TubaKen wrote:If you consistently do mouthpiece buzzing practice, the amount of air you use will become more in line with the amount of air you use while playing the horn. Your buzz will depend less and less on the resistance of the instrument, and then will you realize the benefits of mouthpiece buzzing...
I'm not trying to be snarky, but I really don't see how this is possible, especially in the low range. Can you even buzz a low F or below? If you could, all your air would be gone in about three seconds. Yet one can easily play much longer down there on the horn. Also, how do you know your "big beautiful tone" on the mouthpiece even translates to the instrument? I know Jacobs was an advocate for mouthpiece buzzing, but there are also well-known names (Tommy Johnson, for one) on the other side of the argument. And I personally know of two trombone players who permanently destroyed their chops with excessive mouthpiece practice. So, not a fan, except in limited circumstances.
Just my 2 cents.
Regarding the amount of air used, I suppose that one will require less air as the embouchure becomes more efficient, but it will not likely approach the the amount used when you put the mouthpiece back into the instrument. The other point made kmorgancraw is absolutely correct. As the resistance provided by the instrument is removed, it is physically more difficult to get the embouchure to vibrate. As we learn this new skill, we are in fact developing an embouchure that wants to vibrate, as opposed to one that we force to vibrate. To take this to another degree of difficulty, get a rim, sometimes called a visualizer, and learn to buzz on that. Since you have removed the resistance caused by the cup and throat of the mouthpiece, it is more difficult to get the lips to vibrate on a rim than it is on the mouthpiece. One thing Mr. Jacobs warns about with the rim is that we may try to blow the air hard with the rim in order to get the lips to vibrate, creating unwanted back pressure inside the mouth. If this back pressure is carried over to the instrument, it will be detrimental. When going from the rim to the tuba, one must remember to play with very low air pressure while maintaining the sensation of the increased buzz. Playing on the rim, therefore, is a more advanced concept that should be used judiciously.
To address a couple of points made by TubaKen, I would say this. With respect to getting a big beautiful tone on the mouthpiece and whether that translates to the tuba, I would say it is self evident. Mr. Jacobs instructed his students to try and get a lot of "buzz" in the sound when playing the mouthpiece. This increased buzz correlates to a stronger vibration which is increased resonance when we go back to the instrument. This is the concept I discussed above where we are developing more efficiency in our playing by developing an embouchure that wants to vibrate.
The greater benefit in my mind, however, is how buzzing the mouthpiece creates a stronger link between the mind and the lips. If we want to play a C on the mouthpiece alone, we have to buzz a C. However, when we go back to the instrument, if we want to play a C, due to the distance between partials and the sympathetic resonance of the instrument, we could buzz as much as a half or whole step on either side of the desired C, and the instrument would force the note into the closest slot. It would sound bad, and may likely result in a split attack, but the C would likely be produced. Depending on the length of the tube, there is one place where the pitch being played will create the most resonance. If we lip the note up or down from that point, the tone quality suffers a lot. By buzzing on the mouthpiece, focusing on playing in tune, we learn very quickly to play on the center of the pitch. When we play on the center of the pitch, and have the tube set to the corresponding, and correct, length, the tone quality is improved.
Finally, one can find anecdotal evidence to support just about any point we are trying to make. By saying that Tommy Johnson was not an advocate of mouthpiece buzzing implies that there may be an equal number of prominent teachers on both sides of the argument. I can use a similar example by saying that Mr. Jacobs was not an advocate of free buzzing, yet two of his more prominent students, Gail Williams and Patrick Sheridan both found value in it from a personal standpoint. Does that mean Jake was wrong and everyone should do all of the free buzzing they want? Of course not. In both cases, Williams and Sheridan were advanced players that used the technique for specific reasons and found that it helped them.
The point is that there are many ways to accomplish the desired results. Just about any practice technique can be helpful, if done correctly. The same technique can also be detrimental if done incorrectly. As for the two trombone players you mentioned, my guess is that they were not using the technique of buzzing on the mouthpiece correctly. You said that "excessive mouthpiece practice" lead to permanently destroying their chops. I would say that someone who practices an "excessive" amount of long tones would likely find that detrimental to their playing. The point is that no one in this thread is recommending that anyone do anything excessive. Mr. Jacobs recommended 30 minutes a day, spread out over the entire day, as a good amount of mouthpiece practice. This could possibly be increased to an hour, but again, should be spread out over the course of the day.
For anyone that wants to start practicing on the mouthpiece, there are many resources available that discuss this and should be sought out. I know of at least five books about Mr. Jacobs approach to teaching that would be very helpful for additional study. Brian Frederiksen also has a list of articles and documents on his website that are available to read online or for download for free. I also encourage everyone to go to Michael Grose's YouTube page, TubaPeopleTV for more than 100 excellent interviews with former Jacobs students.
I posted one earlier in the thread that discusses the value of mouthpiece buzzing. Dee Stewart had an interesting anecdote that I will paraphrase. He believed that buzzing the mouthpiece was one of the tools he learned from Mr. Jacobs that allowed him to develop to the point that he was able to win a job with the Philadelphia Orchestra. When he got there, he was buzzing the mouthpiece and was told by one of the other brass players that they didn't do that in the Philadelphia Orchestra, and that Jacob's ideas would eventually cause problems. So Stewart decided to continue what he learned from Jacobs, but just keep it to himself. Thirty years later, when he was playing with Summit Brass, they arrived at a gig, and when they got off the bus, every member of the group took out their mouthpiece and started buzzing. Stewart was amazed at just how widely accepted Mr. Jacobs ideas had become.
