Ed, Your question is thought provoking. My suspicion is that buzzing itself doesn't nec. do much to improve horn playing, but I also suspect that the absence of the ability to buzz may be an indicator of flawed mechanics. My support for this theory comes from my observations that almost all fine professional brass musicians have the ability to buzz the mouthpiece.
It's possible that the addition of buzzing to modern pedagogy helps teachers diagnose problems in different ways than had been done in the past. There's also the issue of trends in instrument design over the past 100 years. Modern horns have been built to output more and more sound, and accept more and more air thanks to the increasing demands of modern music and the increasing athletic competitiveness of modern brass musicians. Pick up a fine natural horn (or Vienna horn) with a slow tapered crook and it will be evident that the resistance of the instrument helps set the lips in motion when producing a tone. Contrast this with a Conn 8D and a big mouthpiece, and you'll immediately feel the demand for the lips to have more compression to start and maintain the sound. So, buzzing might help in this way. I also notice a trend with bass trombonists who use the most free blowing instruments (without leadpipe inserts) so be more buzzing oriented. On the other hand, horn players with more resistant setups (Alex 103+smaller bore mouthpiece) seem to be less buzzing oriented. I buzz a little bit every day and it helps me maintain focus of sound, especially when my mechanics have started to falter for one reason or another (bad room acoustic, going for too big of a sound, etc. etc) Just a theory! Aleks Ozolins On Sep 19, 2010, at 10:02 PM, Glick, Ed wrote: > There's recently been a thread on one of the lists about buzzing. I have a > question. When did hornists begin buzzing? When I did my earlier studies, > from 1939 to 1949, none of my teachers (Max Shapiro, father of Boston > Symphony 3rd and later 2nd horn, Harry Shapiro; Dennis Brain; Willem > Valkenier, principal of the Boston Symphony; and Osborne MacConathy, asst. > principal of the Boston Symphony) ever talked about (or taught) buzzing. My > current teacher, with whom I've been studying since the fall of 1980, > however, does recommend buzzing. > > Why is buzzing among horn players now so common and taught by some of our > most prestigious teachers? What does it do to make a hornist play better than > the older (and in the case of the ones I mentioned above ) now deceased, > hornists? I'm not trying to stir up any controversy. I'm honestly waiting to > learn from the answers I know many of you can give. > > I'm cross-posting this, because I 'd like to hear from those who subscribe to > just one of the lists. > > Ed Glick > _______________________________________________ > post: [email protected] > unsubscribe or set options at > https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/aleks%40aleksozolins.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
