High intonation

[Udi]

Thank you all for your kind advice and helpful thoughts on the issue.

tuben - I have to admit I didn't take into consideration the fact that these are very hot days in Israel... I'll soon test my intonation in a nicely air conditioned room and get back to you on the subject... bloke and Paul Scott, I didn't realize some people have a special, longer tuning slide made for playing in hot weather.

fenne1ca - thank you, I will try playing with drones. One of my teachers used to do this a lot with me as part of my warm up when I was younger.

bloke - I've always found your advice here interesting and relevant. Of course I am younger and less experienced than many of the forum members, but I don't think I am ayoung person or a young player. I'm 35, have been playing since I was nine, and am playing the tuba for 16 years now. I make my living playing tuba and making music.

- How far above A=440 are you playing on these instruments with their tuning slides pulled (ok, arbitrarily...) halfway out ?

On both my B&S CC tuba and my King BBb sousa I'm around 35-40 cents sharp with tuning slide about half way out.

- *How do you generally sound? good/open/round...?? pinched/thin/harsh..?? don't know...??

I'd say I have an open and round sound. There's always room for improvement.

- How do you generally feel after you've played? good...?? tired...?? don't know...??

When it's not a a very demanding show, where I have to play loud all the time (second line, for instance), I feel good after playing. On very demanding gigs I also feel good, but tired, like all the brass players around me.

- When some really great player(s) - who sound really great - play your instrument(s), where do THEY put your instrument's (or instruments') main slide(s) to play at A=440 ?

I'll make an oppurtunity to check that out.

Paul Scott - Thanks, I'll try the Vince Cichowicz long tone studies. Always happy to refresh my warmup routine.

MaryAnn -

Pick a nice mid-register note. Play that note with as much chops and as little air as possible. Then go through the whole combination of chops/air until you reach the other end, where you are playing with as much air and as little chops as possible. Most people will find somewhere where the tone gets resonant that uses a lot less chops and a lot more air.

I've never conciously experimented so thoroughly with chops/air ratio. That's very interesting, I'll try it.
Your coping with dystonia sounds like a huge challange. I admire the fact you relearned your playing and returned to the tuba.

Donn -

Might be worth noting that both of you play higher pitched brass instruments along with the tuba, which hypothetically might cause a certain type of embouchure development past what's necessary with the tuba.

I thought about this option too.

imperialbari -

One area to work with, maybe especially on the sousaphone, but helpful for tuba also, is about playing false notes. I have made a set of exercises exploring the false notes quite systematically. They are available for free from my Yahoo-based download project

Thank you for the invitation, I downloaded your excercises and will try it soon, and looked at some of the other interesting sheet music you have there. You've created an impressive library!
I did feel my false tones are less precise and clear, and started playing low etudes to strengthen my lower register, but it's nice to see a study written specifically for false tones.

[swillafew]

Where problems present themselves, I get a reference pitch (keyboard instrument is wonderful) and the mouthpiece, and make sure that I can match the pitch on the keyboard over the range of pitches I expect to play. Easy routines should be done until they are comfortable.

This will recalibrate the ear that has gone astray, and instill some muscle memory in the lips at the same time.

Persons without a reference will go sharp mostly, and prefer to hear a sound on the high side. Over a long period of time this can make one's ear and lips a real disaster.

[Udi]

I agree that's important. I start almost every warm up playing a scale and some arpegios on my mouthpiece, frequently checking my self with the piano.

[Udi]

...

(with due apologies) I don't know you, and your appearance in your avatar (at least without reading glasses) is that of a very youthful person.

- j

No offence taken. I appreciate your good advice.

[Udi]

So, today I tested my sousaphones intonation in a room cooled to around 25 degrees ºC (77 ºF) and sadly it alsmost didn't make a difference inmy sharpness. Pity, as it is so much easier blaming your problems on something else then yourself.

MaryAnn, I tehat you suggested

Pick a nice mid-register note. Play that note with as much chops and as little air as possible. Then go through the whole combination of chops/air until you reach the other end, where you are playing with as much air and as little chops as possible. Most people will find somewhere where the tone gets resonant that uses a lot less chops and a lot more air.

And found it quite effective with a big part of my register. More air and less chops got me a lot flatter, and felt better to play. No magic solution, but this seems as the right path to take. As always, the first thing that gets hurt when I get out of shape is moving less air and putting too much pressure on the lips.

imperialbari, your false / pedal notes excercises are very thorough and effective. Thank you for sharing them.