Mike Brands

Hi Manny,

Firstly I must apologise for taking so long to get back to you on a problem which you helped me solve back in February of this year........the dreaded DOUBLE BUZZ!!

I have been out of town for several months on a gruelling work schedule but have finally been able to find some time to catch up with the rest of the world

I want to thank you so much for your advice on this "confidence sapping" problem which no longer plagues my performing.

For those of you out there who may be experiencing this nightmare I have included below the advice Manny gave me and which over a period of a couple of weeks dedicated practice cured the problem

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Quite simply, the double buzz is the result of a confusion of sorts between the lips and the brain. The brain hears a certain register to be played and the lips are artificially frozen in a position for a different note!

I want you to explore a couple of things. I'd like you to be sure that when you articulate , your consonant/vowel combination is set more for "Tooh" on as constant a basis as possible. Work up arpeggiated exercises slowly being sure to use TOOH for each and every note! Natural changes WILL happen intra-orally.

Let them occur but your mental approach will be set to TOOH for articulation and HOOH for slurs. This will relieve the type of mouthpiece pressure on the lips that helps cause this problem of embouchure freezing.

Next, be sure that your breathing is as natural as when you are away from the horn but at a greater level of activity! Normal breathing; just deeper and fuller in and OUT as well. No stiffness whatsoever, no feeling of bearing down.

Just steady in and out, unresricted by abdominal stiffness tantamount to sitting on the loo! Allow your stomach to tuck in at the moment of articulation, like a cough. You notice that in that action the stomach jolts inward naturally when you cough. We have to do the same when we play but many people advocate stiffness of the gut, a very damaging act. Full breath with a very floppy, loose gut for the inhale and an inward moving gut with the articualtion.

A vivid picture is to try to make your navel touch your spine when you start the tone.

If you do these things the double buzz will be gone virtually instantly.

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I'm sure that if you follow Manny's excellent advice that you too will be DOUBLE BUZZ free

Thanks again Manny for sparing the time to give others the benefit of your vast experience.

Kind regards,

Mike Brands

Manny Laureano

Talk about your day brightener!

Thank you for that post, Mike. I'm glad things are once again on track for you.

ML