Sometimes it's the horn's fault

[cmccain]

Like anyone with a good teacher, I was told many times in my youth not to let the horn be my excuse for not playing well. "The instrument doesn't make the music, you do." Obviously the caveat to this is that your horn has to be in working order, but I internalized that I am ultimately responsible for what comes out of the bell.

So naturally, when I picked up a tuba that I knew had been taken care of earlier this year (thanks again @arpthark), I gave it a cleaning and began working with the assumption that any issues were a result of my rustiness. After a few weeks I had a good 2.5 octave range that and could make it through the first few Bordogni tunes with no issue. But I kept having this double-buzz problem with Ab in the bottom of the staff (2-3 on CC), and Ab below the staff came out super stuffy. Only being a few weeks into playing again and still struggling to play anything lower than G below the staff, I figured the lower Ab issue was a range problem and the upper Ab was probably the turning point of an embouchre shift from weak chops. So I got to work practicing the low range and really working my embouchre.

So now I'm a few months in, I can comfortably get down to Eb and my tone is a lot more consistent throughout my range. But I'm still having this Ab problem, and it has become more obvious. I'm starting to get frustrated. Then, today, I go to oil my valves and -- right there in front of my face -- the third valve isn't lining up with the marks on the casing (I don't know what they're called). I flip it over to see that the rubber stop has come lose from where it should be seated. I try slamming the third valve down to see if I can get a better tone, and there it is! I apply little bit of glue and all of a sudden my Ab problem is gone!!

Sometimes it really is the horn's fault. Not that I regret all those low range and embouchre exercises.

[bloke]

I'm the curmudgeon who has consistently insisted that it's not all about the player, and that a good instrument helps a good player be a great player. I've also been the curmudgeon who has consistently insisted that it's not all about air and that it has a great deal to do with an efficient embouchure. Of course, if there's no music in the mind of the player, none of this stuff matters at all.

One of my instruments in particular - were I to surrender it - would define me as considerably less of a player.

[Tim Jackson]

For whatever a person might think about his command of the instrument, I have learned not to ever take a good instrument for granted. I was verbalizing different ways for a student to smooth up his playing on a passage one day. After numerous attempts without success, I grabbed his school horn and said "like this" ... then commenced to fall all over myself. After several tries, I handed the horn back to the kid and said something like "it's going to take a lot of work to make that happen on that horn. It was a modern Cerverny. I guess that horn sort of put me in my place. And the fact that the school would buy horns without my consent put me in my place double. Nothing like good old humble pie!

TJ

[sweaty]

When I taught elementary band, it was a matter of routine to test play each kid's horn. It was often revealing. When the horn was fine, it also showed the student the human factor of playing an instrument.

[Sousaswag]

I teach elementary band now, and it’s a weekly thing, no matter the instrument. Definitely revealing!

Particularly with tuba, man, those 1/2 size Jupiters or Yamahas just, well, SUCK! Hot take, I know. I also understand that a beginner can’t possibly sit with a full size horn, but it’s a challenge for me to make a nice sound with those blatty things. For a 10 year old trying to reach down into that low register? Gross.

One of my students (high school kid) has a school-owned Yamaha 641. I have the same issue Tim mentioned above. He wants to play the Gregson, and high G, no matter the valve combination, is unplayable on that tuba. For kicks I gave him my Holton to try, and that concerto became somewhat playable.

That tuba has since been sent to the local music company for some cleaning and alignment work on my recommendation. Hoping that fixes the problem. Thing was disgusting on the inside.

[bloke]

I teach elementary band now, and it’s a weekly thing, no matter the instrument. Definitely revealing!

Particularly with tuba, man, those 1/2 size Jupiters or Yamahas just, well, SUCK! Hot take, I know. I also understand that a beginner can’t possibly sit with a full size horn, but it’s a challenge for me to make a nice sound with those blatty things. For a 10 year old trying to reach down into that low register? Gross.

One of my students (high school kid) has a school-owned Yamaha 641. I have the same issue Tim mentioned above. He wants to play the Gregson, and high G, no matter the valve combination, is unplayable on that tuba. For kicks I gave him my Holton to try, and that concerto became somewhat playable.

That tuba has since been sent to the local music company for some cleaning and alignment work on my recommendation. Hoping that fixes the problem. Thing was disgusting on the inside.

At ages 11-12 (1968 - 1969) I learned with an old ugly brown brass sousaphone mounted on one of those collapsible tripod "butterfly" stands.

The body was oriented sideways, the bell was turned to the right (to face the director), I sat to my left of the instrument, moved the neck and bits WAY out to the left (to meet my face), put my right arm into the sousaphone's "circle", and played without having to hold the instrument (and prior to those stupid "sousaphone chair" things. This was EASY.

The ONLY thing that limited the quality of the sound I was producing was the taped-together "Astro" mouthpiece (whereby a nylon cup was threaded onto a brass shank, the nylon threads would fail, leak, and 2 yards of tape wouldn't even manage to seal up the epic leak. When I FINALLY got a solid brass (yet crappy - "Made in Austria"...??) mouthpiece handed to me - towards the end of the year - I produced a nice round/loud "tuba" sound...
again: I didn't have to hold up ANYTHING.

K&M still manufactures stands similar to those old stands:



If you're thinking "Hercules instead", I don't believe those would do nearly as well.