Free Buzzing For Brass Players

[@jazzbone94]

It seems to help more for ear training than anything. Isolating the pitch in your head and knowing the tone before you play is an important part of the relationship between embochure and mouthpiece/horn

[@GhostRyder2008]

I've been playing the trumpet for almost 20 years and never had trumpet lessons. I'm just now learning I have "smile embouchure". This is the toughest habit to get over, but I'm confident I'll be able to get to playing properly soon especially with videos like these and your article about eliminating "smile embouchure"

[@trumpetvids]

You train and strengthen the embouchure for playing the horn by playing the horn and resting when the chops are tired.

[@Buzzard681]

Laugh if you want to. At almost 81 (yes, I said 81), I have made up my mind that I will learn to play the bugle, and the trumpet. Before I go to the Great Up Yonder, I will learn have learned at least one that an satisfied with. I am having problems with my embouchure. It sounds like I am playing a Tuba, instead of a Trumpet. Also when I blow, air comes out in two places, either side of center. Any advice? Also where can I buy a clear plastic mouth piece?. Respectfully Phil Williams

[@authurmorgan2325]

You still alive

[@joebiden7064]

Vincent van gogh probably not

[@somanshbudhwar]

Mr. Phil Williams, you've inspired me to learn even more now. Thanks. Hope you're doing well, wherever you are.

[@NobodyCaresLI]

@@authurmorgan2325 lmfaooooo still no response

[@NobodyCaresLI]

@@musicbooksexplained huh?

[@wilktone]

You can read up on my take of this on my web site (wilktone.com) and searching for pencil trick. It's like free buzzing, when done correctly it can help build muscular strength used in playing. When done incorrectly, it can work against how you want to play. It's like lifting weights. Lifting can help a baseball player hit more homeruns, but he still needs batting practice. If all you have is a few minutes, play your horn instead of buzzing or the pencil trick.

[@NerdGlassesFTW]

that's awesome that you decided to pursue trumpet playing! I play the french horn, but i think i can help you out. with your embouchure, keep loose lips in the center and the corners of your mouth tight, so air can pass in a thin stream through your instrument (that's key for good sound) keep your lips loose and lightly say "m." place your mouth against the mouthpiece without pressing hard and blow. then tighten your corners and try to get a fast, thin stream of air going. hope that helps!

[@wilktone]

@trumpetvids Cardio is good for you too. 3 minutes of free buzzing isn't too long to worry about. It's just strength training, not a replacement for playing.

[@wilktone]

@trumpetvids Endurance can and should be built by playing the instrument too. Free buzzing is just another way of building strength away from the instrument and without the risk of using excessive mouthpiece pressure that sometimes happens when players get tired from endurance practice.

[@wilktone]

@trumpetvids Sure, it's different. Lifting weights is different from swinging a baseball bat too, but building strength helps there. You don't need to free buzz to play well, it's just like weight training for embouchure muscles, that's all.

[@notreese8312]

Hey! So I just started playing mellophone but I'm using a French horn mouthpiece, this just helped something click in my head on what to do, thank you it means the world 🤠

[@brandon1331]

Isn’t Mellophone played with a French Horn mouthpiece using an adapter right? That’s how I’m playing Mellophone for marching as well!

[@wilktone]

@Ormaaj, you can try rolling your lower lip over your lower teeth, like is demonstrated by one student in this video. Think of this as "training wheels" for your free buzzing. As you get better you can start moving to a less rolled in lip position. But don't stress over it too much, it's just an exercise and not intended to be how you actually play.

[@unboxingchannel8909]

Thank you this helped me a lot

[@decioabreu4686]

Gostei da explicação. Obrigado

[@trumpetvids]

@trumpetvids Free-buzzing is one of the persistent, baseless old wives' tales of brass pedagogy that people love to pass on as golden wisdom. You strengthen the muscles for playing the instrument the way they need to be strengthened by playing the instrument.

