brassguymike

The lower the note, the higher the flow rate of wind and the lower the intercostal pressure. The higher the note, the lower the flow rate and the higher the intercostal pressure. Back in the 50's Arnold Jacobs did an experiment with the Chicago Symphony brass ensemble. When they each played the enharmonic pitch C4, they all had the same flow rate and intercostal pressure. So, for the tuba player to go up to the C, he had to decrease his flow and increase the intercostal pressure. For the trumpet player to go down to C (D on a Bb trumpet), he had to increase his flow and decrease his intercostal pressure.

No, they are the ones who just stand on the front sideline and never have to march.

another reason why some of us low brassers might enjoy good ol' pedal tones could be how they slot on our horns. In spite of popular belief, the true fundamental of all of our horns is different. Because a horn isn't a closed tube, the physics of a string don't apply to horns. Many believe that the true fundamental of a BBb tuba to be the Eb one octave below the first leger line. Many believe the pedal Bb that we play is a "priveledged tone." Last night I read the following about trumpet fundamentals... "For Bb trumpets the fundamental is much lower than the Bb at 233.08 hertz and is 38 cents flat of the F below the aforementioned Bb." I understand this... sort of. The man I just quoted gets way into physics for me to understand. Check out the tuba he designed to be perfectly in tune on all notes in all registers. http://www.penn.com/~youngfj/

Definitely depends on the player and his weapon of choice. A lot more low brassers love pedal tones than high brassers. I could play them all day long; I can't get enough of them. Heck, pedal tones is my email address. But my college tuba professor couldn't play more than a couple pedal tones before his chops were shot. For a trumpet player, don't think of your lower range work as having to be pedal tones. When your playing in your lower range (and you most definitely should), play around low C not pedal C. Let the lower, more comfortable notes be the teachers of the upper notes.

A warm-up routine should most definitely include breathing exercises. In fact I just bought a great DVD of some excellent breathing exercises. Check it out at www.breathinggym.com. The video itself is pretty cheesy and won't win an academy award or anything, but the content will take your breath away, so to speak. Back in 96, I had the pleasure of having Sam teach our studio class in which we did many of these great exercises. This improved my playing tremendously. I have met both Sam and Patrick many times and both are great guys who have a lot of info to share about brass playing. I would agree that my chops are better after several minutes of playing, but it's not because of warming them up. It's more likely because our 7th cranial nerve is functioning more efficiently so our brain and our lips are more in sync.

The old Yamahas weren't the best horns to hold. You had to reach too far across to reach the valves; wasn't good for the old shoulder. Leadpipe placement took some getting used to, too. But fortunately for us, these problems have been fixed by a new line of Yamahas. Hopefully we won't see those convertibles anymore.

Got to spend some time on this horn at TMEA this past week. I must say that although the left side 4th valve frees up the right hand pinky in holding the horn at attention, I do not like the valve placement at all. I couldn't decide which finger works better on the awkward thing. Anyone know which finger UMI intended for us to use? I was wrong in my earlier post about the valve sticking out and being prone to being sheared off. It is protected behind a slide, which is what made it difficult to press. I couldn't remember it's exact placement from my short time holding it at Midwest. Like all King tubas, it's compact with a narrower-than-most bore so it isn't the most free-blowing tuba. But I've never played any King that is. I found that it didn't balance as well as the new Yamaha I had just played and it felt way heavier. Although the horn plays very well, in fact much like the new King 2341, it's so awkward and heavy that I'm glad my guys will be playing the new set of Yamahas.

Got to play this horn this past week at TMEA. Love it, absolutely love it. Yamaha took the bell from their YCB 822 and put it on this horn, so it has a 19.5" bell. Larger bell and bell throat than the previous Yamaha we've been using. This horn projects rather well. It is fairly open-wrapped and therefore rather free-blowing. It's easy to hold and balances rather easily. There's going to be a couple minor changes on the horns we'll be using this summer from this first batch that came out. I talked to Kurt Witt, Yamaha's wind instrument product manager, and we're going to use a bit narrower leadpipe so that you won't have to stretch your neck so far to reach the mouthpiece. The horn also features a nifty little device where you can tune the horn at the leadpipe and use a screw to lock it in (much like the screw that trumpets have on the 3rd valve slide where you can set how far it will kick out). Kurt told me we're going to move the screw to the backside and reinforce it someway so that it won't get ripped off.

