batyjames

Ed,

I am a college senior and am having some chop issues. After about an hour or two of playing my upper register gets very fuzzy and i start to have a double buzz. This occurs above high B (I can only play to a puny high G at best). I have experienced trouble before because over the summers i do drum corps. As i am preparing for a senior recital, i was wondering what i can do to still practice regularly and mend this problem. To get rid of it last time, I had to take six weeks off the horn, which i can't do. If it matters, I am currently playing on a xeno with a 1c mouthpiece. Switching to a smaller mouthpiece does not help the double buzz or fuzz (have tried 1 1/2c, 1 1/4 c, 3c, Zeus E3, and a Marcinkiewicz M8). Any help on this problem would be appreciated.
Sincerely,
RB

ecarroll

RB,

Welcome to TM. Where do you study and what does your teacher say about your buzz problem?

My guess is that you probably have tension somehere in the line and it will be interesting for you to find out where (trumpet technique is mostly self-discovery).

Start by checking your posture and make sure you're comfortable, loose, and balanced -- not changing anything but the velocity of your blow as you ascend (think glissando/crescendo). Are you taking a full, open, breath to start? Pedal tones might help (good velocity builders) and 10 minutes of really soft playing (ppp) at the end of your day to restore your aperture might be beneficial as well -- it's impossible to say without hearing you.

You will undoubtably get a few old bromides from our members here (I just gave a few myself) but the best internet advice I can offer is to relax, don't worry about this, stay in the moment, and keep working. Easily said, I know, but I bet you a dollar your double buzz is a result of tension and poor air management.

Watching here with interest,
EC

mahaberio

I don't presume to tell you what or how to practice. However, I think a good suggestion that you might want to experiment with would be trying the Caruso exercises. They're free to print from Markus Stockhausen's site and he offers great instruction for them. I've found them to be enormously helpful in many aspects of my playing. Here is a link to the PDF if you're interested:

http://www.markusstockhausen.de/the_basic_caruso.pdf

Also, Craig Morris wrote a great article on these exercises with some helpful tips on how he likes to practice them:

http://livmusic.com/Articles/weird_trumpet_books.html

If you do decide to try them, make sure to follow the instructions very specifically. If done correctly and not overdoing it, improvements in breathing, range, endurance, and efficiency are inevitable.

Bikephan

Here is my 2 cents. About a year ago this time I experienced problems with a double buzz. I found that I was continually playing fatigued. In other words I was not allowing for enough time during my routine for rest. I adjusted my practice to include other musical activities such as sight singing, listening, and score study. I essentially broke up periods the periods of high intensity trumpet work to ensure that I remained fresh. In a matter of a few weeks the problem went away and has not returned. Brian Goff also has a discussion on the topic on the website that you might find useful. http://mailer.fsu.edu/~bgoff/tpt-tips/tip107.htm

batyjames

Thank you all for your helpful advice. Ed, I study at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Tx with Dr. Gary Wurtz. He believes it is due to one of my corners giving out. The part of my lip that does this is the right half of my lower lip. Once again, thanks for all of your comments and i await further guidance from my fellow trumpeters.
Sincerely,
RB

trpt2345

I have had a theory for a while, and I have no idea if it is true or not and I'd like some feedback. I think you get a double buzz when the lip ceases to vibrate as a unit and instead statrts to vibrate in separate parts, due to fatigue, pressure, whatever. Anyone?

Michael McLaughlin

Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day.
Friedrich Nietzsche

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Vulgano Brother

Yup!

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Gordon H.

Hello RB and All,

I just read your post and out of concern I wanted to write to see how you are doing now that a month has passed.

Here are my thought after reading your post:

In your first post you said,"After about an hour or two of playing my upper register gets very fuzzy and i start to have a double buzz." If that is in one session, I can understand why you are having trouble. You would be training to exhaustion. When we are tired we do strange things to keep playing. One we all know is pressing the mouthpiece into the lips. Many will also adopt the "I'm too shot to play" setting. If this is you, let me tell you: Do not change stratigies and start to change to a tenser/different way of playing to keep playing. Just rest.

Bikephan has the solution for this in saying in essence: Don't overtrain but make use of the extra time. I like what he said about sight singing. I suggest that you spend a good deal of that time singing your trumpet practice materials and solos. This is highly underdone by most of us. It seams slower, but it a very efficient way to practice.


Of course, do what Edward Carroll said and relax all you can and many such problems do disappear. Think of the sound you want more than the one coming from your horn.

(Ok. I will warn all of you that I don't want to sound alarmist so just take it for what it is worth. If that's nothing, I'm fine with that).

If you have followed all the advice in this forum and form your teacher, you have been practicing with pleanty of rest, you have not drastically increased your total playing time, and you are more relaxed than ever, then you need to be considering the possibility that you may have injured yourself to some degree. It is possible to injure the lips by playing and by accidents with or without the trumpet involved. (Playing in a Drum and Bugle Corps it is easy to unexpectedly pop yourself with the mouthpiece with a quick horn raising or hitting a hole while playing). Also you may simply have overplayed and hurt yourself. You said that last time you had taken off six weeks to mend the problem. I must assume that solved your problem last time. If you are hurt and need the rest, than rest. You can postpone a recital, but hurting yourself can be much much more problematic.

Don't get too caught up in my last statement if it does not fit the facts of your experience.

In any case please keep us up to date on your progress.

May God bless you and your playing.

Gordon H.

ecarroll

RB,

As Gordon points out, it has been a month since your problem surfaced.

Give us an update?

Thanks,
EC

batyjames

Well Well it has been a month hasn't it. The double buzz has gone away. I made some adjustments in my routine and started doing the "six magic notes" as suggested as well as incorporated proper pedal tones and lip slurs. My senior recital went very well. I played Arban's Carnival of Venice, the second movement of the Flor Peeters, and the Arutunian without any double buzz. Thank you all for your interest and advice. I am continuing to strive to use my air more efficiently and just focus on the music. Now, it is time for Graduate auditions . Now my biggest problem is staying relaxed in upper register, everything above D gets pretty tense and unstable. So any advice on that would be appreciated. Once again, thank you all for your advice and time. Ed, it is indeed an honor to actually talk to someone who I have listened to since I was in the ninth grade. Thank you so much for donating your time to a site like this and to trumpeters like me.
Sincerely and with much Gratitude,
RB