[@ShrekIsLyfe]

Seems helpful, thanks.

[@timmypeko]

I urge you to give me the source studies behind the reasoning that only a certain type of controlled stress that involves exterior pressure makes an improvement. The entire body of research done on exercise seems to indicate a plethora of different types of useable stress. That is exactly why we have multiple fitness machines to train the same muscle group. What you are saying is analogous to claiming that weights can't train pectorals, whereas a bench press can. It has zero scientific basis.

[@wilktone]

@ilikemewaffle Good tone with free buzzing? I prefer to keep the free buzzing soft and airy to strengthen the proper muscles. Good tone with playing? That won't necessarily translate to good free buzzing.

[@ncomygod]

Hi, When I free buzz or even flex my embrochure corners, after only 30 seconds my lips swell up enormously. This is not a mouthpiece issue or a pressure issue. I've been playing trombone for a little over 12 years and this lip swelling issue has caused many issues with my playing, so any advice is appreciated.

[@raymondspell6867]

Put some ice on it

[@bradleykw1]

Neil O'Mara super late question. Do you have a tooth that is sticking into your lip? A few times I've seen a player have abnormal lip swelling this was the case. Hopefully you figured this out since this was a year ago.

[@jadersonie]

go see a doctor!

[@ilikemewaffle]

im really good at free buzzing. i get a really good tone quality. will that help me

[@timmypeko]

I am often annoyed by people's ignorance of physiology in relation to this topic. Free buzzing builds the same muscles that keep the embouchure stable. Strength and endurance in the muscles that form the embouchure is useful, regardless of whether it comes from playing, buzzing, or lifting gianormous weights with your lips. Just because it's in the mouth rather in the hand doesn't mean that it's suddenly immune to exercise until you put a horn in front of it. It's not just a marketing ploy.

[@VinnyTheTubaPlayer]

Is this a good exercise for tuba players?

[@SharkPerformanceGaming]

Yes all Brass instruments.

[@NjabuloHadebe]

it is a good idea to play tuba and trumpet? i mean wont this confuse my lips?

[@emilianosaumell9379]

after your lips get used it. it'll only really confused your brain

[@wilktone]

Emiliano Saumell Some folks have less "confusion" than others, but I think it's more an embouchure development issue than your brain getting confused (like transposing by sight or reading different clefs, it's a skill your brain can handle). My advice for brass doubling is to use the same embouchure type for all brass instruments, regardless of which one you're playing. In other words, think of the smaller brass mouthpiece placement forming a circle inside the larger.

[@thatbandgirl2535]

It will be great for tuba if you do the trumpet because it will help you play your high notes a lot better on the tuba because you got used to a smaller mouthpiece on trumpet

[@neeeee5eeeee]

Does the exercise where you hold a pencil between your lips actually work? I've been doing that almost daily for a while because I don't have time for practicing every day, but I don't know if it actually works

[@timmypeko]

Muscle fibers and connective tissue don't sense the type of stimulation you apply to them. There is only one way to produce tissue reinforcement, namely through controlled application of stress to the tissue. Free buzzing may stimulate the fibers in a different way, but it still stimulates the very same fibers, very intensely so. Perhaps it is not as optimal for intensity as using a mouthpiece is, but saying that it does completely nothing is just bollocks.

[@eyaliss]

buzzing forces the player to press the lips together resulting with 2 problems: (1) higher lip pressure and overall pressure (the main problem of trumpet players) and (2)lower air flow (you actually block the air stream with your closed lips!!). this is not correct playing. this is exactly what a trumpet player should avoid. lip buzzers has a lot of playing problems! be careful!

[@wilktone]

+eyaliss Thanks for your comments, eyaliss. I think your thoughts apply to trumpet (and brass) playing in general, not just free buzzing. This is one reason why I recommend very soft, airy sounding free buzzing, not a loud forceful buzz. Practice smart.

