I'm a euphonium player. Recently in the past year or so (when the need arose), I found pedal tones to be bugging me. I'm talking about mostly the notes F down to B natural (pedal with all 4 valves). Currently I can a good F most days, am working on what I could do to help get down there. Why it is bothering me so much is my colleges, some who are not even as developed euphonium player as me, can go down all the way to B natural! I'm stuck way up at F with not much, or very slow progress. The piece that my need arose FYI is Cosma's Euphonium concerto mvt number 1.
Here is some things I have thought on recently.
Embouchure:
I saw a video recently that had some good information in it that talked about the three different embouchure placements on the mouthpiece. Low on the piece, mid, and high. I figure I probably play low on the piece, which is why the shift down technique doesn't really work for me since I already play down there. In the past couple days I've experimented with shifting up, with interesting results. However I can play lower doing this, its not very loud...
But what I think is more the problem is my embouchure itself. My teacher has been always telling me to keep firm down in the low range, and I do try. (I've been using the straw/pen/pencil mouth weight lifting exercises every now and then.) For some reason my right side of my embouchure is lax compared to my left, and it almost looks lopsided. Although, strange as it may sound, this is the most comfortable way I feel I can play pedal tones. To add to this I've noticed I don't have the mouthpiece exactly in the center of my face either, its more on the right side of my face (the lax side)
I also feel iffy about that latter subject although, because I have heard that some players may have a unique embouchure that works for them the best, rather than the normal socially accepted embouchure. Although, I want to say that for my case, this isn't quite it...
Does anybody have any knowledge on this, or know what might be my problem? Or maybe if I have already diagnosed my problem? I also have be careful not to fall under the "paralysis by analysis".
Always looking for more opinions
Thanks,
Matthew Strom
Here is some things I have thought on recently.
Embouchure:
I saw a video recently that had some good information in it that talked about the three different embouchure placements on the mouthpiece. Low on the piece, mid, and high. I figure I probably play low on the piece, which is why the shift down technique doesn't really work for me since I already play down there. In the past couple days I've experimented with shifting up, with interesting results. However I can play lower doing this, its not very loud...
But what I think is more the problem is my embouchure itself. My teacher has been always telling me to keep firm down in the low range, and I do try. (I've been using the straw/pen/pencil mouth weight lifting exercises every now and then.) For some reason my right side of my embouchure is lax compared to my left, and it almost looks lopsided. Although, strange as it may sound, this is the most comfortable way I feel I can play pedal tones. To add to this I've noticed I don't have the mouthpiece exactly in the center of my face either, its more on the right side of my face (the lax side)
I also feel iffy about that latter subject although, because I have heard that some players may have a unique embouchure that works for them the best, rather than the normal socially accepted embouchure. Although, I want to say that for my case, this isn't quite it...
Does anybody have any knowledge on this, or know what might be my problem? Or maybe if I have already diagnosed my problem? I also have be careful not to fall under the "paralysis by analysis".
Always looking for more opinions
Thanks,
Matthew Strom
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