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How much does braces affect your playing? How long does it take to recover? I don't want to get braces, but I probably will have to if I don't want to live with crooked teeth..

bloke wrote:Forget about it...and just move to England.

Dang, I find out today that I'm English!

Dad suggested that I ought to use my fingers to press inwards on my protruding teeth regularly, in hopes of getting them to straighten out. That might be worth a shot -- I honestly didn't really give it a fair try.

I have had several students on tuba, trombone, and euphonium who had to get braces but kept on practicing and lived through it. There is a period of adjustment (a week or two) getting used to them, and another when they are finally removed. You can get a type of wax to stick over the braces when you play, and there are also plastic brace-guards; both can be found in music stores. Some find them helpful, others do not.

Good thing number 1 is that you will learn to play with less pressure.
Good thing number 2 is that you will eventually have straight teeth, which will make your tuba playing more comfortable for the rest of your life.

When I was young only the rich kids got braces, so I have been using hand-shaped custom-rim mouthpieces for most of my life. Pressing on your teeth manually now and then does not accomplish anything, but those "wisdom" teeth growing in from behind will accomplish a lot of mischief if you let them.

Art Hovey wrote:Pressing on your teeth manually now and then does not accomplish anything

Well, yeah - I don't really know whether my father was serious, but as far as I'm concerned it's a joke.

I got braces when I was 15, got them off just before my 18th birthday and played trombone/bass trombone the whole time. Marching was a bit of an adjustment, but other than the two transition times that Art Hovey menetioned (plus some of the adjustment days) really wasn't much of an issue. Of course, that was (ack!) 40 years ago...

bloke wrote:Forget about it...and just move to England.

Then you'll find out that there, "braces" are suspenders. You may be playing with them already!

Playing with braces is far more difficult on trumpet than on tuba. Even so, most trumpet players can make the adjustment.

Braces are a nuisance, but as for playing the tuba, it shouldn't hold you back.

Hup

I posted about the same problem, it's here:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=63192" target="_blank
Two months after putting the braces, i can say that you must be very careful after that . You must work very hard to past the adaptation period. For me it lasted almost a month, but the first week and a half I had so many days that I was disappointed from the playing and just practiced for 1,max 2 hours. So far I still have some small problems,mostly with the attack and the staccato. But trying to work on it and eliminate them. All I can say is that you must be patient and working calm, without any tension and nervousness.
Cheers and good luck.

I had them for a year and a half in junior high. I remember playing a day or two after getting them off and not noticing much of a difference. But that's before I started practicing a bunch.

I had braces for several years and didn't really find them detrimental to my playing.