing on general tone in the mid-low register instead - paid off in spades when I went back up high.

Good luck!

talleyrand wrote:It's all right here:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4051&p=29149#p29184

+1

You can also buy a few begining/intermediate trombone books with pop/familiar songs and play them as written. It helps a lot when you know the tune and can "hear" the note before you play it.

One thing I find that helps me get my high register to speak better is to spend time a good amount of time in the low register during warm-up. The way I see it is similar to how an Olympic weightlifter warms up their body.

If a weightlifter has a goal of a 250kg Clean and Jerk in a competition, you'll never see them immediately attempt that weight; a lighter attempt at about 210kg will be their first lift. This is due to the fact that the central nervous system (CNS), which ultimately determines in your mind if you will be able to lift the weight or not, is not adjusted to such a high weight yet, which is why it needs to be warmed up with a lighter weight. You only put yourself at risk of injury by immediately jumping into high weights without warming up the mind and the muscles.

The same can be applied to playing the tuba (or any instrument really). If you've ever tried playing around from the ledger line C-F at the beginning of your day, you know that it puts a lot of stress on the chops and results in a quick fatigue. This is because the face muscles aren't loose, and a lot of strain is put on them by playing in the high register immediately. This is why I advocate warming up in the low register, as it loosens the face muscles and gets them nice and limber so you can play up in the stratosphere later in your practice.

Spending time in the high register with the correct embouchure will ultimately increase your high range tone and endurance, but I highly stress warming up in the low register to make this goal even more plausible.

The one thing to watch for in high range practice is that, many people believe that too much practice in the high range cost you in the low register. That is incorrect. What starts to get difficult is your attack in the middle register. So after extended high range practice, spend time working on attack fundamentals in the middle register to make sure that stays where it needs to be.

High range is not hard, but you have to approach it from that standpoint to really find out how easy it really is.

Remember - babies and monkeys.

Roger

The F above the staff should get you by just fine as a music teacher.

This should be pretty obvious already, but I think it might bear repeating. Do you sing? Try singing 'TOOH' through your emboucher, without mouthpiece. Now try to retain the shape of the OOH vowel and sing a 'TEEE' through it. You should notice that this is possible without smiling or spreading your mouth, but your tongue placement changes just a wee bit. As you go higher, the VELOCITY of your airflow should increase. To accomplish that, you raise the top of your tongue ever so slightly to make the channel smaller. If you think 'TEE' in attacking higher notes (maintaining emboucher and keeping the FLOW going just as tuben and others have already said), that helps make the slight narrowing, and increased airspeed, happen.

Mr. Lewis is correct.

The high register isn't accomplished through strength, but through control and smart air use. Too many lose the top end because no air is coming out. No air = no note.

I've always been blessed with a pretty good high range since starting college. However, I gained a perfect fifth on tuba and bone when I asked a local player with a strong range well above mine and asked "how do you do it?"

"You want to play high?" he asked.
"Yes!"
"Then play high!"

Duh.

Smartest piece of advice I've ever gotten. Saved my bacon; I can play the bass trumpet on the Ring, play Alto bone parts, etc.... none of which I'd have felt competent to do until I got that advice.

Play Rochut. 8vb, then loco, then 2-8vb. You'll grow and grow fast. It's fear that prevents success up there, saying "I can't play high" is always self fulfilling. Just $%@#ing do it.

J.c.S.

P.S. Play low too. You learn the full spectrum of wind control, and you gain in both directions.

Don't forget the pivot system, pinch the grapes and blow fast air.

Kristian Streenstrup opened up my high range insanely, and he wasn't even talking about embouchure, only efficient air use. In general his method is to simply push in (not out, as some of us tend to do) the diaphragm while exhaling, causing a much faster air flow. It is not too easy to get used to, since it change a whole lot of (at least my) the playing concept. He mentions exaggerating the action of moving in the diaphragm at the beginning point, even by mouthpiece playing or exhaling "toh". Only 1 out of 8 brass players in that masterclass had that naturally.

luke_hollis wrote:Don't forget the pivot system, pinch the grapes and blow fast air.

-1

Not to poo-poo anyone's success, but the demands of the music I play wouldn't allow for a pivot... the extremes of leaps and range required would make a pivot unworkable.

Advice worth only what you paid, but pivots give me hives!

swillafew wrote:The F above the staff should get you by just fine as a music teacher.

I agree and disagree. That F may be the highest he will ever need to play. But to have that F reliable and of good tone, he will need to be able to play at least three whole steps above it.