Hornmasters: Brophy on Buzzing

William R. Brophy wrote Technical Studies for Solving Special Problems on the Horn (1977) during his tenure as Professor of Horn at Ohio University. He credits “Martin Morris for suggestions on some of the low register studies, Marvin Howe for his ideas on pitch bending” and “Philip Farkas for many suggestions when the manuscript was in its early stages.”

Brophy in Technical Studies presents among other things a series of buzzing exercises and was one of the first horn publications to present much on the topic. Brophy expands the technique to include mouthpiece and free buzzing.

Buzzing exercises, both without and with the mouthpiece, if properly done, can have a number of beneficial effects:

1. Buzzing the lips alone is a way of “forcing” the embouchure into the correct position, or in other words, ensuring that the embouchure is correctly formed….

2. Once this “correct” position is found, the object is to make the “playing” embouchure as much as possible like the “buzzing” embouchure with only slight adjustments, mostly a matter of relaxation of the center of the lips.

3. Lips and/or mouthpiece buzzing is a good device for strengthening the embouchure.

4. Buzzing the mouthpiece is a way of getting away from any psychological barriers on the horn by concentrating on embouchure and breath alone.

5. Buzzing exercises can be an excellent means of keeping the lip in shape during brief, or for that matter, extended vacation periods when practice on the instrument is not possible.

Brophy recommends in buzzing on the horn mouthpiece a tone that is a somewhat loose and “airy” sound with a good “core” that is not at all the type of “tight pinched” buzzing that a trumpet player might produce. Also he recommends not buzzing above a written second line G on the lips alone. He suggests five to seven minutes of buzzing as a “pre-warm-up.”

Finally, Brophy presents one other accuracy exercise also intended to be performed on the mouthpiece.

The “New Beginning” exercises are generally attributed to the late, great Arkadia Yegudkin, for many years the horn teacher at the Eastman School of Music. They are primarily accuracy exercises, designed to teach the embouchure to set quickly, indeed without preparation, for an attack. They are to be played on the mouthpiece alone, which remains on the lips throughout.

The exercises are in quarter notes at a moderate tempo. The primary element that is unusual is that you are to take a quick breath between each note and set the embouchure “as late as possible, almost simultaneously with the attack.” Brophy continues,

In order for these exercises to be effective we must insist on the exact correct pitch—just “any old note” will not do. It might be advisable to play them on the piano with one hand (even one finger!) while holding the mouthpiece with the other hand….

Once they have been mastered to some extent, the breaths between the notes can be omitted, though we should still “fake” taking a breath, opening the corners of the mouth as though a breath were being taken. In this way we can avoid becoming “loaded up” with excess air.

The “New Beginning” exercises can also be used advantageously on the horn, especially for passages where accuracy is a problem.