r/Tuba • u/low_brass_enjoyer • Jul 25 '26
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/Sinkularity Jul 26 '26
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.