Re: To buzz, or not to buzz


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Posted by Klaus on March 01, 2002 at 10:47:15:

In Reply to: To buzz, or not to buzz posted by Kenneth Sloan on February 28, 2002 at 08:43:11:

A very long posting. (Just a warning!):

The keyword to interprete is "buzz".

Brass instruments by definition need vibrating lips to generate sound waves that will be amplified and maybe even refined by the instrument.

I can play simple tunes just by buzzing my lips. If I use a mouthpiece intonation, range, and flexibility improve. In both cases I feel a strong "buzz" in my lips. A feeling, that I most certainly do neither want to feel nor "hear", when I play a brass instrument.

If we exclude any instrument related reason for such a "buzz" (loose caps and screws or a badly fitted mouthpiece stem), then the reason is related to the human body of the player.

An untight embouchure caused by fatigue or simply bad schooling could be discussed in other contexts. As could obstacles to the free air passage through the lungs and bronchies caused by astma or the like (my experiences are a bit too extensive on that matter for discussion in a reasonably short posting, but these experiences have been been very educative in handling both astma and brasses).

That leaves back at least two areas to be discussed:

Optimation of the air passage through the larynx, throat, and mouth cavities. Some schools of trombone playing, maybe outdated today, relie on the graduated closing of the vocal chords to control legato and pianissimo playing. I advise strongly against that, as the risk to introduce uncontrollable larynx tensions is imminent. And the sounds resulting from that are unbearable. Some of the smoothest, yet projecting, pianissimo playing, I ever heard, was given by a Swedish trumpeter/flugel horn player, Arne Lambert, in 1976, when he just had had his vocal chords removed because of cancer. During a church concerto I had the good fortune to sit right at his feet. What a lessson! Sadly he died shortly after, so the cancer route is not the one to take. Still the totally relaxed larynx and wide open vocal chords is the way I find one should use to further a wide and "warm" airstream. It also furthers the singers' concept of body resonance.

The throat and the mouth cavities should be used to think in appropriate vowels to give the optimal resonance and airstreem speed for evey single note at every single dynamic level. In my own language I can give very simple general rules for that, but the English way of notating vowels differs so much, that I will make no written attempt of that. My point related to this thread is, that a too open vowel will lead to lack of focus. And a too narrow vowel will lead to "rattling" or "buzz". If the note can be made speaking at all.

The second area to discuss: Cold weather or a bruise to the lip can lead to a partial and temporary paralysis of the lip. If one can close the embouchure tightly enough to make sounds, one still might experience "buzz" because of a stiff and uncontrolable section of the lip.

Which leads to the by me suspected culprit of Kenneth's problem: his beard. I have had a "full" beard uninterruptedly since 33 years. Mostly in low levels of trim. The first years I kept the upper lip beard short by means of scissors. But when I a bit too often experienced the inconvenience of a not totally reliable embouchure, I started to shave the area touched by the mouthpiece. On the upper lip only, as it is a much more important factor in sound production, than is the lower lip. At least for me.

This shaving gives at full upper lip contact with the mouthpiece, so that no part of the lip is cut out from the sound generation process. I think that this fullness of lip contact is a most important factor in avoiding a "buzz" induced from the lip area.

What about the lower lip beard? Normally I do not touch it with scissors. But after a period away from the tubas, it started curling back under the rim. Very irritating to the feel, so the curls for once got a trim.

Klaus


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