Buzzing

Leland · Post by **Leland** » Mon May 03, 2004 11:26 am

As an experiment, try squeezing down the size of your embouchure's aperture so that you get a purely fuzz-less buzz. Then, do that on the horn, and hear how pinched-off your sound is.

When you're buzzing, you shouldn't be doing anything different from when you're on the horn. Every good-sounding tuba player I've ever heard also has a definite airy fuzz in their mouthpiece buzz.

The main benefits from buzzing are in increasing the awareness of constantly-moving air and in gaining pitch accuracy. If you can play every pitch on the mouthpiece without scooping or dipping, your "frack percentage" will be much lower.

Brandon Jones · Post by **Brandon Jones** » Mon May 03, 2004 3:09 pm

I completely agree with Leland. So many people now a days try to put too much emphasis on the mouthpiece buzz, as it must sound good in order to sound good on the horn. Not true. I know many people that say you have to be able to play it on your mouthpiece before you can play it on your horn. That also is not true. I do minimal mouthpiece buzzing, and see it only as a control study and perhaps a muscle building exercise for younger players. Often, it can create un-needed tension in the actual embouchure and will result in a "tight" (in a bad way) sound. These are, of course, my experiences and it does not mean that everyone will feel or should feel this way. There are many great players who got great on their instrument not by all doing the same thing with the same philosophy. Every euphonium player I've ever had a lesson with only had one thing in common with how they play, and that was the use of the air. So get that part of the equation down, and you can do whatever else is needed to get you to where you need to be.

TubaRay · Post by **TubaRay** » Mon May 03, 2004 4:27 pm

I agree with you, Brandon. Buzzing is a means to an end. It is not the end. I realize many people achieve good results with the use of buzzing. I rarely use buzzing as a tool. I don't emphasize it in my teaching, either. For me, when I use it, I find it tends to create too much tension in the wrong areas of my embouchure. I am not prepared to tell anyone that it can't or doesn't work for them. For me, however, I don't find it very helpful.

The Impaler · Post by **The Impaler** » Mon May 03, 2004 4:50 pm

I had much the same philosophy as many of the above, until last summer. I was a terrible buzzer, hated buzzing the mouthpiece, and generally didn't do it at all. And I sat in the principal chair for most of my college career in a very fine college ensemble. However, attending Pat Sheridan's Access All Areas Camp last summer changed that drastically. Within one week, the time of the camp, I went from not being able to sustain a decent buzz at all to being able to smoothly gliss over the entire range of my horn on the mouthpiece alone with a great sound. It is purely a result of learning to use the air in my lungs properly, or should I say more efficiently. Do you absolutely have to buzz everyday to be a great player? I don't believe so. But, done properly, does it help you to attain a greater ease of both tone production and pitch accuracy on the instrument? Absolutely! In my opinion, adding a daily regimen of Pat (and Sam's) buzzing exercises to my routine has not only helped, but greatly augmented the ease with which I play my instruments. I can't see (now) how I could go without buzzing and still be the player that I am on my instruments. My opinion, hope it helps a few of you guys out.

Leland · Post by **Leland** » Mon May 03, 2004 8:44 pm

Buzzing works, there's no doubt.

BUT, the danger for some people is in trying to "play the mouthpiece", as I'd call it. Like I said earlier, if you somehow can get a clear, fuzz-free tone on the mouthpiece, you're doing the wrong thing. You're actually treating it as an instrument no more than three inches long.

The rest of the horn colors & amplifies the sound coming out of the mouthpiece, but it also saves you by favoring a certain harmonic and producing a halfway decent sound even when you're not using your wind correctly. If your Ab buzz is a tad off, it'll merely be a slight bobble by the time the horn's resonances push your buzz to the Ab. But, that can be a real problem in upper ranges where the horn's harmonics are a lot closer together -- a slight bobble becomes an embarrassing frack. If you can buzz that Ab spot-on, it'll come through the horn clear as a bell.

You have to understand which aspects to focus on while using the horn and while using the mouthpiece alone. Use buzzing to work on the things that the horn corrects for you. The less correction you need from the horn, the more reliably you'll play.

