Playing Soft

[glangfur]

Two things occur to me.

First, it sounds to me like your aperture is generally too wide open. On bass trombone, my primary instrument, it's essential to have a focused aperture in order to have a sound that projects at all and any control in the low register - not to mention the tenor trombone register that we are playing in a great deal of the time.

Second, it sounds like you don't have a clear idea of what you're trying to do in soft playing. You're not giving yourbody clear enough instructions. More on that below.

The tuba is acoustically a much friendlier instrument than bass trombone. The conical tubing helps more in the low register and for general sound production. I know for myself that I have a much easier time playing the tuba if I'm in good shape on bass trombone. Of course, it's my primary instrument, so I expect that...but I know also that the good focus I achieve on bass trombone, particularly in the low register, carries over to tuba a tremendous amount, helping everything about the sound production.

If I'm practicing tuba more than bass trombone (which I am lately), it's easy for me to fall into letting the focus of my whole embouchure system get too flabby and wide. No amount of relaxed, flowing airstream is going to get me to the refinement I'm after if my embouchure can't work efficiently.

So, for you, how to focus your aperture?

First of all (actually, first of all, ask your teacher for help, and if you don't have one find one), Arnold Jacobs gave the advice to a friend of mine to always start with your lips closed. This way, the aperture only opens as much as it needs to for each particular note and dynamic. If you've been doing something else, this feels strange at first, but ultimately it's a much more efficient and effective way of playing. Bass trombone guru Phil Teele of the LA studios talks about forming the letter M for the proper embouchure formation, and then he talks about playing hours and hours of long tones in the low register with that efficient formation and no shifting. We bass trombone players need this much more than tuba players because of the aforementioned acoustic differences between the instruments, but if I'm doing lots of long tones this way on bass trombone, I can play low on tuba with no shifts too.

Second, practice a variety of articulations, including breath attacks, in excellent, disciplined time, paying strict attention that the notes are starting exactly when you want them to.

There's an excellent exercise called "The Six Notes" from the late New York brass teacher Carmine Caruso, that addresses this and the first point very effectively. The best explanation I've ever seen is in this article:
http://www.trombone.org/articles/librar ... aruso2.asp
The most basic six notes for you to play are an octave below those in the trombone version you see in the article if you play BBb tuba, and a step up from that if you play CC.

Further, apply the kind of internal subdivided time described in the article to everything you do. EVERYTHING! Both by yourself and in ensembles. Nothing has ever had a greater impact on my playing than finally, after so many years, subdividing a steady beat in my head for absolutely everything I play, from the simplest scale to the most complex notated rhythm.

If you give your body very, very clear instructions of what you want to happen and when, I guarantee you will do everything better: soft, loud, slow, fast, low, high, and everything in between. This is the essence of Song and Wind. Breathe deep and sing a song, with the simplest clearest instructions from your brain to your body.

The advice you've gotten above about faster air for soft playing is also very helpful, and it gets me through many difficult situations on bass trombone. I'm still learning how to play beautiful soft legato on tuba, but I know that the same principles I use for bass trombone apply.

[MikeMason]

Beautiful post,man..........

[glangfur]

My problem is that I have developed a waver in my tone. It's almost like a vibrato, but it feels more like a muscle quiver. To try and solve it, I'm strengthening my embouchure by buzzing from very low, slowly, to very high, and then back down. Any ideas to supplement this?

Are you talking about the solo or the low F in the first mov't? I'm guessing the solo...I'm only a tuba novice, but if you're having trouble withthe low F, try it as a false tone on the open horn, no valves...

I guess I have two suggestions: first, make sure your buzzing and your tuba playing are related. This is an issue on trombone too, but I think we can do it a little more subconsciously. Often what happens is that you buzz the mouthpiece and find a good, resonant sound, and then it doesn't carry over to the instrument. The reason is usually that the mouthpiece doesn't meet your face at the same angle when it's in the instrument. This is tough on tuba because it's big and heavy and in your lap. It's tough on trombone because the weight of the instrument is in kind of a weird place ergonomically. Regardless, it's essential that you find a way of playing that allows you to make small adjustments to the angle at which the mouthpiece meets your embouchure at a mostly subconscious level. This is really obvious in the low register of tuba, but just as important if slightly less obvious up high.

Here's another article from the same guy about buzzing:
http://www.trombone.org/articles/library/nyletters2.asp
He was a tuba player before a trombone player by the way. Check out his own website at www.samburtis.com and check out his articles for trombone.org by going to this page:
http://www.trombone.org/articles/browse.asp
and browsing by author Sam Burtis. Great stuff.

Second, air man, air. Let a steady, relaxed airstream teach you how to play. My good friend John Manning talks about "dumb air." Let the airstream be inevitable, like a faucet that's opened up. You inhale and you let the air fall out by itself, and let your body learn to do whatever else it needs to in relation to that effortless, inevitable airflow.

[Rick F]

Gabe, that was a great info.

It would seem you would not need as much air or effort to play soft, but I find the air bleeds very quickly from my lungs and the foundation of tone really fades away.

When you're playing softly, the air you have seems like it should be plenty, but your body needs air too. When you're playing "mf" or "f", your body gets the air it needs because you're breathing close to a normal rhythm. But when you're not moving enough air, your body starves for it.

Just my 2 cents worth.