mouth peices

[Rick Denney]

i have a sort of mediokeer mouth peice as it is and waned to know of a good brand to look for.

If typing it out isn't too much trouble, I wonder if you could tell us a bit about yourself. What's the mouthpiece you have now that you think is mediocre? How long have you been playing? All of these might affect the answer.

For beginners with full-sized faces, however, I'm always of the mind that vanilla is the best choice. The Conn Helleberg and the Bach 18 are two mouthpieces that have become the standards by which other mouthpieces are measured. They may not be best at anything, but they are pretty good at everything. They are different from each other, and which way to go depends on a lot of things. And what you are playing now may be better than you think.

Rick "noting a surge of mouthpiece questions this week" Denney

[Rick Denney]

the one i have is a yamaha that came with my tuba (i used to have a bach but it got stuck the school's sousaphone adapter haha). ii have been playing for about 4 years and i ask the question because my friend has a Helleberg and he says its worth it to get one.

A Helleberg is an excellent mouthpiece to learn with, and there are lots of players who have advanced far and still use them. It doesn't make it easy to use too much pressure, for one thing.

By the way, if you want to remove that Bach from the sousaphone bit, take a small rawhide hammer and tap it on the side of the sousaphone bit where the mouthpiece shank goes in. About ten light taps all around the receiver should do it. After that, don't leave the mouthpiece stuck in the bit any more.

Rick "who thinks a small rawhide hammer is the first tool a tuba player should own, after cleaning supplies" Denney