BUZZING

[harrisonreed]

This is what everyone (who can play well in the upper register) does. It's a major mechanic of brass playing. A lot of really good brass players don't know that they are doing this, and therefore don't know how to teach it.

Just to clarify, I'm not talking about arching the tongue. (You may not be either.) I wish the youtube clip I embedded showed the actual frame from the starting point I selected.

This is the tongue roll I referenced. She appears to both arch her tongue and create a channel in it by rolling her tongue.
Screen Shot 2022-09-07 at 9.33.16 PM.png

I was aware of the arch. But wasn't aware of other tongue manipulations like rolling the tongue.
--Andy in OKC.

Yes, I'm agreeing with both. It's a 3D object.

[Wilktone]

To pluck an example of the second out of the air... I expect we've all thought about where we tongue: roof of the mouth, ridge behind the teeth, on the top teeth, on the bottom lip. Lots of possibilities. By contrast, I've never seen any discussion of tongue placement side-to-side. It doesn't seem unreasonable; if some people play better with their mouthpiece placed slightly off-centre, maybe some people will play better tonguing off-centre?

The point is, it's not something you see discussed, and I'm willing to bet most of us have never thought about it (I hadn't until just now - I'll have to try it!) It doesn't seem particularly outlandish; certainly not outside the scope of 'everything' as far as brass experimentation goes. But if something's not on your radar, then how do you include it in the 'everything' that you try?

I actually have come across this idea before. My recollection is that if the mouthpiece is placed to one side, then the musician might benefit from tonguing off to the opposite side.

Worth noting that buzzing, especially "buzzing as open as possible" works against this mechanic of tongue placement by changing the tension in the lips to create a buzz.

Yes, this is a major reason why I tend to avoid mouthpiece buzzing and generally don't recommend it to students.

That said, we could counter that by buzzing differently ("as closed as possible," for example) is the correct way to mouthpiece buzz. And possibly that if doing it "correctly" it would be beneficial, rather than destructive. I'm not suggesting it is, but it is worth considering.

Careful consideration, informed by knowledge of reality, in my opinion, is the way to go. That's not a pithy saying, though, so it won't get as much traction as others.

Dave

[Kbiggs]

Careful consideration, informed by knowledge of reality, in my opinion, is the way to go.

A diversion
Isn’t knowledge of reality the difficulty here? Without delving too deeply into epistomology, how do we know that what we see is real? In the case of buzzing (and tongue position), we can see things happening either by direct observation (empirically) or by fMRI in the case of Sarah Willis’ tongue position. After that we have the difficulty of interpreting what we see.

Mindfulness of what’s happening with the body, without jumping to judgment or interpretation, helps me when I’m having difficulty with fundamentals. I also believe that listening to the result—how does it sound?—helps me keep in mind whether what I’m doing is producing the desired musical result.


Back to topic
What I think I see happening is that some people (Reinhardt, Elliott, Wilken, a few others), have taken the time to observe carefully what happens with an embouchure (and what happens with buzzing), formulate a hypothesis, test the hypothesis, and then reformulate and adjust the hypothesis as needed.


Full disclosure
I’ve taken a few lessons with Doug, barely enough to understand what’s happening with my embouchure. I’m still reticent to stop mouthpiece buzzing because (a) I’ve been taught by every other teacher to use mouthpiece buzzing, and (b) I’ve had good results in the past with mouthpiece buzzing. (Just like any prescription from a doctor, I’m free to fill it or not, and take it or not!)

[craign]

What about buzzing for a few minutes in the case you are unable to play for a couple weeks? Say you are traveling for work and it's impractical to bring an instrument. Is buzzing better than nothing? Last comeback I used to take a mouthpiece with me when travelling, wondering whether it is really beneficial or not.

[BGuttman]

Buzzing for a few minutes is better than nothing. It will help preserve your chops although I don't expect it to improve them. I also had a mouthpiece in my travel bag. It was one I never used otherwise and it came in handy. Problem was finding time to do the buzzing during a busy business trip.

[VJOFan]

A story I was told about buzzing advocate, Joe Alessi, is that as he drove to (maybe NYP) an audition he buzzed the excerpts the whole way. In the telling he is quoted as saying, "By the time I got to the audition I was a different player."

Buzzing, in the tale, was definitely better than nothing.

Even if the story is apocryphal, Mr. Alessi recommends daily buzzing as a practice habit.

[Aspenforest]

I never take buzzing too seriously but as others have said I think just a minute or two a day is extremely helpful for me at least. Especially if I'm trying to just get my face locked in with pitch.

[harrisonreed]

Joe is a huge advocate. His colleagues Phil Smith, did the same thing every day on his way to work but he implies it is related to his focal dystonia.

I think it's in this video, around 4:00:

[jazztonight]

Try coming to the trombone as a composer and experienced jazz pianist, saxophone player, and flutist--at 72 years old! I'd never played a brass instrument previously, but always loved the sound of the trombone.

My goal was to be able to play in a community band trombone section and maybe improvise as well as I could on my other instruments. I dove into deep end of the pool, trying to absorb all of the fact, fiction, and legend of brass instruments in general and the trombone specifically. Ha!

Here I am 4 years later having tried to figure what works and what doesn't. I love the trombone and know that I'll never be very good, but if I continue doing what I'm doing (1+ hour/day) I'll probably get better.

I had an early video lesson with Doug Elliott where he demonstrated how to free buzz. I liked it a lot better than mouthpiece buzzing, and it became a part of my practice routine. And that's how I start off every practice session, with 30-60 seconds of free buzzing along with a play-along ballad track; then I continue playing the song (by ear), as best I can, on the trombone. I find it effective, and it works for me.

What difference does it make to me what others believe or don't believe about the value of buzzing? I'm a better player now than when I started, and I'm neither discouraged nor "prohibited" from doing anything I want to do.

(I have a terrific teacher now who is both a university prof. and a seasoned jazz player. We talked about buzzing, and he just nodded his head and we went on from there.)