Tubas on a Train

Tubas on a Train
(the prequel to Snakes on a Plane)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Breakthrough! No more Double Buzz!

While I often have little breakthroughs throughout each day (they give me energy and continued motivation), I rarely have a HUGE breakthrough that completely changes the way I play.  I am very glad I have this blog to help document this event. 


Tuba player double buzzing with a clear mouthpiece

For the past 5 or 6 years, I have dealt with double buzzing.  It has occured mainly with my Gb in the staff, but has also happened one half step above and below this note.  Now the frustrating part is that the double buzz would come and go and I would not know why.  And it seemed like the more I focused on it, the worse it got.  I tried long tones, focusing my air, buzzing on the mouthpiece, and nothing worked.  I left in the middle of many practice sessions because I was beyond frustrated with this problem.  I actually remember at one point actually getting very upset and angry because everything that I could think of wasn't working.

This is all in the past.

I tried to google the problem again today (I have googled it in the past, but did not have much luck in the way of advice).  Thankfully, I must have typed in the right combination of words because I found a website that not only knew about the problem, but had models on how and why it occured and what to do to fix it.

I didn't want to get my hopes up, so after I read the article I went back to my horn to try the things it suggested...and you know what?  It worked!  I jumped up and down and had to call my wife to tell her!  I know how to avoid double buzzing.  It was an amazing feeling being able to run my scales without cringing or ignoring the problem.  AND, an amazing by product of this was that I added a couple more half-steps to my playable range!  What an amazing day.  The rest of today could have gone horribly wrong and I still would have been in a great mood (thankfully it didn't). 

Interested?  Here's the link to the website:

Article on Double Buzzing

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the plug and I'm glad you found something helpful in my article! Out of curiosity, which issue ended up causing your double buzz?

    Best of luck with your audition!


    Dave

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