How to cure a double buzz

[roynj]

[trumpetnz]

[razeontherock]

A new school year is upon us, along with marching band season, and many young, developing players blowing out their chops and getting confounded by their results. So it seems like a good time to resurrect this thread, and point out if you encounter a double buzz, just maybe you should try BACKING OFF.

What does this mean, exactly? Maybe it mainly means "don't blow so hard," but simple phrases often don't improve our playing as much as intelligent, diligent practice. So here's a way of practicing 'backing off' that has worked well for me:

Starting on the highest note you can play, single tongue your way down chromatically 10 notes. I do 3 sets of triplets and then hold the last note long enough to center the pitch, and sound. Then do the same thing, down half a step. Continue down to low F#.

The idea here is to play as quietly as you can with control, but starting on the highest note you can play may require some volume. It's great practice, but concentrate on getting quieter as you go, without sacrificing tone. Also work on articulation speed. Triple tonguing this will further refine your airstream. When I double tongue it I run an octave, 3 sets of sixteenth notes. Regardless which articulation you use, it connects your quiet playing to the powerful playing that's in demand, and develops finesse which is what will keep your chops out of trouble.

[Bflatman]

I am not a teacher but I see something worth saying, take it as you will.

Many players find a problem and ask for a fix for it, then they find another problem and ask for a fix for that before long their play is supported by a range of fixes.

I take the opposite view. If you need a fix that means something is wrong. You dont need a fix you need to go back to the good basics that served you well and are the foundation of good playing.

This is what many of the quick fixes are doing anyway but presented as a fix.

Bob Hope in a comedy movie had to face a gunfighter and he was given lots of advice "If he leans the right lean to the left, if he crouches to the ground stand on your toes, if he ducks to the left crouch to the right" Before long he was unable to think or to walk.

Paralysis through analysis in action.

Whenever I have encountered a problem I have backed off and gone back to basics and worked on my playing from the ground up. It is a good approach.

Correct playing fixes everything.

[John Mohan]

For what it's worth, I've had this problem, but only when playing on my largest mouthpieces (a Schilke 19, a Bach 1X, and to a lessor extent a Bach 1B underpart with a Bach 1X rim), and only when I have have practiced or performed a lot on a particular day. It would typically happen if I was to play a high note and then immediately play a low note (ie playing a High C followed by a low C). And for whatever reason, the G# in the staff was another note that tended to get that dreaded growl of a double buzz.

When I moved to a slightly smaller mouthpiece for legit playing made for me by James New that combined the rim shape and size of Arturo Sandoval's MV3C with the cup of a Bach 3B (with a #22 Throat and #24 Symphonic Backbore) the problem disappeared.

If you're playing a large mouthpiece you might try moving to a slightly smaller one.

Best wishes,

John Mohan
Skype Lessons available - Click on the e-mail button if interested
_________________
Trumpet Player, Clinician & Teacher
1st Trpt for Cats, Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, Evita, Hunchback of Notre Dame,
Grease, The Producers, Addams Family, In the Heights, etc.
Ex LA Studio Musician
16 Year Claude Gordon Student

[deleted_user_19c01b1]

Sometimes I have the double buzz too. And I agree that it is an annoying problem, more likely to occur when I am just warming up or when I am tired.

I try these, one of them usually works.
- Increase or decrease the hole, that is, open or close my jaws a little bit
- More or less air
- Move my jaw forward or backward
- Changing the angle of the instrument to be more centered
- Last but not least, rest!

I'm talking about tiny changes, nothing awkward.

I don't think it matters how you solve it.

[Billy B]

Lack of energy in your sound.
_________________
Bill Bergren

[JVL]

If John Mohan says that "smaller would be better", you should listen to his advice !!!
i'm not sure we'll hear from him such a thing another time in our lives !

More seriously, i think he's right, it's one of the possible reasons.

best

[Sustained note]

I get the double buzz only on the following in-the-staff notes: C#, D, Eb, E.
I don't have this problem below or above those.
Anyway, I appreciate the advice given so far and will attempt to utilize some of the tips given.
_________________
Michael Greenberg

Giv'at Shmuel
Israel

Trumpet: Schilke B1 (2005)
Mouthpiece: Schilke Soloiste MG1
(Marc Geujon) gold plated
----------------

Keep a sense of humor.

[Lionel]

The O/P's description could use some more explaining. He didnt say which notes were sustaining two tones.
However from my experience the most commo series of annoying double tones occurs in the series of notes starting on your tuning note B flat concert. Or our C natural for the B flat instrument. In fact that whole 4th harmonic series, from C down to A flat can produce these most unpleasant matters. Like C, B nat, B flat, A, A flat

Cause? Is overtrained chops. So whatever you choose to do to treat it? Do not over do it!. Instead find another way of strengthening your chops without continuing to over do it.

If it was me? I'd take a couple days off just to recoup my chops. Get rid of the swelling and stiffness. Then and only then would I start a rigorous program of isometrics. Buiding my embouchure muscles to the poit where the chops become perhaps 3x stroger than they were before. And this post explains a reason why we see more woodwind experts than trumpets. As the trumpet is a highly physicai instrument. And for many f us (the ones not endowed with gifted chops? We're going to need to increase the strength in our chops several ties more than that.

The same reason why you cant find many athetes able to perform 20 pull ups?

Same reason you dont find many trumpet players who own the double C. They dont want to do the work.
_________________
"Check me if I'm wrong Sandy but if I kill all the golfers they're gonna lock me up & throw away the key"!

Carl Spackler (aka Bill Murray, 1980).

[MrOlds]

This

[Sustained note]

[BrianCade1]

I had this problem a few years back. Pitch bends and mouthpiece practice solved it. I suggest "15 Advanced Emboucure Studies" by David Hickman and "The Buzzing Book" by James Thompson, exercises 1-4 and 9.