Mouthpiece Buzzing

[pecktime]

I get the feeling that not everyone buzzes the same way...

I was taught to increase the resistance on the mouthpiece by cupping it with my hand. The BERP device does this for $20.

I have tried buzzing the MP with no resistance and it does not produce the good results (for me) of buzzing with resistance.

[happyroman]

I get the feeling that not everyone buzzes the same way...

I was taught to increase the resistance on the mouthpiece by cupping it with my hand. The BERP device does this for $20.

I have tried buzzing the MP with no resistance and it does not produce the good results (for me) of buzzing with resistance.

This is an area where Mr. Jacobs would say that any time we learn something new, we start with crudity. Then, from crudity comes skill. Adding resistance like you mention makes it easier to get the lips to vibrate, but if you persist with the mouthpiece alone, once you are able to develop a strong buzz without the added pressure, you will see more benefits when you go back to the tuba. Then, take it even further by learning to buzz on just the rim. It is harder to get the lips to vibrate with just the rim than it is on the mouthpiece.

Practicing in this manner, as Mr. Jacobs would say, develops an embouchure "that wants to vibrate" as opposed to one that we have to force to vibrate. This makes our playing much more efficient, and efficiency for a brass player directly correlates to a beautiful, round tone.

I really like the BERP, as well, but cut the end off to eliminate the added resistance. But the ability to play a passage on the mouthpiece while fingering the instrument is a valuable practice tool. The BERP allows us to immediately go back and forth between the mouthpiece and the instrument and that is a very powerful practice method, especially when working out a difficult or tricky passage.

[Michael Bush]

Practicing in this manner, as Mr. Jacobs would say, develops an embouchure "that wants to vibrate" as opposed to one that we have to force to vibrate.

How does this work? I really don't get it. I sit and force my embouchure to vibrate, and I get better and better at forcing it (which is the only way it will vibrate without the resistance of the horn or something doing duty in its place). And somehow getting better and better at forcing my embouchure to vibrate magically flips over into not forcing it?

Practice makes habits. If I practice forcing it long enough, it seems to me I eventually master forcing it and can't readily do anything else. No?

[Michael Bush]

...That having been said, bassoonists work on their reeds for considerable amounts of time (some, about as much time as they spend playing) to make reeds that "want to vibrate" rather than having to be "forced to vibrate".

I'm going to bet that the said work to get the reed to want to vibrate does not involve forcing it to vibrate for hours on end. At least the forcing is not the efficient cause of the wanting.

[Michael Bush]

bloke "I suspect, very much, that I'm not 'getting' what you're communicating, which isn't unusual. There's tons of stuff that I'm not insightful enough to 'get'."

I'm pretty sure we're in agreement.

[happyroman]

Practicing in this manner, as Mr. Jacobs would say, develops an embouchure "that wants to vibrate" as opposed to one that we have to force to vibrate.

How does this work? I really don't get it. I sit and force my embouchure to vibrate, and I get better and better at forcing it (which is the only way it will vibrate without the resistance of the horn or something doing duty in its place). And somehow getting better and better at forcing my embouchure to vibrate magically flips over into not forcing it?

Practice makes habits. If I practice forcing it long enough, it seems to me I eventually master forcing it and can't readily do anything else. No?

Are you talking about the mouthpiece or the rim? In either case, you start in the lower middle register, where it is easiest to play. You start by developing some kind of buzz. In the beginning, it is not important to be "right." However, it is very important to have the mental concept of what you want to sound like very strong in the head as you are buzzing. Then, as you continue, you work to decrease the amount of "forcing" necessary to get the lips to vibrate while achieving the same results in terms of the sound of the buzz.

You are correct that if you continue to practice forcing it, that is the habit that is being developed. The initial "forcing it" is the crudity, and the gradual development of skill is achieving a better sounding buzz with less pressure required. The key to the process is to hear the sound you want in your head and striving to imitate that. Mr. Jacobs said that two of the best teaching tools are intuition and imitation. You intuitively conceive of the sound and try to imitate it.

[Leland]

I had the opportunity last week to introduce my trombone-playing nephew to buzzing the mouthpiece while it's plugged into about a foot of vinyl tubing.

He's nursing a broken wrist, so we spent the entire time buzzing, doing some basic exercises and following along with some recordings I've got.

As I described earlier, when buzzing, it's really easy to overblow, simply because you're expecting a noise that's somewhat loud. So, when we started getting into some of the longer-phrase'd exercises -- say, 15 counts playing, 1 count breath -- the fact that he was overblowing meant he always ran out of air before the phrase was done. It took a few tries, but he eventually was able to smoothly buzz for an entire phrase.

Now, I don't know how well he'll keep up with practicing, as he's got other hobbies occupying his mind and the school year is winding down and he hasn't decided whether to try out for marching band and even if he does, his hand will still be in a cast. But if he's up for it, I can get him up to speed as far as marching technique goes, and he'd be a shoo-in for the band.