Mouthpiece Buzzing

[TubaRay]

I really do hate having to make these statements, but it pisses me off when people who have nothing better to do than criticize others w/out truely understanding their situation...so of course I'm going to defend myself. I'm all most of the verge of just leaving this BBS due to the morons who do nothing except criticize others.

Arkie, I think you need to reread the posts on this topic. If you are going to get pissed off over this, maybe you need to leave "this BBS." You can leave wondering if anyone will miss your posts. \

TubeNet is not a place where one can say anything they want to say and expect it to be taken as fact. The truth is you will often need to defend yourself. People often use the phrase "people who have nothing better to do" on TubeNet. It is usually used to attack others, rather than to refute what has been said. If your skin is too thin, I suggest you find somewhere that accepts anything you say as "gospel." However, if you want to hear many different viewpoints, and want to have the opportunity to hear from many knowledgeable(and sometimes, not so knowledgeable) people, stick around for a while. I, for one, have learned a lot. I have also found friendship among those who supposedly "have nothing better to do."

[Arkietuba]

Okay, so I guess I over reacted. It's just that usually whenever I post something, the same people tend to attack me for what I said. They even attack my musicianship which is definately not cool. Some even goes as far as to say that what some pros have told me is bs.

I never said that you shouldn't use buzzing as part of your practice routine and I never said that I didn't buzz. I buzz for a few minutes every practice session. But, from my own personal experience (and from what pros and proffesors I've studied w/ have told me) my buzzing is definately not holding me back and I shouldn't place too much emphasis on it. They mainly work on my embouchure since it's weak on one side. You guys would just have to listen to me play to really understand where I'm comming from. Basically what I was saying is that if you're already pretty far along in your musicianship I don't think you need to place THAT much emphasis on it. The original poster kinda seemed like he was really worried about it so I was just letting him know that some people tend to put too much emphasis on it and you don't have to.

I think I'm gonna stop defending my view points b/c it seems futile...like the time I had to defend my like of rap music. SOME (not that many, but a few) didn't seem to understand that I was talking about the minority of rap that's actually good like Youngblood Brass Band, Common, Kanye to name a few. They simply focused on the bad rap even though I CLEARLY stated that I was refering to the few rappers that are good. So with that, I'm gonna stop defending my point of view b/c it seems that the people that attack those views are set in their ways and don't want to listen to a different side...

[Stefan]

That is some excellent advise from Mojo. Advise learned through lessons with many top players. Read it and understand. BTW, probably excellent advise from others, but I only follow Mojo's posts .

Stefan

[TubaRay]

I think I'm gonna stop defending my view points b/c it seems futile...like the time I had to defend my like of rap music. SOME (not that many, but a few) didn't seem to understand that I was talking about the minority of rap that's actually good like Youngblood Brass Band, Common, Kanye to name a few. They simply focused on the bad rap even though I CLEARLY stated that I was refering to the few rappers that are good. So with that, I'm gonna stop defending my point of view b/c it seems that the people that attack those views are set in their ways and don't want to listen to a different side...

In my opinion, there are times silence has the ability to articulate meaning more clearly and more powerfully. As for whose advice you should heed, always consider the source and what information the source has access to.

[LoyalTubist]

[Leland]

I wouldn't buzz excercises as a whole, unless you are double-checking a tough lick, but even then you should be singing it in your head. The body will unconsciously make the necessary corrections if you hear the pitch in your head.

I've used buzzing as a tool to get my face to play the right notes, especially in difficult passages.

My best story (I've posted it before, too) was when I was first presented with the march, Barnum & Bailey's Favorite, in college while I was on euph. I felt like I could be doing the fast licks (pretty much the whole thing) a little better and more consistently, so I decided to try working it up on the mouthpiece alone. After a few days, I could pretty much play every pitch on time and as a distinct pitch. Once I plugged back into the horn, it came out much, much better than before.

Apart from a face workout and a practice/warmup thing to do when I don't have the horn, I use buzzing specifically for one main thing, and that's pitch accuracy.

[Leland]

Barnum and Bailey's is a great march, fantastic euph part too!

Right, and for a still-developing player like myself, the double tongued arpeggios were the first main challenge to buzz clearly.

[TubaingAgain]

Barnum and Bailey's has a better than great tuba part. The march won my high school many parade 1st place awards back in the last 70's. Even national parades 2 Cherry blossum parades in Washington DC. 3 Miss America parades in Atlantic City NJ. Of course we had a VERY LARGE band. 220 in the band and 60 in the band front. 12 sousha's. Ohh what fun it was way back when.