Who is the pBuzz for?
Is it a fun introduction to playing brass?
A whole-class instrument like the recorder or ukulele?
A progression tool for experienced educators?
A classroom instrument for teachers without musical know-how?
For Joanne Giles, a seasoned music teacher with the Shropshire Music Service, it can be all of these things. Joanne shares her journey of incorporating pBuzz into her teaching, offering a window into its potential to nurture young musicians.
The pBuzz progressive pathway
Joanne has devised a comprehensive 12-week program for her whole class brass teaching, with pBuzz at its heart. She elaborates:
“For most of my schools where I do whole class brass, I start on the pBuzz just to get them into it and playing. What I've tended to do is use them as a precursor to brass. 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. They don't really think that they're playing a proper brass instrument when they're playing it. So we use it to get them to buzz and to think about positioning on the slide. 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.”
This approach has shown remarkable effectiveness, providing a smooth transition to more traditional brass instruments.
Success stories in whole-class pBuzz
Among the many success stories, one stands out:
“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. His confidence was low, and he really struggled. We started with a few lessons on pBuzz. Later, I brought him the real deal, an alto trombone. He just took to it. Now, he's on the tenor trombone, with a nice, secure octave range. His confidence is sky-high, and he's the only one in the school that plays there. He loves playing to other people. If he hadn't tried the pBuzz, he wouldn't have gotten there.”
This story illustrates the power of pBuzz in transforming a student's musical journey and self-confidence. Giving every child the chance to learn an instrument and progress is vital for every hub and every school.
Progressing from pBuzz to the cornet
pBuzz can cause some scepticism with brass players: after all, it's an entirely new type of instrument. But Joanne's perseverance and passion has led to pBuzz being used across schools in Shropshire:
“The first school that I actually took them to is a school where the music coordinator is a brass player. He was really impressed with them: the way that the children can interact with them, and get a reasonable sound out of them to start with. He noticed a difference because I then got more work through that school. And now, we've got a whole class that started on pBuzz. They did almost a year 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."
The practical design of pBuzz
For Joanne, the appeal of pBuzz lies in its engaging design and practicality:
“It looks exciting. I'm not a trombone player: I’m a tenor horn player. And I thought that this is going to engage the children because there are different ways of looking at it. You've got pretty colours, numbers, letters. It's light, portable, and easy to clean. No valves that stick, which are the bane of my life. And it was just easy.”
Shropshire is just one area of the UK that is embracing the progressive pathway offered by pBuzz. In fact, pBuzz is giving children that spark of learning in schools across the globe. In a whole-class setting, pBuzz can be used to introduce children to the fundamentals of making music. As Joanne Giles has shown in this case study, that can lead children to progress to other instruments such as the trombone and cornet.
- pBuzz has played a big part in shaping musical futures across Wales. Find out how students in Swansea celebrated their first year of learning pBuzz in this article.
- The pBuzz Primary Resources give educators with little or no musical experience the chance to deliver pBuzz lessons in a whole-class environment.
- Check out the first episode of BUZZ21! This series gives educators of all experience levels tricks and tips to deliver pBuzz in the classroom.
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