TubaForum.net

I have discovered a new and inexpensive way to tweak tuba inadequacies and shortcomings regarding the playability of certain instruments.
For example - say I have a certain CC instrument and it doesn't have a clear high F, or maybe a high note is impossible to hit, or maybe slurs are hard in a certain range. Solution: I put the instrument in the closet for several months as punishment. I then take up another CC and use it for a while. After several months I go to the closet and take out the misbehaving instrument. Voila! everything is hitting much better. High notes pop, slurs better than ever, and certain "funny" notes play much better! This works for mouthpieces as well.

Another related method for tubas... "crosstraining". I switch back and forth during the month from one instrument to the other. I am careful to keep both instruments in the same room and out of the case. This seems to help instruments straighten themselves out. It lets the "other" horn hear how it's supposed to play and after a while, both instruments fall into line and play better.

Tubas are like little kids. They need plenty of discipline.

TJ

Tim Jackson wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 3:47 pm ....
I am careful to keep both instruments in the same room and out of the case. This seems to help instruments straighten themselves out.
...

I tried that, but it resulted in a lot of dent that needed to be straightened out

That's a great idea, and I'm sure that dozens of people on this site will benefit. I did something sort of similar, except I put my C tubas in shipping boxes and sent them off to Timbuktu.

From Good Omens

"He had heard about talking to plants in the early seventies, on Radio Four, and thought it was an excellent idea. Although talking is perhaps the wrong word for what Crowley did.
What he did was put the fear of God into them.
More precisely, the fear of Crowley.

In addition to which, every couple of months Crowley would pick out a plant that was growing too slowly, or succumbing to leaf-wilt or browning, or just didn't look quite as good as the others, and he would carry it around to all the other plants. "Say goodbye to your friend," he'd say to them. "He just couldn't cut it. . . "
Then he would leave the flat with the offending plant, and return an hour or so later with a large, empty flower pot, which he would leave somewhere conspicuously around the flat.

The plants were the most luxurious, verdant, and beautiful in London. Also the most terrified."

Tim Jackson wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 3:47 pm
Another related method for tubas... "crosstraining". I switch back and forth during the month from one instrument to the other. I am careful to keep both instruments in the same room and out of the case.

Can't do that... they gang up on me to confuse and befuddle me. The BBbs and Ebs get along fine, but once once you throw a CC in there it is all kinds of trouble. They are divas and don't like to play with the other tubas. They conspire to make be forget my fingerings or even which instrument I am playing. I can only imagine the troubles if I was ever demented enough to adopt a F tuba