Posted by Jay Bertolet on October 05, 2000 at 07:58:40:
In Reply to: St. Pete's -- tendency to be flat? posted by The other Scott on October 05, 2000 at 06:58:36:
I would offer three suggestions:
First, it could be that the mouthpiece she's using could cause this effect. Different mouthpieces can have a great effect on the intonation tendencies of an instrument. Have her try playing the horn with other mouthpieces and see if the results are the same.
Second, it could just be that the horn is flat and needs to shortened a bit. This option would be my last resort however. Try everything else before you do this!
Third, it could be that she doesn't support the sound with enough air. The St. Pete has a pretty large bore and it isn't a particularly efficient instrument. If she isn't really using enough air, this would cause the tone to go flat in certain cases. This sort of thing would be most notable in the low range where air consumption can be very high. To test this, have somebody else play the tuba (if she's okay with that) and see if they get the same results as she does. Be sure this person uses the same mouthpiece she does to eliminate that variable from the test.
There are other possibilities but these are the first things that come to my mind. Good luck tracking down the problem!