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I have just recently gotten back to playing. Was away for 18 months. After 8 weeks of practicing at least 30 minutes per day, I continue to split my F# & G (in the staff) With continuing long tones, this doesn't seem to improve. I never had this problem before. Any suggestions?

Have you checked your horn's intonation tendencies for those notes? My Alexander 163 CC tends to be flat on the D in the staff I if finger it as 1st valve alone. My brain tries to play it in tune but the horn wants to play it flat so the attacks are not as secure as I would like. That note is in tune as 4th valve alone, but the extra tubing changes the feel of the note and also makes the attacks less secure. I work on it by using long tones to find the most resonant embouchure position and also to work on repeated and double-tongued attacks.

Another possibility could be your practice room - if you have a small space and/or a low ceiling, certain notes can reflect back into your horn and cause response problems.

All the instrument does is resonate the pitch you buzz into the mouthpiece. Assuming that the tuning slides are set correctly, the split notes can only occur if you are buzzing something other than the F# or G into the cup of the mouthpiece.

Long tones are great in general, but to quickly develop the ability to buzz each note on the center of the pitch, play it on the mouthpiece alone. Play it a few times in a row, with a drone if possible, and then place the mouthpiece back in the tuba and play the note. The note splitting should soon be a thing of the past. A great practice aid for doing this is the BERP.

http://www.berp.com/product/berp/" target="_blank" target="_blank

I started back last year after about a 15 year layoff, and spent a couple of months doing nothing but mouthpiece practice to get things working again. While looking around for new instruction methods, I discovered Alessandro Fossi had put together a book with drills for the mouthpiece, complete with piano accompaniment. By the time you get to the point where you can play everything in the book, you will be able to play anything on the tuba. I ordered the book which took 4-6 weeks to arrive from Italy. However, they emailed me the PDF and the mp3s so I could get started.

http://alessandrofossi.net/product/to-buzz-book-tuba/" target="_blank" target="_blank

Here is a link to his YouTube page, which includes 8-9 videos that Alessandro recorded demonstrating the first few exercises.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u-Ubboh0Uw" target="_blank" target="_blank

Thanks for all of the good info. Question, how long of a buzzing session do you recommend? 15 min; 30 min, or longer.

bloke wrote:

Mark Horne wrote:
Another possibility could be your practice room - if you have a small space and/or a low ceiling, certain notes can reflect back into your horn and cause response problems.

This is very real and not some splitting hairs phenom. A few years back I had a huge Holton 6/4 raincatcher sousaphone. (Tuba Tinker Dan has it now) If I would stand with it in the house with the bell about a foot from the ceiling, certain notes simply would distort beyond control. When I played it outside on the bandwagon or in the garage with the open rafters, it was fine. Dan has explained several times here, how the sound wave in the tuba actually extends a fairly good amount past the rim of the bell. Interfering with that wave can play funny tricks. After all it is the same principle with playing the classical hand horn.

Back to certain notes not playing well intune on the horn and conflicting with the pitch you are trying to blow through it tells me that the 1st valve slide could be shortened so it would have enough push for the D in the staff. It would still need enough pull for the Fs which tend to be sharp.

Then, there is the main tuning (double action) slide tuner. Just got one on my F and love it. In hindsight, I can't understand why I waited so long to have one put on. I'll probably have one stuck on the CC as well. Now every note is within reach without having to use "Adult" fingerings. Also I find that split notes are no longer an issue.

A double action tuning slide was mentioned. Is there a source for these?

Double action tuning Mechanism
I had a local machinist (Bill Milasius in White Bear Lake, MN) build this for me. Bill works as a jobber for various instrument companies building parts. On a not too busy Saturday we dove into the parts bin and pulled out an uncut piston casing and two end cap blanks. A rod was turned to 1/4 inch with a donut left in the middle that was measured, turned and lapped to ride inside the casing. Two compression springs were then intalled on each side of the donut and the caps put on each end. The rod traveled nicely for about an inch in either direction. Next the ends of the rod were cut to length an tapped. A turnbuckle was made for each end (with both normal and reverse threads) then two connector rods were cut and tapped to match the reverse threads. One end would become attached to the tuning slide and the other to be moved by the Left hand. The turnbuckle allows you to adjust the tuning of the main slide. Two small braces were made to attach the casing to an appropriated spot on the horn above the main slide.
I then took the sub assembly to my local repairman, Eric Peterson, (a Master Instrument Builder in Minneapolis) and had him refine and refit the assembly to my BMB F. (There are photos on a separate post) Eric designed an off set mechanism that transfers the downstroke of the rod from a more comfortable position attached to the 1st valve slide. We also found that if not engineered correctly, the rod would rotate as you moved the one end in your LH, and thus it would also rotated turnbuckle on the main slide and retune the tuba. The offset mechanism negates any turning of the rod. Eric hand made the braces and additional rods from scratch.

I was hoping the whole "shabang" could have been a bit simpler so as to make for an economical "off the shelf" aftermarket product. But as the geometry of each tuba is different, it was necessary to actually tailor the project to fit. I still have to have the entire assembly removed for silver plating and reinstalled. So I have not yet seen the bill. I do not expect this to have been a cheap endeavor. Both of these men are highly skilled craftsmen.

So to answer your question, if you are around or near Minneapolis, there is someone here who can do it for you. I would also imagine, that there are many fine techs with machining skills that could also fabricate one. I had several ideas for making a much simple tuner, but to be honest, it would not have been very durable on a tuba. That slide takes considerable torgue to move and all the braces and sub assembly need to be rather sturdy.

The other expensive part of the project was getting the tuning slide actually parallel. This entailed removing the legs and re aligning them to match the slide itself. Rarely are slides perfectly parallel when the tuba comes from the factory. Close, but not perfect. Nor are they lapped to be smooth and free.