In a physiological sence, actually there's no such thing as a warm-up for your chops. Whether you initiate a buzz or not, your chops won't get any warmer. Arnold Jacobs did a test where he did a temperature reading of his chops before and after he played, no change. As Jake said, a dancer can stretch and increase the blood supply, which will raise the temperature or "warm-up" the muscles. Our lips are red b/c we have a marvelous blood supply in our lips, therefore we don't need a warm-up per se. A "warm-up" is important for us, but for a different reason than increasing blood supply. We couple ourselves to our instrument for music making reasons. We need to get our brain, chops, and fingers all on the same page. We rarely cool off enough to need a "warm-up."

Actually, Mike, I'm pretty sure the new tubas we got this year have the 20" bells. (That, and the performers don't have to contort their arms to play the thing!) Hope to see you soon...... Hey Gary... I hope the new horns have the bigger bell. The smaller bell I was talking about was with the old model 201s that we used this past season. I can't wait to get up there and check out these new horns. I'm going to email you off-board so we can catch up on what's going on.

Yeah, I'm hoping UMI brings one to TMEA next week. I was going to play one at Midwest, but everytime I went by their booth there were a bunch of kids playing around with the horn.

Dave, you may be right. It may prove to be too awkward. As I said... if this design proves effective, then we may see others copying. With the left hand now being occupied with a valve, I can see how this design might cause some handling issues when the horn is in playing position. But I bet it's a heck of a lot easier to hold at attention than any other 4 valver. If the left hand 4th valve proves to be a handling issue for the Regiment tubas this season, I can see them only using it during times when they're not marching demanding drill (like during the ballad). What I'm really wondering is how many of those 4th valve valve-stems are going to accidentally get sheared off this summer? That single valve on the back side of the horn looks like an accident waiting to happen. It's always a pain in the butt when the stem shears off and the threaded part is still left in the casing. Paul Collins always loves trying to fix these at shows.

I think that's where they got the idea. This horn is easier to hold than the other 4 valvers b/c your right hand pinky is freed up. If this design proves effective, then we just might start seeing our other manufacturers start copying this valve placement.

Yeah, got any Aspirin? You are correct about the horn being filled with vibrations and not air. That is always a big misconception with wind instruments. Reminds me of the old Arnold Jacob's interview where he was asked about how much air (wind) the tuba takes. He talked about filling the horn with vibrations, where the instrument asks like a large megaphone and picks up a vibration and enlarges it, gives it color and characteristic sound. Breath is used only as a motor force for vibration of the embouchure. As for your whole physics equation, I understand it but only on an elementary level. You remind me of my caption head Dean Musson and his doctoral studies of the efficiency of sound travel by brass instruments in a free field environment. Get him talking about this stuff and he quickly looses me.

Yeah, we've got them. I haven't heard if the Cavies will be getting them or not. I don't know the specs cause I haven't been up to a camp to see the horns personally. But I have heard some good things about the horns.

If you are interested in some more ideas on how to clean your horn, I have a long detailed list of instructions that I have compiled for my students. It's too much to post here, but I'd be glad to email them.

Yamaha YBB 201: .728" bore, 17.5" bell and about 19 lbs. Kanstul KMT 200: .689" bore, 21" bell and 24 lbs. Dynasty M880: .710" bore, 20" bell and 25 lbs. So it depends on what standards you are using to differentiate their size. In bore size, the Yamaha is much bigger than the Kanstul or Dynasty. But in bell size, the Yamaha is smaller. Also the bell throats of the Kanstul and Dynasty are much wider and therefore make the horn appear much larger. As much as I like the idea of having the 4th valve, I don't know if the extra weight is really worth it. Yeah, it'd help with intonation and the lower octaves, but most arrangers realize that you can't hear lower octave contra parts when the contras are on the back hash so they limit the lower octave writing. I never marched with a 4th valve and never had intonation or range difficulties.

