To Buzz or Not to Buzz

The practice of buzzing the lips (with just the mouthpiece, a mouthpiece visualizer, with
just the mouthpiece and lead pipe, or “free buzzing” without the mouthpiece) has both
its advocates and critics, with great players standing on opposite sides of the fence,
often defending their viewpoints with the same fervor as seen in religious or political
debates. This can be quite confusing to a player looking for some direction! Before
passing judgement I think it’s healthy to question and at least consider any approach
touted to improve one’s playing. And if something works we should have a good idea
of why it works, for if we understand why (or why it doesn’t work) then we are
increasing our body of knowledge and sharpening our insight. My thoughts here are
meant not to convert you to my way of thinking, but to stimulate your own thinking.
Don’t just take my word for it…instead, consider these ideas, try them out, and then
decide for yourself.
One of my greatest objections when it comes to any playing exercise (whether it be
buzzing, long tones, slurs, scales, tonguing, etc.) is that they are too often practiced
without knowing their objective or purpose, and that these exercises are executed
without being aware of the best technique and form to use. Students who are told to
buzz are usually not given enough guidance on how to buzz, but instead are
instructed what to buzz (a note, a scale or slur, a melody, etc.). Asking for such control
without proper position and technique is a recipe for poor fundamentals and bad habits.

Think of a saxophone or clarinet player.

Their job of sound production is already easier because many more of the needed
parts are already supplied. Even so, they must take special care in aligning their reed
to the facing of the mouthpiece, and then maintaining that alignment as they tighten
the ligature in order to hold the entire assembly in place. I believe most trumpet players
do not set their lips with the same degree of precision. Because of this, these players
will most often produce a buzz by either squeezing their lips together or letting them
erupt out, or by using various combinations of squeezing and erupting. The
“squeezers” tend to also constrict their throat and buzz with a lot of tension in their
body. The “erupters” lose embouchure focus and produce the buzz with flabby
lips. Either way, with all of the attention turned to the buzz, the airflow can suffer and
the embouchure position can actually move further away from the ideal.
While the body may be somewhat intuitive about how to do something, its knee jerk
solutions rarely find the most efficient way. What’s interesting though, is that
squeezing is the body’s attempt to improve the focus of the embouchure, and erupting
is its way of achieving the element of flow while buzzing. What we should be
consciously looking for is a more relaxed and efficient way of achieving and balancing
the focus and flow in our warmup. If we can do this, then we have assembled the
needed parts of our embouchure and breathing system, warmed up the correct
muscles, and set the stage for good music making.

Proponents of buzzing often use the analogy

of a batter warming up with two bats, or an athlete using ankle weights during their
training. The body must do the same motions with added resistance, so when that
extra weight is removed the motions are so much easier. Greg, (one of my students
who competes regularly in several sports) quoted some research done on batters using
this kind of warmup. Although the batters enjoyed a greater ease of motion when
returning to a single bat, the timing of their swing suffered. I think this comparison
relates to the trumpet player who buzzes. After buzzing a note, a slur, etc., it may be
easier to play that note or slur on the horn afterwards, but that should be expected
since adding the horn will increase the efficiency of sound production. However, if the
fundamentals haven’t improved during the buzzing then the time could have been
better spent.
Although a sound can be produced on the instrument with the technique learned from
buzzing, other research has proven that buzzing is not even necessary. The great
teacher Bill Adam believed that if the lips are set properly, one should not expect sound
until the player had not only placed the mouthpiece to the embouchure, but had also
attached the horn to the mouthpiece. The closest he gets to buzzing is an exercise
where the main tuning slide is removed and only the mouthpiece and lead pipe are
played (see below). An article, “Playing Without Buzzing: Fact or Fiction?” in the June
2001 issue of the International Trumpet Guild Journal cited Adam’s concept, and also
described how the buzz is produced at the lips after the standing (air) pressure wave
in the horn is instantaneously reflected back from the bell. In fact, this had been proven
in the physics department at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida the year before
using a mechanical trumpet player (with no agenda).
I had not heard of any of this until reading that article, and yet had already been moving
in that direction since my studies with Roy Stevens in New York years ago. Roy had
an exercise he called “Fighting Air,” that was done without the horn and involved no
buzzing. Briefly described, the teeth are set 1/4″ apart, with the lower jaw just slightly
ahead of the top teeth (thereby aligning the lips in a vertical plane and helping distribute
the weight of the mouthpiece to favor the bottom lip).

