"Mouthpiece Meditations"

[Heavy_Metal]

Found this while searching for something else. It's in five parts, written for trombone players but much of it would apply to pretty much any brass instrument:

http://www.trombone.org/articles/librar ... cemed1.asp" target="_blank"

Read and discuss!

[Mark E. Chachich]

It is an excellent article, thank you for posting it.

Mark

[Donn]

A couple of points I found simplistic.

• (Quote attributed to Doug Yeo) "... Many a bass trombonist has ruined their playing by feeling they "had" to use a Schilke 60 when a Bach 1.5 G was doing very nicely." If they were really doing this because they thought anyone cared, that would for sure be foolish. But you can reasonably assume that a big (cup and throat) mouthpiece like that will be an advantage in the absurdly low range that's important to bass trombonists, so there's an incentive to give it a try even if it isn't immediately comfortable. You almost have to try it, the question is how much of a chance do you give it?
  
  It's common here on Tubenet to see a smaller-than-average mouthpiece dismissed as too small for contrabass tuba, and that isn't simply true, nor is it simply false. The take home message in the article is "play what works for you", and no one's going to argue with that, I'm just saying it isn't trivially easy to make that choice, when it turns out to be on the small side. Many of us play on mouthpieces that are a little too big, maybe, because we aren't fully aware of the trade-offs we're making.
• The notion that it matters only if you're a professional player. For example the running shoe analogy: "For a casual jogger, almost any running shoes the right size and width that feel comfortable will probably be good enough. For a competitive world-class runner, finding the right shoes can be a question of selecting from a whole range of elements: soles, padding, internal shape, composition of the uppers, cleats or non-cleats, running surface, distance being run, weight of the shoes, and so on." It doesn't sound like this guy knows a lot of runners, or trombone players.
  
  Some of the better running shoe retailers have treadmills, and they can put you in shoes that match your feet and your gait, and for some people that's really essential, even for "casual jogging." For others it isn't, they could run - and compete - in almost any shoe. I wouldn't be surprised if the same were true with mouthpieces, a professional player is as likely or maybe even more likely to be able to manage with any ordinary mouthpiece.

[Heavy_Metal]

Agree on both points. I've said before and will say again, the right mouthpiece is whatever works best for you. Each of us has a different facial structure so what works for one person might be very bad for another.

I also agree that you don't have to be a professional player to benefit from a mouthpiece upgrade. In my section several players have recently gone to bigger MPs, and The Section sounds a whole lot better as a result. None of us are pros, though our Principal has played professionally.

I think many players, especially recreational ones, may not realize there may be a better mouthpiece for them among all the different makes and models available.