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I'm sure this is on here somewhere but I'm going to ask anyway...

What's a good beginner mouthpiece? And if it applies, is there a good mouthpiece a flute convert would benefit from?

Angelo "I just played the p.o.s. stock mouthpiece that came with the instrument until I marched corps when they made me go buy a PT-XX"

Thanks!

I started on a VB 24-AW, and then went to a conn helleberg. Both would probably work well.

Bach Mouthpiece Manual wrote:
The Cup: Diameter

We recommend that all brass instrumentalists—professional artists, beginners or advanced students; symphony, concert or jazz band—use as large a cup diameter as they can endure and a fairly deep cup. A larger mouthpiece with a fairly deep cup offers the advantages of a natural, compact, and uniform high, middle and low register, improved lip control, greater flexibility, and avoidance of missed tones. A larger-sized mouthpiece will also offer greater comfort, making it possible to secure a good tone quality even when the lips are swollen from too much playing.

Splitting tones may be an indication that the mouthpiece is too small or perhaps too shallow. A small cup diameter does not permit the lips to vibrate sufficiently, preventing the player from producing a rich, full tone. The lack of tone volume tempts a player to exert more lip pressure and to force more air through the instrument than the small mouthpiece is capable of handling, creating a shrill tone.

More info needed- is this flute convert a child or adult?

Bach Mouthpiece Manual wrote: ...
We recommend that all brass instrumentalists—professional artists, beginners or advanced students; symphony, concert or jazz band—use as large a cup diameter as they can endure and a fairly deep cup.
...
A larger-sized mouthpiece will also offer greater comfort, making it possible to secure a good tone quality even when the lips are swollen from too much playing.

Hm, I wonder if the general consensus has move a little since that was written? I did something like that - found a Bach 7 at the local music store - and probably would have been better off with something a little more moderate in size - I thought it was great at the time, but I sure wasn't playing very well. "As large a cup diameter as they can endure?"

Donn wrote: Hm, I wonder if the general consensus has move a little since that was written? I did something like that - found a Bach 7 at the local music store - and probably would have been better off with something a little more moderate in size - I thought it was great at the time, but I sure wasn't playing very well. "As large a cup diameter as they can endure?"

Yeah, this does seem to a bit of the "old received view". More recently there seems to be a broader acknowledgement among instructors/clinicians that "biggest" isn't always (or often) "best". On a couple of occasions I've seen Oystein Baadsvik admonish a student in a master class that the mouthpiece he was using was just too big for him. I personally think that a good starter mouthpiece (in the Bach line) is a 25. In fact, for many purposes it (or something like the Miraphone TU-17) is a good all around mouthpiece.

That quotation from the Bach people ("as large a cup diameter as they can endure", and "secure a good tone quality even when the lips are swollen from too much playing"), gives a kind of depressing and unpleasant view of tuba playing that also doesn't appear very realistic or encouraging.

ghmerrill wrote:That quotation from the Bach people ("as large a cup diameter as they can endure", and "secure a good tone quality even when the lips are swollen from too much playing"), gives a kind of depressing and unpleasant view of tuba playing that also doesn't appear very realistic or encouraging.

The way I read that, it means whatever is the largest one a particular player can handle. Every player has a different facial structure, so what works well for one may be totally wrong for another.

I did experience the above-mentioned swollen lip issue back when I was in school (whenever and wherever that was), as did other players I knew. Switching to a larger mouthpiece helped a lot- some of us were using MPs that we got in middle school. But there is certainly a point at which a mouthpiece is just too big for a particular player.

Donn wrote:

Bach Mouthpiece Manual wrote: ...
We recommend that all brass instrumentalists—professional artists, beginners or advanced students; symphony, concert or jazz band—use as large a cup diameter as they can endure and a fairly deep cup.
...
A larger-sized mouthpiece will also offer greater comfort, making it possible to secure a good tone quality even when the lips are swollen from too much playing.

Hm, I wonder if the general consensus has move a little since that was written? I did something like that - found a Bach 7 at the local music store - and probably would have been better off with something a little more moderate in size - I thought it was great at the time, but I sure wasn't playing very well. "As large a cup diameter as they can endure?"

The 7 was obviously too big- for you. Do you remember what you were using before, and what you eventually settled on?

Heavy_Metal wrote: More info needed- is this flute convert a child or adult?

High School, I'm guessing Junior/Senior, switching to march contra for marching band. Unsure of their plans after their season.

bloke wrote: bloke "You'll find 100 'correct' answers, so there is no 'answer'."

Ain't that the truth!

Heavy_Metal wrote:The 7 was obviously too big- for you. Do you remember what you were using before, and what you eventually settled on?

Yeah, maybe it was too big, or maybe the old idea was right and I'm just blaming the mouthpiece when it should have been my job to work up to it. I sure do not have a "pie face", anyway. Sold the Bb 190 and the mouthpiece went with it, both for the best I think. First mouthpiece, that came with the first tuba, was a Conn 2, which is a nice middle of the road mouthpiece one can safely recommend without going too far wrong, if only they still made it - I think the post-merger equivalent 2-xxxxxxx is also gone now.

Now I have a variety of things. Tuesday I'll be taking the 2340 or whatever it is to practice, and with that I like the Schilke-Helleberg. It's real similar in appearance to a couple other mouthpieces I like, and I can't really say for sure why but until that old King came along, I thought it was the worst mouthpiece ever. But now the tables are turned - can't really say what it is, but I love it with the King. I think my point here is that "mouthpiece for a beginner" means "random ordinary vanilla mouthpiece", because with nothing to go on, you have only a general statistical basis for your choice. Eventually whats-his-name will find something that works for him and whatever tuba he ends up with.

I also have a couple Marcinkiewicz H series mouthpieces, which should be similar to Bach 7 inside rim diameter. In case my lips get too swollen to fit in something more moderate.