Brass Band Logo

NJH Music Logo

Some of the contents of the pages on this site are Copyright © 2016 NJH Music
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Trumpet/Cornet Mouthpiece Sizes

Paul

I never thought I'd reply to a posting about mouthpiece sizes!

Other replies have mentioned tone and range as factors which will be
affected by mouthpiece choice.  I've found this to be a fairly short-term
effect; give me any mouthpiece and a couple of months and at the end of that
period I'll sound exactly the same as I did before, with more or less the
same range.  (I may be a freak, though).

More important factors for me are concerned with tuning and articulation.
With very deep mouthpieces I've found that intonation above the stave goes
crazy, usually sharp.  With the shallower Bach mouthpieces it becomes very
difficult to achieve the clear rapid single tongue that some band music
requires.  (How does the first cornet solo in Knight Templar sound on your
7C???).  Projection too is an important issue - if you play a part where you
need to be able to carry solos above a loud cornet section then this will
affect your choice.

For a long time I played cornet on a VB3c - I got some funny looks but
no-one ever complained about my tone - AND ITS TOO LATE NOW - the mouthpiece
gave me the flexiblity to approach the very wide range of styles that a
modern cornet player encounters: the slow melody solos, the jazz breaks and
the trumpeting in Plantagenets etc.

One or two replies have said 'pick one and stick to it' or 'find a cornet
mouthpiece that most closely matches your trumpet mouthpiece'.  I'm not sure
that this is helpful - you'll probably use different mouthpieces for Bb
trumpet and picc (I use VB 1.25C and VB 3C respectively) so why not a
different one for your cornet too, to suit the different musical
requirements of that repertoire.  So long as you play all of them fairly
regularly you'll be OK.  The difference between one cornet mouthpiece and
another is nothing compared to the embouchure change that woodwind players
face (pun intended) when they double flute and sax, for example.

I know one soprano player who regularly swops mouthpieces on the contest
stage; he has one for the delicate bits and one for the 'high scream cornet'
stuff.  He's probably reading this right now; let's see if he owns up to
it...

Cheers
David (anorak off again)

--

[Services] [Contact Us] [Advertise with us] [About] [Tell a friend about us] [Copyright © 2016 NJH Music]