Unfortunately there is no magic cure. I am currently having much of the same trouble with my tuba students at the high school I just started teaching. It's tough to just say "try to achieve the level of sound of a really good experienced player." There needs to be a set example of a good sound in front of them. Modeling is an excellent method of teaching. While you're working on basic tone production, concentrate on the basics like long-tones. Don't dive into your show music and then harp on tone production. That's too much to worry about. Stick with the basics. The show music will be better in the long run. As far as "tone quality and power," work on simply playing together and sounding the same. Same tone quality, color, articulation, style, etc... One of the best things you can do is practice on just the mouthpiece. The horn is a crutch. Too often we just stick the mouthpiece in the horn and blow and hope what we want comes out of the bell. Think of the horn as a big megaphone. The horn amplifies and adds color to what you buzz on the mouthpiece. Work on getting a good full tone on the mouthpiece alone. Buzz whatever you want. I always tell my students that I don't care if you buzz Bach or if you buzz Britney Spears, just concentrate on producing a good sound. As far as mouthpiece selection... I would go for the 6 1/2 AL over the 12C, but still neither are a very good baritone mpc because they both are pretty small. For an inexperienced player, they might be able to excel on the 6 1/2 AL. But for a decent high school baritone player, I think they would do fine on a larger Schilke 51D or Bach 5G. I wouldn't worry about double tonguing until you're starting to get the sound you want. Once that is there, then you can work on that. One of the best ways I know to teach it is to simply practice saying "du-gu-du-gu-du-gu-du-gu-du." Just saying it over and over again (slow at first and gradually speeding it up) will coordinate the needed muscles in your tongue. Once you're able to say it pretty well at several different tempos, then try it on the horn. Another good thing to do is to follow the advice given earlier and read the book "Arnold Jacobs: Song and Wind." I've said it before on here and I'll say it again. Every wind player should read this book again and again. I'm currently reading it for probably the 10th time. Every time I read I gain a little bit more knowledge of what Mr. Jacobs was reallly talking about. Check it out at www.windsongpress.com Good luck and let me know if there's anything else I can do to help.

Ideally, the best hand placement will be where it's most comfortable and where there's the least amount of movement from the attention position to the playing position. In the attention position, I prefer to keep the right hand on the valves, but those darn pinky and thumb rings won't hold up very long if you do that. So you're going to have to find a different place that's close by the valves, yet is strong enough to support the weight. Left hand, somewhere in the valve slide area that's strong. At trail, you can hold them up high using the valve slides, ala Regiment. Or you can hold them lower to the ground by grabbing the bigger tubing. Either way, just find the balancing point so you can keep them parallel to the ground. Anyway, no matter where you choose to place your hands (every corps does it differently) just make sure it's uniform throughout the line.

I didn't take it as a diss. I actually laughed at how you played my words. It's true the stereotypical tuba player could definitely lose a few, but then there are those of us who don't fit the stereotype.

kalijah... glad to see what you have to say on this. As a tuba player, I haven't ever really worried too much about these things. Personally, I have never dallied with this stuff. Much of what I know about them is what I've read about tuba players adding mass. I'll stick with the music and continue to stay away from the gadgets; I'll leave all the physics to you.

True. It easier (although less effective) to say a large quantity of air than to get technical and talk about the air velocity and pressure and how quickly it's used up. I don't have the Arnold Jacobs: Song and Wind book in front of me right now, but somewhere in there he talks about the flow rate of his air when he's playing loud passages vs. soft passages on tuba. The amount of air he uses at his top volumes is amazing. I got light-headed just reading about it. I've only read the book about 10 times, so I think it's time to read it again.

Don't believe all what stuff?

Some people need to relax and stop spreading rumors. You guys are starting to sound like some of those parnoid posters on RAMD. Yes, YEA has sold all the bugles they own. Yes, YEA has paid for all the Yamaha horns. Ask questions, but there's no need to start rumors based on what some Joe-schmoe who has nothing to do with YEA comes up with. Let's keep this forum positive and full of confirmed information.

Louis... That's cool. I'm just here to share ideas, to educate and to be educated.