hmm im just a youngin and dont have much knowledge or experience to share with you but this is just advice seeing no ones replying to you
When you mentioned you ALWAYS have to pull your slides out, that means you play very sharp. This could also be a result of setting your lips too far into the mouthpiece (which may be wrong, I know nothing about your mouthpiece(s)). All i can say is try letting back a little, loosen your jaw much more, and open up your air passageway. This should give you a much 'better' sound IF its your problem.
Otherwise, congrats on picking up tuba again, relax, and remember, bright isnt always bad.
Harold is right. But that said, a deep funnel shaped mouthpiece, aka Helleberg style, will tend to truncate overtones, while a bowl shaped mouthpiece, aka Bach 18, will tend to reinforce overtones. The guy in community band with the Conn 12J switched from a Bach 18 to the Conn Helleberg and went from bright to dark immediately. Even for me, having heard a lot in 30 years + of playing, I was impressed with the difference.
Do pitch bends. Start on your low Bb, play it normal, then bend it down-back to normal-up-back to normal, and listen to how the sound changes along with the pitch. Wherever the sounds becomes clearer and more resonant, that's where the pitch lies on the horn, and that's how you will sound the best on that horn. Try this on as many notes as you have patience for. It's just a lot of experimentation. Good luck.
iiipopes wrote: The guy in community band with the Conn 12J switched from a Bach 18 to the Conn Helleberg and went from bright to dark immediately.
Ditto for me too. The only-driven-on-Sunday Yamaha YBB-321 I just bought came with a Conn-Helleberg and a Bach 24AW. I had been using a Bach 18 with the King 1140 that I was playing. As soon as I switched to the Conn, that little King turned mean sounding. The 24AW just didn't feel at all right to me. The Yamaha and the Conn-Helleberg were the same combo I had 20 years ago in high school. I guess my lips remembered.
Welcome back. Personally, I haven't had so much fun in the last 20 years as I have in the last 6 months.
which lip is doing the "worK"??? I would suspect, based on recent student encounters that it is the lower lip vibrating against the upper lip, which, unless you have a severe underbite, is the culprit for the sound and pitch issue. I cannot count how many people come in to play horns that have this going on and don't know it. When I ask them this question the response is always "the lower one". When I ask what their teacher is telling them they always say "open your jaw more". Unfortunately this won't solve the problem. I inherited 12 students one year from another teacher and all of them were doing this.
Get with a VERY good teacher and check EVERYTHING out. It will be worth your time.
Roger
"The music business is a cruel and shallow trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." Hunter S Thompson
