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The Force is all around us.
It surrounds us and allows us to breathe and live.
Without The Force, playing the tuba would be impossible.
Yes, we are talking about AIR.
Your ability to breathe a truly full breath of air and expel it in a controlled manner
will be the single most important part of your training.
As you sit in front of your computer now, you are breathing normally.
You are using only about a third of your lungs' capacity.
In order to play the tuba with great tone quality, you will need to increase that as much as possible.
The drawing to the left will help you understand what happens inside you when you breathe. Your diaphragm is an involuntary muscle underneath your lungs. When you breathe in, it is actually your diaphragm tugging your lungs downward, forcing them to fill up with air. When you breathe out, it is simply your diaphragm relaxing back to its resting position.
Yes, you can "force" your lungs to fill and empty by using your internal intercostal muscles in combination with your diaphragm, but remember that breathing is natural and involuntary. You do not not need to "work hard" to breathe out. It is the breathing in that you really need to practice. Learning how to breathe like a tuba master will take some time, but with a regular routine, you will be amazed at what your lungs can do for your tuba playing!
BREATHING EXERCISES
The following exercises, straight from the book Breathing Gym by Sam Pilafian and Patrick Sheridan,
will help you gain control and awareness of your breath.
Do these exercises every day before you begin to play.
Make sure you stretch out your upper body a bit and loosen up before you attempt these exercises.
Try these exercises in time with a metronome at 80-90 bpm (beats per minute).
If you do not own your own metronome, there are free metronomes online,
such as http://www.metronomeonline.com/
The airflow exercise shown below involves your arms as well as your breathing.
1. Stand up with your feet about should width apart and relax your arms at your sides.
2. As you breathe in through your mouth, raise your arms out to your sides in a smooth and even motion.
3. As you breathe out through your mouth, lower your arms in the same manner.
Try to time the motion so that when you are half full, your arms are parallel to the ground,
pointing straight out to your left and right sides.
When you are completely full, your arms should be up above your head.
When you are completely empty, your hands should be down at your sides again.
EMBOUCHURE
Your "embouchure" is the way your mouth/lips form against the mouthpiece.
Since everyone has their own unique face and dental structure,
we cannot all have the same exact embouchure, but it is important to strive for certain specific goals
while forming your tuba embouchure.
1. Say "OH"
Saying "OH" will help you understand how your tongue should be relaxed and low in your mouth.
2. Go from "OH" to "OO"
Going from "OH" to "OO" should help you feel your top and bottom teeth remain apart as your lips come together.
3. While in "OO", "squeeze", bringing the lips together
In this case, "squeeze" should still feel somewhat relaxed and free of tension.
Practice going through these three motions a few times.
Now take a deep breath though your mouth and form the embouchure before you let the air out.
Now follow the same process, but try to keep your lips together when you let the air out.
You should create a natural "buzz" or a "free buzz".
Free buzzing is a great way to get your embouchure going and ready for the mouthpiece.
MOUTHPIECE and TONE PRODUCTION
Before you begin playing the entire tuba, you need to get acquainted with the mouthpiece by itself.
Our resident tuba master, Ben, happened to bring along a very handy tool called an embouchure visualizer.
Here you can see that you need to strive for about a half upper lip, half lower lip position on the mouthpiece.
Both of these photos were taken while Ben was "buzzing" into the visualizer,
which explains the blurred lips. A good airstream will make the lips vibrate against each other at a very rapid rate!
It is time for some mouthpiece buzzing!
Hold your mouthpiece in the hand you will NOT use on the valves.
Depending on your tuba, this "free" hand could be your left or your right.
You are going to want to just breathe in through your nose so you can keep that awesome embouchure in tact,
but DON'T DO IT!!!
Definitely breathe in through your mouth because that is how you will breathe while playing almost all of the time.
Just drop your jaw a bit and take a good, full breath.
Set your embouchure and buzz! Buzz until you are totally out of air. Try to breathe out a steady stream of air.
You will know it is a steady stream when the pitch does not change much.
Once you get more comfortable buzzing one long stream of air,
try to change the pitch from lower to higher and higher to lower by simply changing how fast you move the air.
Slower air = lower pitch. Faster air = higher pitch.
This is often referred to as the "siren":
Also try a simple "lip slur" exercise on the mouthpiece like this:
Tonguing
Whether you realize it or not, you have been starting all of your buzzing by saying a syllable.
It is possible that you used your tongue "Tah", which is great,
but most beginning brass players start out with a "Pooh" or "Hoo" syllable, which is not so great for playing any wind instrument properly.
It is time to learn how to start that tone correctly, that is, with your tongue!
Instead of a "pooh" or "hoo" syllable, say "tah".
Notice that now the tip of your tongue actually touches the roof of your mouth, just behind your top front teeth.
That is exactly where you want your tongue to touch every time you begin a tone on your tuba.
Notice also that after you say "tah", the tongue immediately retreats back to the bottom of your mouth,
leaving a large and open oral cavity.
That open feeling in your mouth will help your tone sound resonant and powerful.
Try these exercises, still on the mouthpiece only.
We will use F as our pitch to aim for. Use a tuner or keyboard to find this pitch and try to match it as you buzz.
Nicely done, my young apprentice!
I think you are ready to enter the next level of your training.
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