Please school- mouthpieces and high range

[bloke]

I agree with that at which I believe (??) royjohn is hinting…

A shallower mouthpiece and a smaller throat might slightly clarify the resonance of the highest pitches in your range, but would only likely add either no pitches to the top of your range or only one or so.

If really interested/motivated in playing higher than middle C or D or so, working on this stuff can be a bit embarrassing, because it doesn’t sound very good at first…so it’s probably best to do it in private, play out of some trombone book that creeps up into the middle part of the treble clef range, and see what happens. Failure can be expected, but - later - bad sounds begin to sound pretty good - and then really good.
I might wager that you can already buzz your lips at those higher-than-your-range pitch levels with no tuba in front of your lips; the high range of the tuba just isn’t really very high.

I have never bothered to solidify my range higher than c above middle C, and probably the only reason that I have bothered to develop it to that pitch level is so that pitches - that are several steps lower - are very solid. Some very old music – where we are actually covering parts not written for contrabass tuba – were written with a couple of pitches “way up there”, and when I rarely encounter modern era music with a few notes “way up there“, I assume that the composer/arranger is either an ignoramus or a doofus. Recently – in an orchestra pops concert (Christmas), I encountered an arrangement where some doofus arranger gave the tuba the solo line in the bridge to “The Christmas Song“… I can’t remember for sure, but I believe the top note may have been a G-flat or something… As I chose to not sound like a doofus (as playing it well would have sounded just about as odd as playing it poorly - on a big tuba), I just picked up my euphonium and played that phrase. The following paragraph is everything that the music director had to say about that:

[donn]

I have a slightly different take on this than others. First I would say that you have to do most of your practice in the "cash register" that is probably from about low C (two ledger lines below the bass clef) and about an octave and a half over that. Below that you practice 20% of the time and in the high range maybe another 20%.

I made my comeback at 56 (74 now) on trumpet and tried all kinds of embouchure systems...it wasn't until I met Dave Wilken, a Reinhardt guy, that I learned how to play easily to trumpet high C and way beyond. Due to medical issues (hernia) I switched to tuba. I find that what Dave taught me was equally applicable to tuba. You can look at Dave's writings on embouchure at Wilktone.com. Basically you need to figure out where to place your mpc and how your embouchure moves as you ascend and descend. There are Very High placements (me), Medium High placements and Low placements. Once you figure out your proper placement and embouchure motion, everything becomes a lot easier. Dave determined that my motion was up and slightly to the left to ascend and down and slightly back to the right to descend. It was the slight deviation from straight up and down that was the key for me. Now I find that there is quite a bit of movement to the left when I get into the high register over about top line A. I also find that I need a little bit of "roll-in" on my lips in the high register.

If you have any interest in this kind of thing, it is just an hour or two of reading and watching the videos to figure it all out. It is pretty easy to move the horn around on particular notes to see which way (angle) sounds best.

I don't doubt that some mpcs will make the high register easier, or the low. But if you learn how to play it right, I think the high range (and the low) will be a lot easier. If you want to explore this with a teacher, both Dave and his teacher, Doug Elliot, who is on this forum, do on line lessons...

Yeah, learning to play it right - what a concept! I haven't rigorously worked through the Wilken system myself, but it did help me get over early influence from the one size fits all school of embouchure that didn't work for me at all. So I'm a fan.

[tofu]

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[Andy]

About the only way to extend range is to manage to squeak out an ugly piece of a pitch, and then spend time over the next weeks making that pitch - or the next one or two or three pitches - sound better than squeaks and more like the rest of your range.
Often, D is a bit nebulous on B-flat tubas.
You are doing fine.

This is really good advice. Arnold Jacobs had a saying that went "Bad sounds can be made into good sounds. Silence can't." It all starts with making sure that the embouchure can vibrate a pitch, and then make it sound good.

When the CSO was getting ready to record the Schumann Konzertstück, Clevenger asked Jacobs for advice on making his high range more secure. Jacobs told him to start with a moderately high note that was secure, and then play it as long tones 30-50 times per day. Then, go up a half step and repeat. Only play two notes per day in this manner, but the repetition of the long tones would do the trick. The next day, start on the second note from the previous day.

Jacobs also said to not be too concerned with the sound of the beginning or end of the notes, but the middle of each note must sound great. After a few weeks, your high notes should be much more secure.

One other thing that Jacobs always emphasized was that one should spend 80% of your practice time in the middle register, from low Bb to Bb at the top of the staff, and only 20% of your practice time in the extremes (high or low). Spending too much time in the high register, especially, at the expense of the "cash" register, can cause one to close off the air passages and can be detrimental to middle register tone production.