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I thought this could make for an interesting discussion.

What’s a piece of tuba advice, teaching, or conventional wisdom that you believed for years, but eventually changed your mind about?

It could be anything: breathing, mouthpieces, buzzing, equipment, articulation, practice habits, sound concept, alternate fingerings, large vs. small instruments, audition preparation, etc.

I’m especially curious about things you may have learned from a respected teacher or player that made perfect sense at the time, but experience eventually caused you to rethink.

What changed your mind?

And on the flip side, is there any “old-school” advice you used to question but now believe more strongly than ever?

Interested to hear what everyone has learned through actual experience.

Here’s mine below

“More air fixes everything.”

I used to hear some version of that constantly if the sound is weak, use more air; if the low register isn’t speaking, use more air; if articulation is unclear, use more air.

Over time, I’ve started thinking that can be misleading. Sometimes the issue isn’t the amount of air at all it’s efficiency, timing, aperture, tongue placement, resistance, or simply how the player is coordinating everything.

More air can absolutely help, but just blowing harder can also make things worse.

Where I have run into the "use more air" mis-concept is in high range on small cups, like trumpet or horn. People do not know what they do to play on those cups (most of them) and so they revert to the "use more air" because they don't know what else to say. Yes, you do need more air pressure to get the air through the smaller aperture, but without the knowledge of how to form that smaller aperture with your lips/mouth/tongue etc (whatever works for you) -- the "use more air" is meaningless. You do need to "use more air" to play louder, though!!

What I disregarded was the approach of a teacher giving a student an exercise that the student did not have the technique to do, and assuming that by working on the exercise the student would develop the technique. That is total BS and not "teaching." It is coaching, because there is no actual instruction going on.

Oystein Baadsvik did a GREAT video on air speed for higher notes. Definitely worth a watch.

This is NOT specific.
This also is NOT a denigration of Arnold Jacobs.

Over the past several decades there's been an overemphasis of the air stuff (even though a lot of people have air deficiencies and need to address air issues... I don't deny that for a second) YET an under emphasis of embouchure efficiency and embouchure formation in regards to beauty of sound.

I studied a handful or two times with a few highfalutin players who are also known to be very helpful as teachers.

Several decades ago, the first time I went to one of them, the first thing they said after I played a little bit was "wow... What a beautiful sound". I never thought of my sound as being more beautiful than anyone:s else, but I've always tried to listen to the type of sound I produce and make sure that it's pleasing, rather than just "a sound". It's not the easiest thing to do, because the sound that we produce doesn't sound the same to us as it sounds to others... Our lips are vibrating our skulls, and we're sitting underneath the bell playing, rather than hearing what it sounds like from the other end of the bell.

Circling back to Arnold Jacobs, everyone seems to associate him with air air air, not really realizing (if they never listened to him talk or never studied with him) that he was really all about sound sound sound. He may not have talked about embouchure in relation to sound all that much, but he did talk about producing a beautiful sound.

If you study with any true, long term Jacobs students, they will emphasize sound and singing (and articulation and vowel shape)—never the air.

To answer the question, I have a million, but bigger tubas don’t produce more sound. It is often the opposite with a different tonal color—some, particularly York style BATs, are much harder to control for much less sound volume and projection.

tubatodd wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2026 8:41 am Oystein Baadsvik did a GREAT video on air speed for higher notes. Definitely worth a watch.

A notable application of Bernoulli's principal. On point: air velocity, not volume. Volume of air (otherwise known as big, easy air) is for low notes. To get high range, you have to start thinking like a lead trumpet player and focus on velocity of the air, knowing that once you come down you have to back off or your low range will crack and be thin in tone.

That I had to switch to CC.

You knew you were going to get a like click out of that comment, Wade.

To polish the cannonball: BBbs are for amateurs.

I love my 186CC, but she's my last CC, definitely no bigger.

Piston valve F tubas play easier than rotary ones.

More air, mo bettah! Actually, conserving my air on my excessively oversized (by the bloke standard ) 6/4 sized F tuba has allowed me to stretch phrases longer than I thought possible back in the kollidge days, even on a sweet Symphonie.

That technique will follow music. I.e., if you can play the music, you have the technique.

Tuba playing is a physical skill like anything else. Just like throwing a football or swinging a baseball bat, you need to work on your fundamentals so that your performance when it matters has a solid foundation.

I do as many technical exercises as etudes now.

Amen. I can sight sing an etude in a second, but that doesn't mean the fingers and airflow are always where they need to be.

I thank the most maligned composers, the ones that wrote etudes and technical exercises. They're not always fun, but THEY SURE ARE USEFUL! (Actually, when you play them well, they are really fun, and nothing for tuba is as bad as the Percy Such book for cello.)