[@bleedinghandshughes]

+eyaliss totally agreed you need to play more like you're blowing hot soup cool (trumpet)

[@duckmyass]

If you are closing your lips together you aren't buzzing right... If you want to do it the right way the first few times you do it you stick the tip of your tongue out your lips and learn to make the buzz sound as you pull you tongue back in.... Your lips should only touch with no pressure pushing them together.... If you are doing what you say then you are not buzzing the right way and this dude pushing this exercise isn't explaining it properly.... If done properly it can help a trumpet player, if done the way this dude is explaining it wont do anything positive at all.

[@wilktone]

Thanks for stopping by and leaving your thoughts "duck." I don't feel that your description of how to free buzz will build the strength that I advocate. In order to fully understand why I'm recommending free buzzing you will need to get a more complete understanding of embouchure form and function. There are many more videos on my channel here that will at least give you an idea where I'm coming from. I suggest you check that out and maybe you'll be able to point out some specific reasons why you feel my explanation "wont do anything positive at all."

[@duckmyass]

I think I was pretty clear in my explanation of what was wrong, you need to have your lips only touching very lightly anything more than that and your doing exactly what Eyaliss said, lowering air flow.

[@g.alistar7798]

Yup, and for trombone players this is really good advice....keep away from flabby lips. For trumpet players....perhaps not so much as players of the trumpet are renown for their firm, rock hard and often animal, sexual magnetism in their lips. Just saying!

[@trumpetvids]

@wilktone How long do you anticipate someone who's a brass player would ever be away from the horn? If your chops are exhausted from playing, you should rest your chops not flog them further. You'd be better off doing cardiovascular exercise than free-buzzing. Free-buzzing is a pointless waste of time that's of no benefit to a brass player and can only serve to mistrain the facial muscles.

[@nathanfey3852]

he has the same trombone as me :D

[@Hiroyuki_T]

Tenor or alto?

[@leechjim8023]

Sounds like mosquitos!!😂😂

[@trumpetvids]

@trumpetvids While I'm at it I'll say the same about various stupid pencil exercises. Just like buzzing they're pointless, gimmicky activities brass instructors love to pass on making claims about them they can't substantiate for the sole reason that it was passed along to them. "Look - you're using your lips, it must be good for your horn playing." Negative.

[@keepcalmycarryon]

Where's the "pizzazz?"

[@trumpetvids]

Sorry, I can't say how much I disagree with this. The problem with free-buzzing is it has NO relation to the act of playing a brass instrument. I don't care what world-renowned players say otherwise, they're full of it. *Everything* about what happens with your chops is different when buzzing compared to having the mouthpiece and horn in place.

[@snrnsjd]

Change the title to " How to destroy your career with no instrument "

[@wilktone]

Thanks for your thoughts, Djakonda. I've found that free buzzing in the manner that I advise in this video is helpful to me and my students, but I know there are other thoughts on the technique. In my opinion, if it's hurting your playing you're probably free buzzing wrong, but if you don't want to do it there's no reason why you can't play great without it.

[@snrnsjd]

@@wilktone Thanks for the response, I really appreciate it! ! Maybe I'm doing it wrong. But ,if I leave all my negativity and emotions aside, Im curious how buzzing can help at anything since,like you said, it is *different* from playing an actual instrument. Best wishes to you and your students!

[@trumpetvids]

"...saying that it does completely nothing is just bollocks.." It does nothing that's useful regarding trumpet playing.

[@trumpetvids]

"...I am often annoyed by people's ignorance of physiology in relation to this topic..." And then goes on to talk a bunch of nonsense - oh the irony. The mouthpiece alters the lip tissue and the muscles are focused and engaged in a way that can't be reproduced without the mouthpiece in place. Even a mp buzz without the horn is different than with the horn. Free buzzing is utterly dissimilar to the playing buzz. They're unrelated acts. A brass player derives no benefit from free buzzing.

[@JRobAviation]

Free Buzzing is stupid

[@TheLogicBeast]

Don't buzz