The lips are set at their natural width (no

smile or pucker) in the middle of that 1/4″ teeth aperture with a simple, gentle “M”
formation, evenly inverted from corner to corner, and using only a minimum amount of
tension below the corners. Next the air is added, blowing with the image of aiming the
airstream up (to aid the slightly forward jaw position and to keep the muscles below
the corners engaged). The result is very much like what happens to water after
passing through a nozzle at the end of a garden hose; the airstream becomes much
more focused. No squeezing is involved, rather the lips are just held in the closer
proximity of the starting position (like the reed player’s reed and facing), which still
allows for the flow of air. See the earlier post on “Lip Alignment” for more details.

Words can have an impact on our perception, mental

image and physical actions, and so my first attempts at Fighting Air were filled with
tension. I believed the unwanted motion of the embouchure that occurred when I blew
was due to the force of the air and the lack of embouchure strength. I eventually
realized that it was my anticipation of the air (and grabbing the wrong muscles) that
was the greater cause, and that if I held that formation in a more relaxed manner with
the same muscles that made it (correctly) it was far easier to keep my embouchure
stable, calm and focused (see the post on Taking the “Next Step”). This approach is
much more akin to Aikido, where the master does not resist the opposing force, but
instead redirects it…using that energy for a different purpose. After more
reflection, Focusing Air, or Shaping Air seemed to be much better monikers for this
exercise.
 An interesting fact was that after practicing
Fighting/Focusing Air, not only did my playing improve, so did my buzzing. As I
became more meticulous in setting up the initial Focusing Air starting position, staying
relaxed, and then learning to hold the position more carefully as the air was added and
then accelerated, aspects of performance like sound quality, range and endurance
continued to improve. I realized the reasons for my success were similar to why a top
flight trumpet plays so much better than lesser equipment. The master craftsmen
(like Cliff Blackburn, shown above) take great care and pride in what they do, and they
are working off of a superior blueprint as well. By shifting my mental focus to making
a better component of the instrument that contributes to making the sound (my human
embouchure) rather than just trying to make a sound I was able to make another leap
forward in my playing. Isn’t that what a trumpet maker does? They are not trying to
play the instrument while they are building it, but instead concentrate on precisely
making and assembling each part.
Over the years, every student of mine has improved with Focusing Air, and in much
more dramatic fashion than with buzzing. Students have no trouble making the
conversion to braces when they know how to Focus Air, with some even
having remarkable success. Focusing Air also makes it easier to see how the
embouchure is reacting to air, and to rejuvenate tired chops (some say that buzzing
for five minutes is the equivalent of playing for thirty minutes, and that a free buzz pitch
will produce a note an octave higher when adding the horn, so it is not a good way to
refresh the embouchure muscles). A player can even try Focusing Air during a
rehearsal break without disturbing anyone, or alternate with it when practicing a difficult
passage of music (see previous posts on Weightless Practice and the Toy
Trumpet analogy).
 Beginners are often taught to buzz their
mouthpiece when first learning to play (I mention beginners here, mainly because they
more easily demonstrate the pitfalls associated with buzzing). While this practice may
make it easier to initially get the lips vibrating (or more likely, flabbing), it leaves the
student with a compromised formation that can create more problems than it solves.
Click on the picture on the left for a larger view and observe some problems in their
beginning stages. You can see that the lower jaw is slightly receded and the bottom
lip has begun to tuck under the top lip. The top lip has already begun to erupt out. The
mouthpiece placement is high (this is another subject that is greatly debated) and my
guess (influenced by these observations) is that more of the pressure is on the top lip,
which encourages the lower jaw to stay receded and the bottom lip to erupt. Although
the beginner will have a feel for making sound, it will most likely be a beginning trumpet
player’s sound, and probably near the lower part of the instrument’s range. While the
new player may be “ready” to proceed to the band method book, there will be sound,
range and endurance problems commonly associated with first year players. Also, the
arms are receiving no opportunity to practice the proper placement of the mouthpiece
on the embouchure.
Starting the “beginner” (or any player new to this approach) with the “M” position and
Focusing Air produces entirely different results. Without the need to make a sound at
first, their attention can be focused on these more fundamental steps, which they can
therefore do with more success. Then, when the horn is first added there is still no
urgency to make sound, but rather the priority is to maintain the “M” position while
continuing to Focus Air (see the post on Taking the “Next Step”).
 The first notes that do play can be
surprising…most often there is a greater ease in playing, a clearer, fuller, (“non-
beginner”) sound, usually near the top of the staff (which is closer to the middle of the
trumpet’s range). This strictness of form may sound a little demanding and dry for a
young player looking to play as soon as possible, but even my youngest students (in
the first grade) can follow these directions and achieve rewarding results. For them
it’s quite obvious how much easier this way of playing is, and they are excited to hear
a much better sound and have an improved range. After that, they don’t want to return
to the “other” way of playing.
The challenges inherent with this approach are related to breath control (which is
something most players need to work on anyway), and can be addressed separately
(see the post, “Breathing is like a Bowling Swing”). With the Focusing Air position more
of the “slots” of the instrument’s overtone series are available (compared to other
beginners who are playing on what is essentially a low note formation), and so it may
take a little longer to recognize all of the pitches they are playing. Also, the lower notes
may at first be harder to start in correct form, but as the player learns to release the
tension rather than the position the low register will play, and with a much better sound.
This process is much easier to learn than trying to play higher notes on a low register
position (it can’t be done efficiently or correctly), which is what most players start their
careers with. To take Focusing Air into the realm of sound production, the landing of
the mouthpiece on the embouchure, the proper (mouthpiece) weight distribution and
seal must also be addressed with care (see the earlier post, “Refining the New
Embouchure.”).
Some say that the feedback effect lessens in the extreme upper register, so the ability
to free buzz is needed, but I believe more results can be had by refining the starting
position and weight distribution, and maintaining the relaxation and balance in the
entire playing system while ascending. Most problems with range (in either direction)
originate well in advance of the ceiling (or basement) limits. For those that advocate
buzzing scales and melodies on the mouthpiece alone, the skill set necessary to do
this well (with good intonation and a full resonant sound) can be developed instead
by singing the same material (which is much more analogous to playing) and
with Weightless Practice. This way the same benefits can be achieved without
developing the bad habits that can occur with mouthpiece buzzing.

