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Since I have a lot of pandemic down time, I have restarted my attempt to learn to play the trumpet. So, my question is...what is an appropriate mouthpiece for tuba player blowing on a trumpet?
I am currently using an off-brand 7c style. Any other suggestions?

Keith
Toronto

I don't have great chops with an authentic trumpet mouthpiece. I have experimented with the Chason Music "Hybrid" Mouthpiece series, which takes a trombone size rim and marries it to a trumpet/cornet/flugelhorn/F Horn Screw on shank, depending on what you are after. It works.... fine. For reference, Wycliffe Gordon uses a similar set up when playing Trumpet and Soprano Trombone, to great success. I don't pretend to be that talented, but its great to be able to play small brass with less difficulty.

Or, take the time and learn to switch on a "real" trumpet mouthpiece like you have. There isn't necessarily a correct answer for how to do it.

I always had the best luck with "large" trumpet mouthpieces.
Something like a Bach 1 or 3.
I use a Bach 1 (no letter). Big and deeper for a trumpet.
You don't have a lot of help with high notes, but they've always worked better for me than the usual 7C, which felt tiny to me...

One of the nice things about trumpet mouthpieces is how cheap they are. I recently moved from a 1G to a 7C because I realized that even though the 1G felt closer to what I was used to with tuba and trombone, I wasn't able to support the embouchure naturally. I've tended to find that the size of my doubling mouthpieces reflect what I have on tuba, so I know if a tuba mouthpiece with a slightly rounded medium-small rim, moderately deep cup, and small backbore is what works for me, my doubling mouthpieces will also have those features.

I started on trumpet in 5th grade, before moving to sousaphone for field marching as a freshman. I still play on occasion, so I have played a lot of mouthpieces over thedecades. Yes, for a combination of performance/price, the Bach 3C is still a standard by which many other mouthpieces are measured. For example, the Yammy Bobby Shew "Jazz" mouthpiece is a 3C cup and rim with a tighter backbore. Everybody who makes mouthpieces makes their version of the 3C. The lesser expensive ones, like the Blessing version, feel and blow about the same.

Get one and play it awhile. See what you like and don't like, because the hunting grounds for a trumpet mouthpiece are on orders of magnitude larger than for tuba mouthpieces. For example, I like the 3C cup and rim, but never felt right about the backbore. I happened upon a Bach 7D, which actually has the same depth of cup, but one shade tighter backbore. I liked it, but liked the 3C cup diameter and rim better. I found a custom 3C with the #72 backbore, and when I play trumpet, I actually sound like I know what I'm doing if I don't push it too far or too hard.

7C is a good place to start.

Hup

I am amazed that we are allowed to play tuba AND trumpet. I thought that playing the trumpet ruins your embouchure. I would love to play both but have always avoided this. Any guidance please.

I can reach the c'' C5 above middle c' C4 on a tuba (after using a quasi-'Double High C in 6 months' system which I sort of cobbled to together from all available sources - it takes two months) BUT I cannot play above that note C4 on the trumpet safely and for more than five minutes. Trumpet and bone -- OK if you are James Morrison, but a tuba embouchure, I thought, needs tender love and care.

All guidance really greatly appreciated.

hup_d_dup wrote: ↑Sat Dec 19, 2020 8:18 am 7C is a good place to start.

Hup

The problem with a tuba player starting with a 7C is that the rim is sloped to the outside to help beginning trumpet players get a good "seal" on the mouthpiece and not blow air out the corners of the embouchure outside the mouthpiece. Any tuba player with any experience already knows about that, so the 7C rim can actually get in the way and make playing uncomfortable. Hence, the 3C.

2ba4t wrote: ↑Sun Dec 20, 2020 5:21 am I am amazed that we are allowed to play tuba AND trumpet. I thought that playing the trumpet ruins your embouchure. I would love to play both but have always avoided this. Any guidance please.

I can reach the c'' C5 above middle c' C4 on a tuba (after using a quasi-'Double High C in 6 months' system which I sort of cobbled to together from all available sources - it takes two months) BUT I cannot play above that note C4 on the trumpet safely and for more than five minutes. Trumpet and bone -- OK if you are James Morrison, but a tuba embouchure, I thought, needs tender love and care.

All guidance really greatly appreciated.

The primary issue is pressure. Unfortunately, many trumpet players rely on pressure of the mouthpiece on the embouchure to get higher notes, rather than properly conditioned embouchure muscles. This deprives the embouchure of blood flow, just like a tourniquet, and that is what ruins embouchures. Second, some folks' embouchure muscles just don't work that way, and is one reason a person plays low brass instead of upper brass. The bottom line: don't push it. Play what you can and enjoy it, without regard to upper range.

Thank you very much.
So as long as I keep the pressure only between my lips - the upper against the lower - the mouthpiece size should not affect my embouchure.
Makes good sense. Thanks. [Pity my neighbours.]