Allowing your students to play the pBuzz is an exciting and rewarding adventure! The pBuzz journey also chimes with many of the attributes that Carl Orff espoused. Teachers of this system will find that many of the Orff-Schulwerk lessons can be easily incorporated when using pBuzz, the “new” innovative elementary music learning tool.
If you grew up playing any wind instrument, you will immediately appreciate the simplicity and potential of pBuzz to inspire young students, whether they create music individually or as a group activity.
If you did not play a wind instrument, you may have taken a few method class lessons in college. Even if that seems like a lifetime ago, the pBuzz is simple to learn and teach.
Are you worried that you’ve never had any experience with wind instruments in your teaching? pBuzz is easy to pick up and play. If you are teaching using other elementary instruments like recorder, guitar, and ukelele, pBuzz is easier than most.
The Orff system is an ingenious music education approach that incorporates many different kinds of learning elements, such as dance, drama, singing, and the use of various percussion instruments. Orff considered the percussive rhythm as a natural basic form of human expression.
The creators of pBuzz also focus on a natural form of human expression. Using their air stream and lips, players create the “buzz” that is changed into musical notes on pBuzz and shared with others, all fully controlled by the child.
pBuzz and the Orff Method
Learning to play pBuzz is a very natural process. As with learning to sing, using air correctly creates a better sound, more focus, and greater endurance. Controlling and focusing the air stream becomes a more obvious activity with external results that can be measured.
Instead of using the voice box, the pBuzz player has another more visible tool – the lips. Buzzing and the muscle development it provides is easier on the pBuzz than on traditional brass instruments, especially for younger children. The mouthpiece is designed for smaller lips: not too big, and not too small, with a rim that conforms to children’s faces more appropriately.
The fundamental concept behind the entire Orff method is play, not perfect pitch. The pBuzz allows the child to “approximate” pitch for each note. The child listens and learns to adjust the notes to match the pitch desired. While the student listens and adjusts the pitch, the teacher can easily see how each child learns by watching the slide.
This is learning by playing. Children find the pBuzz a fun and not-to-difficult challenge. Each note is identified by Orff-inspired color, number (1 – 6), and by note name. As children watch and emulate the teacher (or each other), you see a great deal of peer-to-peer engagement, playfulness, and fun.
As any teacher knows, when the child is successful, their interest in continuing to learn jumps dramatically. Every child can be successful on the pBuzz!
Carl Orff was a firm believer in the power of children’s minds and their ability to learn while playing. One of his most interesting comments pertains directly to the idea of using play to help children learn about music: “Since the beginning of time, children have not liked to study. They would much rather play, and if you have their interests at heart, you will let them learn while they play.”
This is the concept that lies behind pBuzz. It’s fun to learn a brand-new instrument like the pBuzz, that you can play standing up, moving, and even dancing! By incorporating the pBuzz into the Orff Schulwerk journey, you will find that the pBuzz is a tool of great pedagogical power, a tool that can teach your students how to improvise, read, and compose a melody.
While the first class or two may not be the best-sounding (although you might be surprised), soon students can play well independently. Even if your classes are limited by time constraints, it’s easy to reinforce the previous week’s lessons and move forward.
Where Can I Find pBuzz Resources for Elementary Teachers?
There are many resources available, developed by teachers from the U.S., the UK, and other countries across the globe.
For U.S. teachers, there is pBuzz Journey, an elementary classroom method book and teacher's guide. The method book provides every student the opportunity to follow a learning pathway developed by U.S. teachers who have taught pBuzz for many years. The teacher's guide, a free online resource, walks the teacher through the method book and offers additional activities and tips on providing students with many different learning opportunities.
For those with limited classroom time, the pBuzz Journey method offers students a chance to bring the instrument home and play along with online tracks.
Watch Chris Fower introduce the pBuzz to grade two students:
Utilizing pBuzz in the Elementary Classroom
Your students can experience the pBuzz on the very first day. Here’s one way: as they walk in on the first day, you can match the tempo of their feet, and then suddenly stop playing and freeze. This generally causes students to also stop. Resume playing and stop again. The young students realize that they are now playing a “game.” Once students can stop with you, change your sound.
By creating jumping sounds or playing “in slow motion,” you not only expose students to the entire range of pBuzz sounds but also teach students how to respond physically and expressively to musical cues. From the very first day, the pBuzz is a source of positive musical experiences.
You actually can start very young students on pBuzz, but you might plan to teach them in a later grade. But young students want to anticipate and bringing the pBuzz out in earlier grades will help them to stay motivated as you teach them important basic music skills.
One of the biggest hurdles when learning any new skill is the motivation of the student. If a student wants to learn, then they will persevere through any difficulties they may have. If the pBuzz already has a positive place in their heart, then they will be excited to try it out. With your guidance, they will have success they can build on quite quickly.
Preparing to Play...by Playing
Teaching to play music using the pBuzz promotes good musicianship on many levels – and every one of them is fun! There are many concepts available for teaching children to use air, which helps to promote proper airflow and focus.
Buzzing on the mouthpiece is the next fun step, whether you start as a motorboat, an airplane, or a horse, or just slide that straw away while the air keeps moving.
Adding the mouthpiece makes buzzing even easier and finally, adding the pBuzz itself ends up producing that first note. The process is explained and demonstrated in the teacher’s guide and there are many online examples of classroom teaching of these concepts.
Dr. Keith Dye explains the basics of teaching pBuzz
Progressing with pBuzz
It won’t be long before students are playing actual songs and playing together as an ensemble. Since pBuzz is in the key of C, it’s easy to bring pBuzz together with other instruments for classroom music.
As a solo instrument, you can add composition and solo facets to your classroom teaching. There are even songs written for young bands that feature your pBuzz classroom for school demonstrations and concerts.
There are a multitude of choices for the elementary music teacher. While the pBuzz is relatively new, teachers have used it to reach students with many different learning styles and challenges. What’s fascinating is how well it fits into strong traditions like Orff-Schulwerk where “learning by playing” is at the heart of music education.
