I have to agree with John on this. For a while after I started playing tuba, I spent some time on buzzing -- often to or from work in the car, or for short periods at home. I think that it probably contributes in a kind of general way to muscle tone in the lips and jaw, but I never felt that it was otherwise beneficial. I did feel that I must have been missing something because at that time buzzing was highly recommended by quite a variety of performers and instructors as an important (if not critical) approach to embouchure development.
It always seemed to me that any time spent on buzzing was better spent on exercises with the instrument as a whole, and so that's the direction I went in. It's also difficult to be sure that any apparent benefits to buzzing are real as opposed to illusory -- since people who are willing to devote time to buzzing, for the most part, are also devoting time to more typical practice with the instrument. It's hard to see how buzzing would be BETTER than playing the instrument -- at least as an ongoing activity. It may have some benefits as a substitute if you can't otherwise practice with the instrument. And it may have some (episodic?) "diagnostic" benefits, but, as a programmatic approach to your practice, it's hard to see (or to determine) that it has a kind of "stand alone" benefit that wouldn't be better served by practicing with the mouthpiece in the instrument. At least that's how it seemed to me over time.
But it also may be that it just works better/differently for some people than for others.
Last edited by ghmerrill; 01-01-2023 at 12:40 PM.
Gary Merrill
Wessex EEb Bass tuba (DW 3XL or 2XL)
Mack Brass Compensating Euph (DE N106, Euph J, J9 euph)
Amati Oval Euph (DE 104, Euph J, J6 euph)
1924 Buescher 3-valve Eb tuba (with std US receiver), Kelly 25
Schiller American Heritage 7B clone bass trombone (DE LB K/K10/112/14 Lexan, Brass Ark MV50R)
1947 Olds "Standard" trombone (Olds #3)