Leland · Post by **Leland** » Mon May 03, 2004 10:45 pm

I forgot about that part --

If I need to, buzzing can serve as a reasonable replacement for playing if I'm stuck away from the horn. If I take the weekend off the horn, but buzz each day until I feel good, I can jump right back in on Monday without most of the usual bad effects of taking time off.

I'll just buzz nonsense, or along with the radio or CD, or along with warmups I've recorded. Whichever I do, I try to at least continue until I feel warmed up & flexible.

Brandon Jones · Post by **Brandon Jones** » Mon May 03, 2004 11:40 pm

I've also found that an even better way to practice this without tension, but learning to control the apperture (sp?) is to attain a natural whistle of at least an octave, forte dynamic, and in tune...without tension. If you have any un-needed tension in the embouchure, you cannot attain the natural whistle through the mouthpiece. Steve Mead is a big believer in this. It also helps warm me up when I don't have time before a rehearsal to put the horn on my face. Another thing I found myself doing, which contradicts what I believe, but I often times buzz without a mouthpiece at all. It at least helps build endurance. I do believe in the natural whistle. It also helps you control your air, especially at the softer dynamics. That helps me anyway, and I don't think I'm a horrible player!

Gorilla Tuba · Post by **Gorilla Tuba** » Tue May 04, 2004 11:01 pm

There is a school of thought in the trumpet world that the most effective "buzzing" is done on the trumpet, but with the tuning slide removed. Essentially, buzzing with a little tubing to closer resemble the horns resistance.

I have found that buzzing on an open mouthpiece is great for "ear training" but causes tension in the embouchure. For me, and several of my students, the best compromise is the BERP device. You know, that little plastic things that attach to your leadpipe. I used to think they were stupid, but it is really nice to adjust the holes so that it feels like the same amount of resistance as my tuba. Further, it is great to be able to buzz a passage while holding the instrument and fingering the same as while playing.

Admittedly, I don't buzz as much as I think I should. But it is hard to deny the benefits of mouthpiece buzzing as a tool for smoothing out passages and ear training. For me, the BERP has greatly decreased the embouchure tension often associated with buzzing while allowing me to reap the benefits.

Leland · Post by **Leland** » Wed May 05, 2004 12:05 am

Gorilla Tuba wrote:I have found that buzzing on an open mouthpiece is great for "ear training" but causes tension in the embouchure. For me, and several of my students, the best compromise is the BERP device.

I get the same general effect either by partially blocking the end with my finger or sticking a piece of vinyl tubing in, or over, the end of the shank. It really does help quite a bit, giving some resistance (a system likes to work best under load) but not giving any center of pitch. Not as sophisticated as a BERP, but pretty close.

I even further recommend holding the mouthpiece with the non-fingering hand and doing the fingerings as I go along. That gets into air-embouchure-tongue-finger coordination away from the horn, which is tangential enough of a topic that I'll just shush and go to sleep...

(and I thought it was funny that I typed something that sounds like, "sophisticated as a burp")

CJ Krause · Post by **CJ Krause** » Wed May 05, 2004 11:51 pm

dave · Post by **dave** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 11:39 pm

I have to agree with Brandon, that buzzing without the mouthpiece is also useful. I'm currently working to correct embouchure problems that arose from A) over practice and B) not using firm corners in my embouchure.
My tone was great, but my high register kept getting worse along with my
endurance over the past year. Of course, the more I noticed the problem,
the harder I worked and the worse it got.

The easiest way to see whether your embouchure is doing the work, or
if you have found some bad habits of using the mouthpiece/horn to
compensate in some way, is to try blowing a note on the horn, remove
the mouthpiece keeping the same pitch, then remove the mouthpiece, keeping the same pitch. Try this at the high end and the low end as well
as the middle, and see how the range compares.

I found that although I could play a high C on the horn, my lips were only capable of an E without a mouthpiece. Also, the vibration was really weak, when I formed the embouchure without the mouthpiece. For about two weeks I practiced 50% without mouthpiece, 50% with, and my embouchure efficiency improved. I'm gradually adding the horn back in, but limiting my range on the horn to match what my naked lips are telling me.

Dave