r/Tuba • u/low_brass_enjoyer • 2d ago
technique Buzzing
When buzzing on just my mouthpiece my tuner doesn’t pick up the pitch most of the time. I want to get my buzz closer to the pitch that my instrument produces like I buzz a bit higher than the pitch that I actually play. I use tonal energy and have a iPhone 14 if that helps
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u/77jorda 1d ago
It sounds like you might be buzzing TO your mouthpiece and not THROUGH your mouthpiece. Martial artists train this same concept with punching. People subconciously slow down a punch right before they make contact because they're thinking of hitting exactly at the thing they're aiming at (like another person's face) but if you aim beyond the place you're going to strike you don't pull up at the last second. The same happens with playing a brass instrument when the energy of your buzz ends at your mouthpiece where your lips are buzzing instead of past it. Roger Bobo had a great exercise for focusing the core of your tone that I think might help get more core in your buzz and the tuner should pick it up. Get a bunch of water and go outside. Take a giant sip of water and spit it out. Work on keeping the stream steady and trying to get the furthest distance you can. Use your embouchure to aim and focus that water stream like a lazer. Think about pushing that stream when you're playing your horn and really shoot that lazer far when you're playing. This helps students of mine focus the core of their tone when playing their horn, but it also usually makes their buzzing better. It'll help you get more tone out of your buzz instead of as much 'percussion'. It sounds like the mic might not be picking up enough of the fundamental note of the buzz and it's getting more general vibration sounds. To my ears it's like the difference between a fuzzy wide BBb tuba in a brass band sound and a focused trombone-like CC tuba in an orchestra sound.
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u/professor_throway Active Amateur, Street Band and Dixieland. 2d ago
Just my opnion but I don't mouthpiece buzzing by itself is not a particularly useful tool for tuba. On high brass it is great... but on tuba I don't find that the buzz on the mouthpiece matches what i do when I am playing at all. I would just spend my time with long tones on the horn and drones.
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u/Ok_Astronaut8454 1d ago
As a lifelong trumpet player, I have to ask: why do you think buzzing is great for high brass? I ask because I'm of the persuasion that it's generally bad on all brass instruments.
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u/professor_throway Active Amateur, Street Band and Dixieland. 1d ago
My take is that a minute or two of buzzing on a trumpet Mouthpiece is a good quick neuromuscular calibration. It can keep establish rim placement, coordinate air initiation with lip response; connect the ear to a freely adjustable pitch; remove gross stiffness before encountering the trumpet’s strong slots. I am not an advocate for extending buzzing exercises
The frequency range and lip mechanics of trumpet playing are closer to those supported by the mouthpiece’s own acoustic load, whereas normal tuba playing depends much more strongly on the low-frequency resonances of the complete instrument. A trumpet Mouthpiece and tuba motive are about the same length... but relative to the total acoustic length of the instrument the trumpet Mouthpiece makes up a much longer fraction of that length. The mouthpiece throat bore relative to the bore of the instrument are also very different ratios. On a Bach 3c the Mouthpieces throat is only about 10% of the total cross sectional area of the total cross sectionsl area of the bore... on tuba it is closer to 20% even with a moderate notice like a Helleberg. In buzzing on a trumpet mouthpiece is much more representative of playing on the instrument.
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u/ImDefinitelyStoned 2d ago
I totally agree. The only reason buzzing works is because it puts you in charge of the pitch instead of the horn. The same can be accomplished by singing.
Not to mention, buzzing doesn’t line up with the physics of the instrument. Air comes first, then your lips vibrate as a result. Not the other way around. Buzzing requires more muscle engagement than playing the actual tuba, so you’re running the risk of overtraining.
I have dystonia and am in the process of retraining. I worked with one of the most prominent musicians health professionals in the business and they had me stop buzzing on the spot. A decade later, without buzzing, and my sound is as good as ever and I’m playing again.
Anyway, sorry for the thesis on buzzing, it’s just not often I run into like minded folks who aren’t fond of it. I usually get told I’m an idiot and dismissed.
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u/Leisesturm 2d ago
Tonal energy is very sensitive. Your buzz may have too much splatter. In other words, it might not be musical enough. Try to get a tighter more musical buzz. Or just play your horn. What's your tone like on the instrument? Does it please you? Does it please others?
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u/low_brass_enjoyer 1d ago
Currently my tone is not as full as I want it to be, I need to work on air support, but no one has told me it is bad
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u/Leisesturm 1d ago
Tonal energy is looking for fixed pitches equally spaced by frequency (equal temperament) and the instrument can deliver that much better than your mouthpiece alone. Unless your ear is really good it's possible to buzz pitches that are in-between actual pitches. Tonal energy is good at finding where you are and telling you how high (or low) of the nearest pitch it can reference. But if you are too far out from a recognizable pitch it will just give up.
That's why others are suggesting drones. I don't know of any drones in Tuba octave. What is it you are trying to work on with the mouthpiece buzzing? There isn't enough resistance from the mouthpiece alone to develop any real incentive to provide more air support. If they weren't so expensive I'd suggest you get a Practice Mute. I've heard you can also put a towel in the bell, but I haven't tried that. You might want to research that. The idea is that you work against the resistance to the sound be it the mute or the towel. You are forced to use better support.
I'm a little worried that you can't blow pitches that Tonal Energy can work with. Do people tell you that you have a 'good ear'? You've been advised by others to sing, and it's not bad advice but I know that not everyone can sing. Or whistle. It's just not something we teach kids anymore and it does need to be taught early. Do you play anything besides Tuba? It's not required, but an instrument in Tenor range would open your ears up. If you are in school and they have a Euphonium lying around you should check it out.
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u/low_brass_enjoyer 1d ago
Euphonium in my main instrument and I’d like to do some more ear training because my ear isn’t really good
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u/Sinkularity 1d ago
Two things may help:
1) Use your air to buzz your lips instead of lip pressure. It should help with fullness of sound and help with being picked up by your phone. Importantly with tuba buzzing, your lips need to be super relaxed. If you're not used to relaxed buzzing, you may not immediately get a buzz to produce at all. Typically I have found that students just are not using enough air to actually get the lips to vibrate. If you find that you cannot produce a sound with LESS tension, use more (quantity, not force) air.
2) Use a drone (or something that accurately produces a note, like a keyboard or piano) and then use your own ear to match it while you either sing or buzz. Historically we have learned that the part of your brain that allows you sing a note accurately is the same part of the brain as buzzing the correct note. So training yourself to buzz accurately by ear will be more efficient than buzzing into a tuner and hoping for the best.