[Dixielandjazz] Re: Double embouchure

[Elazar Brandt]

On the trombone and trumpet question, I started playing bone about 40 years ago,
and have been playing it consistently ever since. I tried taking up trumpet a
few years later, but did not succeed. I think I gave up too quickly, especially
after being told that it was bad for one's lip/embouchure to play both.

In college I did a stint on tuba, and switched between them with no trouble.

Since moving to Israel, when presented with opportunities to make $100 a gig for
blowing fanfares on straight trumpets, I figured, why not? So I got a straight
trumpet with a 7c mouthpiece and started blowing. I couldn't do it for long, but
I could get enough fanfares out to do the jobs, especially if there was some
rest in between the fanfares.

Having picked up a tuba and rekindled my interest in that, it occurred to me
that if I know tuba fingerings and I can blow a straight trumpet, maybe I should
try again to learn to play a real trumpet. List-mate Bob Romans fixed me up with
a student trumpet to work on, and I went to work. I'd say it took about a year
until I could play a song on it well enough to try it on stage, and then I could
only get through one chorus at a time, and had to switch back to bone or tuba.
Oddly enough, I found it easier to switch between trumpet and tuba than to
trombone.

But the story isn't over yet. Then I discovered Prague's used instrument market,
and started going crazy. Got a flugel horn, a cornet, a Sousaphone, a herald
trumpet and a few others. I think it was the used cornet that came with a 1 1/2
C mouthpiece for some reason, and I found it a whole lot easier to play than the
other trumpets. "Gee! These things come in different sizes?" I mused, naively.
What do I know? I'd been playing the same bone with the original mouthpiece for
40 years and never asked any questions about it. Since then I have equipped all
my trumpets/cornets, etc., with 1 1/2 C or 1C if I can find them, and I am
playing them quite comfortably. I still need to be careful to rest between
trumpet parts. My lip goes fairly quickly if I play to loud or too many choruses
in a row without a break on a bigger horn or singing.

I also find that a good warm-up is crucial. The bone and tuba are more
forgiving, but if I try to play trumpet without warming up, my lip is good for
only about 30 seconds.

Now for another question. Maybe someone can help me with this. I just picked up
my very first F horn -- a Blessing marching mellophone. It came with a 6B cornet
mouthpiece that did not fit tightly in the leadpipe. My various trumpet
mouthpieces fit, but I couldn't get any of the lower octave of the range to
sound, and the higher notes that did sound came out a bit thinner than I think
the horn should sound. I don't have a French horn mouthpiece to try, but I
suspect that will give me a similar result to the trumpet mouthpieces. So I
stuck in an alto horn mouthpiece I had lying around, and it gives me a nice fat
tone all the way from the pedal tone -- which I think is the F (concert) at the
bottom of the bass clef staff -- to the highest note I could get out of it --
the F at the top of the treble clef staff. I suspect I might be limiting my high
range by using the larger mouthpiece, but I'm not sure. Does anyone know what is
the proper mouthpiece for an F mellophone?

Elazar
Misrad HaJazz
Doctor Jazz Band
Jerusalem, Israel
<www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz>
Tel: +972-2-679-2537