Brass Buzzing Help

[jwbeghtol]

For my doctorate, I'm starting some research on the effects of mouthpiece buzzing on beginner band brass students. Any article, or book, recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. JB

[djwesp]

I wish I could find the link from the trombone boards, but Doug Elliot has some great insight on this.

He also can teach people how to set up the free buzz quite well (using the Reinhardt Technique). I don't want to go into much detail because I would hate to be wrong.

You should look him up. Great musician, great source of information, embouchure guru, awesome mouthpiece guy, too!

[Ken Herrick]

I am going to be VERY blunt here. You are doing Doctoral level RESEARCH. At this level you should be setting a hypothesis and then defining parameters for levels of experimentation to prove your hypothesis. Seeking the works of others for a lot of citations would be masters level. That is the level your question is at.

Yes, seek input from others who have done similar work to help confirm your theory.

Make a simple statement, ie, buzzing on the mouthpiece is a beneficial exercise for beginning brass instrument students. Then define your test methods and set up your tests.

If you spend some time looking for posts from several years back you will find a "carol"who did her doctorate, in Library Science, I believe, who also did a lot of study with Harvey Phillips and Jake. She has also been a pretty good tubist and musician. She is at Indiana U.

This, I think, could be a good project.

Another person you might be wise to contact is Brian Fredricksen who would have access to a lot of Jake's material.

It would be really good to see somebody do some good testing and quantification of a broad spectrum of results from controlled testing and possibly qualify some verifiable results.

Good luck,

Ken

[pgym]

I am going to be VERY blunt here. You are doing Doctoral level RESEARCH. At this level you should be setting a hypothesis and then defining parameters for levels of experimentation to prove your hypothesis. Seeking the works of others for a lot of citations would bemasters level. That is the level your question is at.

A review of the status quaestionis prior to advancing one's own thesis is an essential component of academically credible, original research on any level, in order to demonstrate that one's proposed research is both original and will add substantively to the existing body of knowledge on the topic. That is especially the case with research leading to a doctoral degree, for which the purpose of the review of existing literature within the body of the dissertation is required to demonstrate both the candidate's grasp of the research process, and his or her command of the field(s) of knowledge pertinent to the thesis he or she proposes to defend. As such, the OP's request for assistance in identifying bibliographical material is completely appropriate.

[Michael Bush]

I am going to be VERY blunt here. You are doing Doctoral level RESEARCH. At this level you should be setting a hypothesis and then defining parameters for levels of experimentation to prove your hypothesis. Seeking the works of others for a lot of citations would be masters level. That is the level your question is at.

So I'll be blunt too. The OP is right. He does have to find everything written on the subject, first of all to demonstrate that his research is an original contribution to the body of human knowledge, and second to position his thesis in relation to the previous work. This is the first and indispensable step in writing a prospectus.

[Doug Elliott]

And when you get to doing your research on "the effects of mouthpiece buzzing on beginner band brass students," you should have at least three test groups large enough to be significant:

One that buzzes on the mouthpiece to start
One that learns to free-buzz first without the mouthpiece or instrument
One that does no buzzing at all and just starts on the instrument

It would be just as important to teach "correct free-buzzing technique" as it is to teach "correct mouthpiece buzzing" and "correct playing technique. "

It might also be interesting to include an additional three similar groups, but giving them no instruction on technique at all.

I would be very interested in the results.
I can help you define "correct free-buzzing technique." That's one of the things that I teach.

[jwbeghtol]

I appreciate the info. gentlemen. I'm just starting to scratch the surface on this topic. I won't begin working on my experiment and dissertation for another couple of years. On a side note, I didn't put this post up to know what I am doing right or wrong, although I appreciate the help. I'm just trying to get a lot of background info. for myself before I dive in.

BTW: Mr. Elliott, I would love to learn more about free-buzzing.

Thank you all. JB

[swillafew]

This looks a good concept for a presentation with a lot of video, photo, sound recording, etc. A text document will a rough road to impart what you are observing, especially to the satisfaction of your committee. As far as the original post goes, building up a bibliography is basic research necessary to all. You can cut to the chase by reading the bibliographies of good research projects that you find.

[TubaRay]

I didn't put this post up to know what I am doing right or wrong, although I appreciate the help. I'm just trying to get a lot of background info. for myself before I dive in.
Thank you all. JB

My advice to you, if you don't want to know if you are doing right or wrong, would be to ignore the responses. From my TubeNet experience, I have found that the originator of a post does not get to choose what others post in response. Perhaps there is another board that does this. It is definitely not TubeNet.

By the way, your attitude sounds somehow familiar. Let me see. Hmmm. Are you a well-known politician?