I've been playing euphonium for about 3 months after a long hiatus. While my sound has drastically improved in the low range, I'm having trouble with my tone on anything D4 and above. It's clear to me that I'm tightening my lips and pinching off the air flow (the horn is not resonating). I've been working on ascending chromatic and long tone exercises, increasing volume as I ascend but trying to maintain tone quality. I have also been catching myself tightening up and am working on staying relaxed.
These may be extremely basic questions:
- How do you (mechanically) get 'faster air'? Is it just a combination of tongue position and pushing the air harder? When I try making an "eeee" sound and blow hard on my hand there is less air than when I blow softly with a "dohhhh" sound.
- Do you adjust the size of the embouchure for higher ranges or is the gap between the lips the same?