Posted by Steve Dedman on June 02, 2000 at 23:05:28:
In Reply to: How to Start a 10 Year Aspiring Tubist posted by Joe Lowman on June 01, 2000 at 22:27:14:
This last semester, I taught several beginners. One had already played trombone, and did OK. One had tried flute, and he also did OK. One, however, had never tried anything else, and she really struggled for the first few weeks. But she also caught up to the others quickly. Her problem was that the mouthpiece was so big that she couldn't form the requisite embouchure.
IMO, starting kids out on euph is a better option, since you can oversee the development of their embouchure much more easily than on tuba. On smaller kids, the mouthpiece can be as big as their mouth. If they can get the embouchure right on euph, the switch to tuba is going to be easier. I may be prejudiced, since I started on trombone, but I also had very little difficulty in the switch when I was in Jr. high.