Playing High Notes A lot

chevy68chv · Post by **chevy68chv** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 3:45 pm

If your not already doing so its important to practice in the upepr register every day, whether your playing on your F tuba, C or Bb. This should help prevent some fatigue that you may be experiencing. I always find that playing high passages on my C makes playing them on the F quite a bit easier.

Joe Baker · Post by **Joe Baker** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:03 pm

When you hear trombone & trumpet players talk about their chops being "blown", that's just what they're referring to. It is nothing more or less than exhaustion of the embouchure muscles (at least that's all it is as long as you don't try to compensate with too much pressure). The more often you play in the upper range for a long time, the stronger those muscles will be, and the longer you'll be able to play in the upper range.
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Joe Baker, who picked up a trombone a few weeks ago for the first time in several months, and had blown chops in about 15 minutes!

ahowle · Post by **ahowle** » Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:59 am

I'd recommend playing some on a trombone and/or trumpet. It will really help your high register and endurance. It will be extremely tiring at first (and you shouldn't push yourself too hard), but eventually you should notice drastic results on the tuba.

It wasn't until I could dependably play the notes an octave higher than the ones you mentioned that I could play the ones you mentioned all day long without hardly tiring at all.

Good luck with it.