Firm corners

[Erik_Sweden]

Hi all,

Since I'm self-taught on tuba I don't know, and like to ask following: I see on YT and read often about firm corners, but how firm is firm corners?

[MN_TimTuba]

say the word "pepper"

make note of what your corners feel like while you say that

there you go

[bloke]

Maybe, something to go by - with any technique - is "If it works better than another technique doing something in particular, utilize that technique until you stumble across an even better one"...I guess...(??)

Another "thing" (probably) is to "Pay way more attention to how you sound than to how you're making that sound".

BUT...??

"If you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror, and like like what you're doing is way different that people who sound better than you, (at least) trying making yourself look like you're doing what they do".

[Erik_Sweden]

say the word "pepper"

make note of what your corners feel like while you say that

there you go

First this made no sense at all, but when I try to sound like an American (and not as a Swede) it made me understand what you ment :)

[donn]

Hm ... it didn't really make all that much sense to me, so I took it as a sort of odd way to say "don't worry, if your lips close that's firm enough."
Google translate's Swede puts the stress on the 2nd syllable and rolls the R; her Ps are a little indistinct, could be chapped lips from severe winter weather, but I'd bet money her lips close. You weren't slipping into Danish, were you?

[LeMark]

Hm ... it didn't really make all that much sense to me, so I took it as a sort of odd way to say "don't worry, if your lips close that's firm enough."

Not at all. That's the difference between the the P sound and a M. The P will have more firmness in the corners before the syllable begins

If the corners are firm, the cheeks can't puff out

[bloke]

If the lips close, there is no sound...
If the lips are closed but manage to be forced open by air pressure, the sound likely to be unpleasant to the ears.
...but this issue has been discussed before, and I'm not revisiting it.
One thing that I've learned is that people believe all sorts of things about all sorts of things.

[LeMark]

We're talking about corners Joe. Try saying pepper. Your lips come apart.

[bloke]

I'm sure they do (no argument); I'm not referring to that, but to something much more fundamental.

[donn]

Cheeks sure could puff out. They don't, ordinarily, because we don't put that much into a P. Firm corners would prevent cheek puffing, with a brass instrument? Asking for a friend.

[Erik_Sweden]

Thats funny, because my cheek puffing all the time when blowing in my tuba. If I try to have firm corners I get not so much puffing, but not much sound. If I blow with full sound my cheeks puff, and my corners are not firm.

Major problem is that here where I live, there is no tuba teacher that actually play tuba at any decent level. Most of them are trumpet players. So I have to ask you :)

[donn]

So I have to ask you :)

Ew. That can't turn out well. It sounds like you have something that works, though, so you don't need to pay any attention to what we say.

As you have noticed, there are a lot of trumpet players. They blow harder, and you can see some presumably self trained players who have more or less wrecked their cheeks - they puff out like a tree frog, and the muscles that ordinarily would counteract that aren't any use, so you may occasionally see them holding a cheek down with a spare finger. And of course the amount of lip actually working in the mouthpiece is pretty tiny. It's a different instrument. I wouldn't expect tuba players ever blow nearly that hard, and their lips need to adapt to a lot more mouthpiece real estate. It may be that a certain amount of standard brass instruction is less applicable to the tuba than to the much more common lesser instruments.