h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You don't need lots of air to play a tuba. If you do, try to get a good teacher and work on your technique. As with all brass instruments, the amount of air you need to play them is only a matter of technique, embouchure (sp?) and training.

You don't blow into the horn (as you do into a flute or a reed instrument), you just cause the air within the horn to vibrate. That requires hardly any air.

In my experience, it has proven that a lot of air is used to get a good sound. The embrochure (sp?) and buzzing sound better with a good air supply. Although woodwind instruments do require more air than brasswinds, the tuba does use a lot of air in relation to the rest of the brass family.

But that's just my experience. I'm probably wrong.

Does the tuba have a lower pitch because it has longer tubing or wider tubing, than say, a trumpet? I play the trombone (in my school band, but not very well), and my friend plays the bass trombone, and his trombone's mouthpiece is larger than mine. Is this for any particular reason?

If you don't know, never mind, but I was just wondering if anyone could shed some light on this for me (and perhaps not laugh at me for being a trombonist. It's a tough job but someone's got to do it).

~~A~~

Does the tuba have a lower pitch because it has longer tubing or wider tubing, than say, a trumpet? I play the trombone (in my school band, but not very well), and my friend plays the bass trombone, and his trombone's mouthpiece is larger than mine. Is this for any particular reason?

If you don't know, never mind, but I was just wondering if anyone could shed some light on this for me (and perhaps not laugh at me for being a trombonist. It's a tough job but someone's got to do it).

~~A~~

I really hate double-posting!

~~A~~

The reason a tuba is lower than a trumpet is a combination of both wider and longer tubes, I think. The reason your friend's mouthpiece is larger is possibly due to the fact that a larger mouthpiece allows you to put more air into the horn without getting the "blat" effect, essentially letting you play louder. You could (but I'm not certain) use any sized trombone mouthpiece on the bass trombone. But I'm not sure to any of these facts. All I know for sure is that I recently got a bigger mouthpiece for my baritone, and I sound a bit better than I did before.

The pitch of the horn depends on the length of the column of air only. You can make an instrument consisting of 20 feet of half inch copper pipe. But the tone will be rotten. To get a good sound in a long pipe, you need the pipe to be wider as well, and the mouthpiece should be bigger. So the width of the brass instrument is really to affect the tone. THe main difference between the cornet and the trumpet, which are both about the same size, is the width of the bore. The trumpet's extremely narrow bore gives it its strident martial sound while the wider bore on the cornet gives it a mellower tone.

I have to give some background first ...

I attended Rice University in Houston, TX, USA, the football team is the Owls. The marching band is the Marching Owl Band, or the MOB. This marching band is somewhat less ... organized than most. Changing formations involves a wild scramble ... once they changed from the outline of the state of Colorado to an outline of the state of Wyoming. Look it up. There was also the time they had their show stopped in the Astrodome ... but its the only band where you see people coming INTO their seats for the halftime show.

The heroes are the sousaphone players. The band's theme song is 'Louie, Louie', the infamous rock song by the Kingsmen, and all the other rock bands who ever played. The sousaphone guys do the intro: boomp-boomp-boomp boomp-boomp boomp-boomp-boomp boomp-boomp ...

So ... Rice U. hosts the international economic conference, George Bush (the real one), Margaret Thatcher, Mitterand (I think), guys like that. The MOB plays all the usual 'Pomp & Circumstance' stuff, then is marching off the quadrangle with the director relieved at the lack of typical MOB stuff, when we all hear over the TV: boomp-boomp-boomp boomp-boomp boomp-boomp-boomp boomp-boomp ...

Had to be.

There is a rule of thumb: wide bore - wide tone, narrow bore - narrow tone. Wide and narrow does not necessarily mean good and bad. Sometimes you may need a very narrow, needle stitchy tone for brass kicks, sometimes you may need a soft, mellow tone. Listen to the difference between a trumpet and a flugelhorn, and you'll see (sorry, hear ) what I mean.

The cup width of the mouthpiece determines the vibrating length of the lips. Longer lips - lower pitch, shorter lips - higher pitch. Low and high does not mean a certain pitch, but a pitch range, naturally.

Conclusion: The lentgh of the tube defines a certain pitch range it can amplify (let's say three octaves, that varies). The lips in the mouthpiece can produce a certain pitch range (two to four or more octaves, that's highly dependant of the players abilities). The usable tone range of an instrument is where the player's/mouthpiece's and the tube's pitch range overlap.

This sounds like the definitive word on bore width, length and cup size. Can we get it into the guide? Would Jeremy like to write an entry outlining the design of brass instruments in general? Such a topic is probably too specialised to become an "Edited Entry" but we can get Fragilis to put it in the list of Musical Entries if we talk nicely to her.

I'd be surprised if there wasn't such an Entry already. Of course I could try to write it, then. Maybe I'd need a little help from my friend, but that's what the Guild is for ?

My band was playing today at the Concert Band Festival in Falkirk. We got Silver, but needed a Gold to go through to to Manchester for the National finals.
The mute fell out of my trombone during a rest. The conductor will kill me.

~~A~~

You always feel after a performance that you were the only one who made a mistake. Admittedly something as obvious as that is noticeable. But you will find talking to other band members that they all thought they made mistakes too. So don't worry too much about it. It's more important to enjoy the music making than to win prizes.

Thanks. Apparently, the real reason we lost was because we "relied on electronic tuners too much". I thought we were in tune, but there you go...

~~A~~

I have included some of the 'tuning theory' in my Entry on brass instruments, which is still under construction.

You can find a preview at http://www.h2g2.com/A473528.

Whew! That's one detailed entry!

~~A~~