There are great players who advocate

buzzing (like Bobby Shew, on the left), and who buzz with a much higher degree
of focus and flow than most players can achieve. By clicking on his picture for a larger
view you can see he has the ideal lower jaw position (slightly forward) and a
mouthpiece placed 2/3 on the bottom lip. Also (thanks to the clear plastic mouthpiece),
you can see a very small lip aperture. Practicing buzzing (without knowledge of this
formation) rarely brings about the kind of results he can demonstrate. Experience has
shown me it’s easier to learn this position by taking the time to make it (without the
horn first), then hold it, and then continue to maintain it while practicing the Focusing
Air exercise.
Bill Adam was an advocate for leadpipe buzzing, where one “plays” with the tuning
slide removed from the main instrument (the picture on the right is flipped horizontally,
but still works). There is enough length with the leadpipe to make the standing air
pressure wave and its accompanying feedback loop, so the sound is more efficiently
produced than with other kinds of buzzing.
As with normal playing, the arms are required to properly “land” the instrument on the
embouchure with the correct placement, horn angle and weight distribution, and for the
best results the same rules of Focusing Air should still apply. Because of the short
length of tubing the first note that will play with the correct embouchure and airflow is
most often the fundamental pitch of that modified instrument, our first space F. But
again, for this to have any value as an exercise, the focus of the embouchure and
the flow of the air must be correct. The next note of this instrument’s slightly skewed
overtone series is the G above the staff, but there is a lot of “wiggle room” with the
pitch, making it easier to consciously bend notes (or be able to produce sound and a
variety of pitches with poor fundamentals). What I like about this exercise is that the
arms have the same exact role and position as normal playing, and that good
fundamentals are needed in order to play the F and G with a full, centered and resonant
leadpipe sound. Again, what’s more important here is howyou are playing. The better
your form and air, the more you will get out of leadpipe buzzing.

In spite of the case I have made against

buzzing, I still do occasionally have a student try to free buzz in correct form during a
lesson, making sure the buzz begins with a free flowing, relaxed airstream, and a closer
proximity between the lips…focusing towards the center, not closing at the
center. Nothing fancy… waiting to see what pitch will play in form and then sustaining
it. Being able to see how the embouchure muscles are trying to increase their focus
(correctly or incorrectly), or what is happening to the breathing can be very enlightening
to them. Even if they are not successful in getting the lips to buzz, often the memory
of that brief moment of gentle contact (without squeezing the lips together) is enough
to bring in the sound when the horn is added. Also, if a student is too tight in the center
of their embouchure and consequently cannot get a note to speak in the lower register
with the horn in place they may briefly buzz into the mouthpiece. The small amount of
eruption that may occur helps loosen that excess tension, and then when returning to
the correct formation the notes begin to play. A brief buzz can also reveal the buzz
point (or buzz points, which are common with a center squeeze).
There is much more that could be said about this topic, but I believe there is enough
here to help you become more conscious when you practice. The more aware you
become, the more that is revealed, and the more dynamic and productive your practice
sessions will be. Remember, Knowledge, Awareness and Time are the “Three Keys
to Success.”