Welcome back to our final instalment of the three-part "Getting a Buzz" series, where we delve into overcoming typical hurdles that beginners might encounter in their brass playing journey.
Education expert and experienced brass player Chris Fower shares some insider techniques that can help refine your teaching approach and enhance your pupil's buzzing skills. This advice is also a super starting point for parents who are helping their children to play a brass instrument. If you're a beginner yourself, try these exercises to start your buzzing journey! Oh, and grab a pen too (more on that later!)
Tackling Common Brass Buzzing Problems
1. Distinguishing Buzzing from Humming
- Challenge: Young beginners often confuse buzzing with a vocal humming sound.
- Solution: Emphasise strong airflow, as discussed in our second article. This helps clarify the difference and encourages proper buzzing techniques without using the vocal cords.
2. Addressing Over-Tightened Lips
- Problem: Beginners sometimes clamp their lips too tightly, trying to get the buzz right, which prevents any sound production.
- Solution: Focus on the concept of aperture—teach students that relaxing the lips slightly allows the air to flow and the lips to vibrate.
3. Demonstrating Pitch Control Through Aperture
- Experiment: Show how varying the size of the aperture changes the pitch. Use the mouthpiece to buzz at different pitches by adjusting lip tension.
- Application: Apply this knowledge to a beginner instrument like the pBone mini, demonstrating that the same principles affect pitch without changing the instrument's length.
4. Getting Buzzing "Write" Away
- Straw Technique: Utilise different-sized straws to teach about aperture sizes and airflow speed. Each straw size encourages a different pitch, mirroring how different apertures affect the sound on brass instruments. It's also a good excuse to visit the drive-in and save on washing up!
- The Beginner Buzzing Secret Weapon: Don't worry, there's one last straw for mini musicians who are struggling to get their buzzing technique. Introduce a modified pen cap as a training tool to help students who struggle with a clamped embouchure. This tool helps them learn to hold and manage the aperture effectively.
Practical Exercises and Tips for Buzzing
- Straw Exercises: Start with the smallest straw and have students blow through it to create a high-pitched buzz. Gradually move to larger straws to explore lower pitches.
- Using the Pen Cap: Place the pen cap between the lips to encourage them to open just enough to allow airflow, training the muscles to maintain the correct aperture.
With these tips and tools, teaching children to create a perfect brass buzz becomes more interactive and effective. From addressing common misconceptions to introducing fun and practical exercises, these methods are designed to enhance both the teaching and learning experience. A simple straw and a ballpoint pen might just be the unlikely tools that start a lifelong trombone journey!
- Have you checked out the other buzzing tips articles? Check out Chris's advice for mastering brass buzzing and improving your airflow.
- pBuzz is the beginner buzzing tool to help children master those first sounds.
- The pBone Music YouTube channel is packed with other tips and tricks for getting the most out of brass instruments.
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