I'll try to get this in a small nutshell.

The concert tuba has been in the shop for a while and I've had to play the fiberglass sousaphone.

When I try to play loud when it's needed (during a powerful song), I seem to be running into high resistance which seems to limit my volume (guessing it's the fiberglass). I can't remember what happened with the concert tuba when I played loud though (I know my little beginner tuba when I try it it edges like crazy).

I don't know if it's the tuba or mpc.

I currently use the Bach Megatone 12, which is ok, but...well I can't really think of what I mean as it's been 2 days since I've played. I think I should look at other mpcs though. I like what I've seen of Loud, Perantucci, and GW, in order of how much I'm interested.

Can anyone clarify this for me?

This shows how dead the tuba forum is... it's been what, a month?

There are many aspects which can affect the resistance - including bore of the instrument and mouthpiece. The fibreglass will not affect the resistance but may reduce the resonance - although its equally likely that because the sound can bounce off the ceiling with a concert tuba but not with a Sousaphone that the tuba sounds louder when its not!

If you think about how really good tuba players can breath less frequently and play louder - it comes down to using air more efficiently. In other words, all the air you blow needs to be vibrating and the shape of your lip opening can affect this as well as tone.

Assuming you are playing a Eb or F tuba (rather than a BBb) then the tone of a Sousaphone will also be more mellow and it is more difficult to get a 'brassy' sound.

You may find http://www.brass-forum.co.uk a more responsive forum!

I play a King BBb tuba and a King BBb Sousaphone. Yeah, I know that most of my problems are with breathing and that's why I started a breathing forum looking for books on breathing. My BD says that he really thinks I don't have any problems as he can't tell when I breathe, but I need to still have more air for accents and low notes (or high notes, above the staff). Actually, since I first started this I've been focusing more on this (Volume w/o tone quality loss) when I actually DO get a chance to practice. As a result, my tone improved from that annoying airy sound on the Sousa to more that full, sonorous sound of the tuba. It also improved my tone in my normal volume/note range (as well as all over) a lot. Happily I can now gather the muster to overpower the band (if needed) or at least match the volume required on those hard to hit notes (C, Db, F, Gb). Air use has become more efficient at lower volumes as well, but those loud passages still make me dizzy. Comments from the trombones, baritones are that they can hear me the way they've been asking to for over 2 years now.

Thank you for responding and I hope that site is more helpful.

P.S. My Tuba Solo is tomorrow morning and so far I've been able to nail it perfectly except for a jump from Eb to high Eb and a jump from high C to low Ab (the former being more of a problem. The problem with the first is that when I hit the note sometimes the tone is not there, sometimes it is. Hopefully tomorrow it is. The problem with the second is intonation and the attack. Sometimes I hit the note flatly than I should and I usually can't get it to start right on time (8th off usually), but then after that it get's worse...I end up starting the next phrase a little late! I'm sure since I'm only an 8th grader the judge probably won't say much about it. Last year she (he in 6th grade) said that some Ab's I played 2nd valve. With much greater errors than I'm talking about now they still gave me a 1??? I better get a 1+ this year lol.

I hope things went well on Saturday (in the UK there were regional brass band competitions which occupied the minds of most BBb players).

As you experiment you will probably find out what works on different instruments for you. The exact mix of upper/lower lip can be important - strangely for intonation on some tubas. Combined the direction of the stream of air this can also impact tone although not as much as the shape of the lip opening. You'll need to practice octave jumps in order to reduce and smoothout any embouchure changes.

A possible problem at the lower end of the range (especially pedal notes) is that the lips are moving relatively slowly but usually further than for higher notes. In practice this means that more air is being used than is necessary - but its quite hard to reduce the amplitude of the lips (the amount they move) while maintain the low vibration frequency.

At the upper end of the range, on a BBb tuba/sousaphone (unlike a EEb or Euphonium) I tend not to use much air support just a little lip tension - not so much or stretching them to make the lips thinner. This allows high notes to be played using little air.

I like to call the amount your lips move excursion hehe. The reason is because the way your lips create the sound (at least in how far they move) is similar to a speaker. Good news! I played well under pressure and got that 1+ I was hoping for He made comments and wondered how I managed to get that sound out of a fiberglass sousaphone. Well, I've had to play it for a few months now and at first when I played it the tone was bad, but during practice my main goal was always tone, and there we go! I also want it to sound like a concert tuba since I have to play songs you wouldn't normally play on a sousaphone.

When you change your lips, it changes characteristics such of resonance frequency and harmonics, correct?

You're right I should add octave jumps and all that into my exercises. Maybe high Bb to medium Bb and then low Bb? Then the same with the other notes (although I'm not sure I can even reach high C or D, don't know the fingerings). My problem is being able to correctly attack the notes above high C, they either come or they don't. On Saturday, my lips were dry and I had to keep licking them during the piece to keep them wet enough to go above high C (nervous I guess).

I still haven't checked out the other forum...but I'm sure I'll get around to it soon enough.

I will admit I did some stuff Saturday that was bad for my embouchure... For around 6 hours after my solo, I played a bunch of high notes and a lot of songs really loud and by the end of the day I could barely reach the normal Bb an octave higher than the 1st note on concert Bb scale.


Recently (a couple months) I've been thinking about getting a new mouthpiece and right now I'm using a Bach Megatone 12. I was looking at those Loud Mouthpieces and wondered if they're good or not? Thanks for all your help man.