MPC Buzz is Dead
In my humble opinion you should judge the mouthpieces by what happens when you use the mouthpiece on the horn and do not judge in any way at all based upon "buzzing" with the mouthpiece alone.
I do not intend to start a controversy here, and i know that lots of experts and teachers say you should practice buzzing on the mouthpiece. I will point out that while buzzing is a widespread recommendation, buzzing is NOT universally recommended. If I were not already out on a limb enough saying that, I will risk further wrath of youffers by mentioning a famous current trombone soloist on mouthpiece buzzing, i.e. Christian Lindberg.
If you go to one of his master classes and someone asks him about mouthpiece buzzing, he will say that he thinks you should spend your time playing the horn, not the mouthpiece. I have seen him do the following experiment, and recommend it to you now.
He says take the mouthpiece and put it up to your lips without the horn attached, but have the horn in your hands with the horn a couple of inches from the shank of the mouthpiece. Buzz away like so many people tell us to do. Then while you are continuing to buzz, connect the mouthpiece and horn. Be careful to keep the buzz going in the same manner. Your tone on the horn will not be good at all. In short, what you are doing with air and embrouchure when buzzing is NOT the same as when you actually play the horn. Then Lindberg gets you to do the opposite. Start playing the horn, and while you are playing, pull the mouthiece out of the horn. Be sure to keep blowing doing everything exactly the same while you remove the mouthpiece. You will almost certainly find that when you remove the mouthpiece from the horn, there is NO buzz at all.
This shows that The buzzing on the mouthpiece is NOT the same as when you are playing. So he says practice the horn, not the mouthpiece, unless of course you are going to play some composer's mouthpiece concerto.
MJL
Mark La Fratta
Besson (Buffet) 967 Euphonium silver MP: Doug Elliott Euph 103 I-8
Besson (Buffet) 2056 Baritone silver MP: DE LT 101 G-4
Wessex Bombino Eb tuba silver MP: Wick
Shires Custom Alto Trb MP: DE MT 101N C-Alto
Sauer model Tenor Trb MP: DE XT 101 G-8 and H-8 (G4 with small shank)
Hecht Bass Trb MP: DE LB 113 L-8
Conn 12H Coprion tenor trombone MP: DE MT 101 C+D4
Markus Leuchter Eb/D Alto sackbut
Bohm & Meinl Bb Tenor sackbut