Across the UK and beyond pBuzz is helping more children start their musical journey.
Joanne Giles, a Music Teacher at Shropshire Music Service, lends her valuable perspective on the profound advantages of incorporating pBuzz in the classroom. Giles delves into how the pBuzz simplifies the learning process, enhances tone quality, and empowers students to embrace brass instruments with newfound enthusiasm.
Illuminating Early Brass Learning
Giles typically uses pBuzz in whole-class ensemble teaching as a starter tool for introducing brass.
“What I've tended to do is use them as a precursor to brass," says Giles, "So starting September, when I get a new group, a new class, I love taking the pBuzz in because they're fun, and they're accessible, and they get children to buzz."
The buzzing technique that gave pBuzz its name is a vital step in brass playing. But pBuzz also introduces other elements of brass instruments as well.
"We use it to get them to buzz and to think about positioning on the slide. And mostly, I've found that when I've used the pBuzz first, and then given them a traditional brass instrument, their buzzing is so much better.”
Prelude to brass playing
Joanne Giles' approach reflects the strategic use of pBuzz as a precursor to traditional brass instruments. By initiating whole class brass programs with the pBuzz, Giles ensures that every child can experience playing an instrument from a young age. The pBuzz's user-friendly design and accessibility provide a positive environment for students to explore brass music within a structured 12-week program.
“It looks exciting," continues Giles, "I'm not a trombone player: I’m a tenor horn player. And I thought that this was going to engage the children because there are different ways of looking at it. You've got pretty colours. For the younger ones, you've got the numbers, you've got the letters. It's light, it's portable, it's easy to carry around, you can do loads of work on the mouthpiece, buzzing and games, and all sorts of things. It's also easy to clean, you've got no valves that stick because they are the bane of my life. With children constantly coming to say “My valve is stuck, I can't do this”. And it was just easy.”
Enhancing brass skills with pBuzz
Joanne Giles' experience reveals the transformative effect of pBuzz on students' skills. By utilising the pBuzz as a tool to enhance buzzing technique and positioning, Giles prepares her students for a seamless transition to traditional brass instruments. The pBuzz's engaging and accessible nature lays the foundation for improved buzzing skills, resulting in higher-quality sound production on brass instruments.
"One class did almost a year of pBuzz because we were waiting for a class set of cornets to arrive. As they moved on to cornets, their playing is far richer in sound than another group who moved from pBuzz earlier."
Progression from pBuzz to traditional brass instruments
Many of Giles' students who begin with the pBuzz display more confidence when moving on to brass instruments like the cornet. The transition process is facilitated, resulting in more children experiencing the joy of brass.
And because pBuzz is accessible and affordable, it removes the barriers of entry for many students, giving more opportunities to learners. In the case of one pupil that Giles has worked with, pBuzz has had a transformative effect on their education.
“I did have one child in one of my schools as a pupil for keyboard. He's a pupil premium child with very little support from home whatsoever. After a half term of pBuzzing, he asked if he could change from keyboard to pBuzz. I spoke to his teacher, the music coordinator in the school, and she said that would be great as he has low confidence, and really struggles.”
“And so we did a few lessons on pBuzz. And later I brought him the real deal, an alto trombone. And he just took to it. He's now on the tenor trombone. He has got a nice, secure octave range, his confidence is up here, and he's the only one in the school that plays there. He just loves playing for other people. If he hadn't tried the pBuzz, he wouldn't have gotten there.”
Giles' experience with an individual student emphasises pBuzz's role in empowering learners with unique challenges. pBuzz's accessible nature allowed a student with low confidence to engage and progress. Through a gradual process that involved pBuzz instruction followed by the transition to the alto trombone, the student's confidence and musical ability soared. In this case, the progression from pBuzz to a brass instrument has even led to an impromptu performance for Ofsted!
"That process was half a term on pBuzz as a whole class, and then he had about four or five weeks on pBuzz as a one to 10-minute session. And then he went on to the alto trombone. And as he got bigger he’s now moved on to the tenor trombone and really enjoys it. To the extent that he actually played for the Ofsted inspector when he was desperate to show them what he could do. So his confidence has really improved.”
Nurturing confidence and achievement with pBuzz
Joanne Giles' perspective offers a comprehensive view of the pBuzz's transformative role in early brass education. By simplifying the learning process, enhancing skills, nurturing confidence, and facilitating transitions, the pBuzz emerges as a powerful instrument in the music teacher toolkit.
With more exposure to making music from a younger age, more children will ignite the spark that could see them moving from pBuzz to performer!
- Find out how pBuzz has been used in our Wales case study.
- In Sheffield, pBuzz is providing more musicians for brass bands.
- Want to see what Amazon customers think of pBuzz? Check out our pBuzz review round-up.
