air leaking out of the corners of my mouth

[Art Hovey]

See #19 on this site:
http://galvanizedjazz.com/tuba.html

[DBCooper]

[Dennis K.]

When air leaks, it is because your wind is over-powering your aperture support.
here's a strength-building application I use:

Longtones - start at ppp - slow crescendo to ff (not FFFF).
Take a full breath (mouth OFF the mouthpiece)
Same note start at ff - slow decresc to pppp.

then up a 1/2 step

You will notice a difference within a few days at most.

[SplatterTone]

I never could figure out how to tell somebody what I do to get a correct sound whether it's singing or brass playing. I know when I am doing it and how well I am doing it (or not doing it), but I don't know how to describe what I am doing. Most of the embouchure problems I had, I kept working at it, and the problems went away. I don't know what I did. Learning to play musical instruments is, to a large extent, training of the subconscious mind. One day, you notice that whatever you were trying to achieve works now. Wow!

For tuba playing, one thing that worked for me (at least for the way my subconscious brain works) was to go bact to the smaller, easier to play, mouthpiece types like 25, 24AW, Yamaha 66D4 and work on playing consistently well with them. I found that trying to prove that I was a big, tough guy and play with too large a mouthpiece before the face muscles had developed enough to do it right only resulted in me learning to do things wrong to compensate for the undeveloped muscles and untrained subsconscious.

Even though I can play larger mouthpieces until my face gets tired, I still keep a 66D4 in the case always. And I still use it when I feel like I (and my subconscious) could use a little remedial work; or when I am getting tired.

[SplatterTone]

Another thing I found helpful is the Pat Sheridan books with the CD. I know it sounds dorky, but I found "Let's Play Tuba" and the CD to be quite helpful. I work in the "Musical Souvenirs" book now trying to be reliable and consistent on those high notes ... and trying to sound like Pat Sheridan. (Dream on, sucker!)

[rascaljim]

When my students have this issue I've noticed that most of the time it is because they are trying to blow their air across their entire lip surface instead of just the part that should be buzzing. In your case I'd recommed trying to focus your air movement over the very center of your lips.

Here's another way to help you think of it. Consider you're playing an outdoor concert in late August and the bugs are out everywhere. One just tried to fly in your mouth and you caught it in the center of your lips. You don't want to crush it with your lips, because that's gross. Instead, blow it out, but since you're at a concert you cant make a huge deal about it, so keep your air warm.

I don't believe this situation is muscle (or lack thereof related)
Give it a shot
Jim Langenberg

[SplatterTone]

I don't believe this situation is muscle (or lack thereof related)

I'm a little curious: How does one keep the sides of the lips firm while allowing the center to vibrate without muscle strength and control?

[TubaRay]

Learning to play musical instruments is, to a large extent, training of the subconscious mind.

I certainly agree with this. It seems to be consistent with Jake's teaching, also. Going on a slight tangent from this thought is the musical parallel of the athlete's visualization. When we visualize(hear the sound in our heads), we then employ our subconscious to figure some way of getting this done. If the "how" of this is carefully monitored to be certain we don't start using a dead end in order to achieve this, we can often find success.

To further clarify, when I play golf I first stand behind the ball and attempt to assess all that is needed to hit a good shot. When I then address the ball, I try to clear my conscious mind and allow the subconscious to take care of getting the job done. I have visualized exactly how I want the shot to look, etc. When I have been playing regularly, I can have a certain amount of success in this area. Needless to say, I represent NO threat to Tiger Woods.

When playing tuba, I see the music and attempt to turn its performance over to my subconscious to take care of the execution of it. Since I attempt to practice the fundamentals on a daily basis, I can have some success at this. When this is falling short, I know I need to spend more time with the fundamentals.

Lastly, when learning to play the tuba, or any other brass instrument for that matter, the technique of "visualization" certain plays an important role. This is where a good teacher can guide the student in the right direction and monitor the progress.

To sum it all up: I agree with the SplatterTone.

[SplatterTone]

If it is just an occasional minor leak, then I agree that one shouldn't get upset about it. It happens to me. I've sat next to the local philharmonic guru, and heard it happen to him. In my case, and in the case of the guru, I think this is the result of a lapse in concentration. When it happens, we can focus our attention and stop it.

My take on the original post was that it was happening all the time to the point of being a problem.

In solving a problem, different people have different things that work for them. All I can do is say: Here is what works for me. I've been through the stuff of pretend your lips are doing this or that with limited to no success. I thought one of the better pretend things was to pretend one is holding a pencil in one's lips and vary how it is pointing as one goes from low notes to high notes.

However, the thing that worked best for me was the simple "It's about the sound. Focus on the sound." and trying to duplicate Pat Sheridan's sound on the CD. Then I have dialogue back and forth between the conscious and subconscious. It is possible that my brain was trying some of those pretend things, or some variation on them, without me being aware of it. So, there is probably value in reading them and thinking about them.

Of course, one cannot do with the muscles what the muscles are incapable of doing, so there is muscular conditioning going on too. This is where I think the smaller mouthpiece comes in. I wouldn't attempt to argue this as scientific fact, but merely as my own opinion based on my experience. I think the smaller mouthpiece serves essentially the same purpose as a knee brace for the leg -- to provide some additional helping support while one builds up strength. In this case, work on getting a sweet sound with some helping support of the smaller, thicker rim mouthpiece. In my case, trying to use too large a mouthpiece caused me (actually, my subconscious) to compensate for lack of muscular strength and control by doing something wrong.

Another thing that convinces me that muscular strength and control are a central issue is: If I play a lot on one day, I usually do not play my best the next day. Then, on the next day after that, I'm OK. I've done enough serious weight lifting in my life to know how muscle strength training and recovery between sessions works. I'm convinced that is what is going on with your face.

One exercise I found useful is to start and stop notes without tonguing.

And ...

I understand that some marching band directors don't want a sweet sound from their low brass. If one wants to woof out loud low notes, I'd guess the training regimen is a little different. But that's another discussion.