My first experience of the pBuzz was back in 2017, when I was introduced to them by Julie from Warwick Music whilst her sons were attending the school where I teach music in Australia.
I am not a brass player, but the pBuzz teaching resources from pBone Music made it really easy for me to teach the pBuzz. I have decided to keep a record of the week-by-week teaching of the pBuzz so here goes...
Week 1
This week I introduced the pBuzz to a group of students in years one and two (ages 6-8).
We started with a couple of songs, "I'm A Little Bee" and “I'm a Little Duck” before progressing to inserting the mouthpieces into the pBuzz and starting to play.
“I’m A Little Bee”
“I’m a Little Duck”
Before inserting the mouthpieces into the pBuzz, we discussed some rules e.g. – don’t blow in each other’s ears, and don’t walk around with the pBuzz in your mouth.
This next video shows the students trying the pBuzz for the very first time. As you can see, they were enjoying making music so much that they mostly ignored my instruction regarding standing still; I'll need to work more on that next week!
Trying Out pBuzz For The First Time
Evaluation
- The students could only take about 10 minutes playing at a time as some found their lips were starting to hurt (their playing time will increase as they get more used to buzzing).
- It is important to emphasise that when the students are first learning, they must stand still while playing.
- Next week we will move on to pitching notes F & G.
- Stay tuned for next week’s lesson review!
