Mouthpiece Pressure

[TinyTubist97]

After less than 10 minutes of playing music that's not that demanding I start to get a red ring around my lips. I don't put a lot of pressure on the mouthpiece and when I take pressure off lots of air escapes and it sounds bad. Could this be because of thin lips (not the red part, but thin between my teeth and the mouthpiece) and just being able to see the blood better? It doesn't hurt me when I get the red ring it's just something I was curious about. Also, it doesn't just happen up high, it also happens from lower register playing. I know I don't use too much pressure because when I buzz I lightly hold the mouthpiece shank between my pinky fingers and the mouthpiece doesn't get pushed out of my grip.

[Chen]

You do need good pressure to seal the lips. My advice is to work on flexibility (i.e. lip slurs). If you have good tone and can slur smoothly with good robust sound, you are actually doing fine.
If anything the ring is indication of good seal. If you worry about it you'll start to do all sorts of weird things to "help" the problem.

My advice focus on continuing to develop strong robust sound with good articulation and flexibility and don't think about the ring. Take breaks as often needed, and I'd never go 45 min. without a break (no program will require you to play longer than that continuously anyway)

[cle_tuba]

I use and helps me a lot ....
http://www.alangregory.co.uk/music/MGZ_ ... _Tuba.html" target="_blank

[ShoelessWes]

Two great sources of information for this:

1. Roger Lewis

2. Doug Elliot

Roger's a great teacher. He doesn't tip toe around the issue, he's harsh, he cuts it to you straight. He's very anti-pressure and does great instruction on lightening up in the low range. He has some spit valve stuff and also some cheek puffing stuff he does that is great for this. A 30 minute lesson with him was the equivalent of 2 years of instruction I had with another teacher, I'm not joking, even in an informal setting he gives it to you, he unloads, it is awesome.

Almost all tuba players have a strong, very forced "flip" in the mid to low range. It requires quite a bit of pressure to flip that airstream quickly/seamlessly and people get huge rings on their lips (upper lips especially) from all this forced movement and sliding the lips across the plane created by your teeth/jaws.

[Ben]

Cleverson, what is that thing? How is it used, how has it helped? Wes- I agree 100% about Doug Elliott. I took one lesson with him in December and it was the absolute best use of my money that year. I believe you about Roger, but I did not capitalized on that resource when I had the chance.

[Chen]

Red ring also indicates you have fixed your upper lip on the mouthpiece when you play, which is required for consistency. This came from a former Eastman tuba professor.

[Gilligan]

What mouthpiece are you using. I used to have that problem but switched toa rounder rim from a helleberg and most of it cleared right up.

[ShoelessWes]

Cleverson, what is that thing? How is it used, how has it helped?

When you play with too much pressure it pops and the air comes out the sides making it impossible to play with too much pressure. It can be varied.

They are a lot more prevalent in the trumpet world, but a little work with one is awesome.

[Ben]

Thanks Wes - I have seen those before, a long time ago and only online. The rusty ole bear trap upstairs needed that refresher!

[cle_tuba]

Hi Ben ...
I am using every day the pressure device.
I use in my daily routine, it's wonderful.
You are conditioned to do it without pressure, the minimum pressure in the contact we make mouth mouthpiece x is enough air to "leak" and no sound on the instrument.
At first I was a little annoyed because it was used to doing a lot of pressure, a lot better today!
It pays to use, is a great investment!
I hope I have been helpful ...

[Roger Lewis]

We may be overlooking a simple explanation here. Some people have a sensitivity to silver plating, causing redness in the tissue where the mouthpiece contacts the face. I know one world class player who would have break-outs of an acne like problem (perhaps hives would be the allergice response) from playing on silver plated mouthpieces. Once he had them gold plated the allergic response was gone.

If you are using a silver plated mouthpiece, try coating the rim with clear nail polish and see if the reaction stops. If it does, then clean off the nail polish and get it gold plated.

Just a thought.

Hi to all my TubeNet friends.

Roger