On the Friday morning of this year's National Trumpet Competition at George Mason University, former principal trumpet of the Montreal Symphony Jim Thompson gave a master class on buzzing. Jim literally wrote the book on buzzing. I had the privilege of serving on the faculty of a brass festival in Mexico with Jim a few years ago and I was immediately taken aback at the efficiency of his playing. A lot of that efficiency is a direct result of his buzzing. He spoke a lot about buzzing in the class but also ventured into some other topics related to brass playing in general. It was as good a presentation as I've seen on the physical side of playing a brass instrument. Below are a collection of quotes from his class. I hope you find them as helpful as I have!
- "The brass instrument family is the closest to the human voice. We use human tissue to vibrate on the air column."
- "If you can buzz in-tune and expressively, you can pretty much put that down the pipe."
- "I just love it when somebody makes a mistake and looks at their horn as if 'you betrayed me.'"
- "The lips should be reactive to the air - not proactive to the air."
- "The ability to make glissandi is very important."
- "Part of these exercises is to buzz in and out of all of the registers with very little change."
- "Isometrics is the absolute enemy of good physical performance."
- "The air pressure wants to spread your lips apart."
- "Less head movement (between ranges) means better endurance and more flexibility and technique."
- "(Buzzing on) the mouthpiece requires you to use a lot of air. When you do that, you take a lot of stress off the lips."
- "I can not emphasize enough starting (your day) as softly as you can play."
- "Strength is not the answer. I guarantee you that everyone in this room has the strength to play a high G."
- "Lip pressure and air pressure must increase together as you go higher. Don't lead with the lip."
- "I like to think rather than going up into the high register I like to bring it down to me."
- "Support (in the high register) isn't about playing louder. It's about maintaining the balance of the lip and the air."
- "Allen Vizzutti can change his air pressure almost as fast as a violinist can change their bow."
- "Volume is overrated. Volume is increasing and decreasing the overtones. The fundamental basically stays the same."
- "Please don't fall into the trap of dark and bright. Your sound is either resonant and clear or not. And resonant means overtones."
- "When a conductor says you are too bright, check your attacks."
- "Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Trumpet playing is not an indoor sport. It is a musical endeavor."
- "Do you realize that in a brass quintet you actually have to play softer and louder than in an orchestra? And more sustained."
- "The tongue is highly overrated in terms of attacks."
