I’m clearly from the “mouthpiece buzzing is beneficial” school of thought. What I’ve found is most important echoes the ideas here, but I’ve always wondered why some fantastic players / teachers find benefit from buzzing and other equally fine players / teachers find it harmful. I think it all comes down to how buzzing is approached.
Is the mouthpiece buzz very tight and mosquito like? Or is the buzz a little looser, fuller and closer to a motorboat? Should the buzz be an isolated activity, or should it be related back to the horn? I think that the answer to these questions is very important to find the benefits related to buzzing the mouthpiece.
If you review the James Thompson material that Ed mentioned, there is a short amount of time buzzing (2 minutes) followed by repeating the same exercise on the horn (2 minutes). This back and forth approach is always relating the buzz to the instrument to assure that buzzing is not an isolated activity. The marvelous modeling that is provided on the CDs provided with the Buzzing Book allows the proper sound to be cultivated (on both the mouthpiece and horn) which leads to a colorful, vibrant, resonant sound (no forcing).
In addition to the Thompson material, I love the essays written by Sam Burtis who was a student of Carmine Caruso. This is the third page of an essay entitled
Buzz Off! and he clearly states, “PLEASE don't buzz when you don't have the horn handy for comparison (at least until you've become very proficient at matching how you buzz and how you play)”.
Another idea that Burtis relates is the idea that it’s possible to find an ideal angle when buzzing the mouthpiece that responds easily and sounds the best. Based on old habits, it’s possible that this angle is not the same when you are holding your instrument. He suggests buzzing the mouthpiece and then very slowly inserting the mouthpiece into the leadpipe while playing, and maintaining the same angle with respect to your face. If this feels different the first time that you try it, it’s very possible that when holding the horn, you are not aligning with this “ideal mouthpiece” angle.
He discusses this in more detail in
An Alternate Approach to Embouchure Development, Part 1 and
Part 2
I should also stress that I'm from the school of thought that "the horn plays the lips" and I think that mouthpiece buzzing in the ways descibed above does not contradict this thinking.
I hope these ideas are helpful!
Mazzrick,
We’ve discussed this topic in detail in the folder entitled
The Room. Please read the ideas in this link.