[Dixielandjazz] Mouthpieces (was: Louis Armstrong mouthpiece)

[John McClernan]

Bob,
Search online for Donald S. Reinhardt Pivot System. He was a pedagogical genius, IMHO.
Also, read about "upstream" and "downstream" playing.

Plastic mouthpieces are a woeful alternative to brass and other metal mouthpieces. That being said, the best one I have ever tried is made by KellyMouthpieces.com.  I would never use one in performance. Cold weather? Keep your mouthpiece in your pocket.   

When we were discussing the effect of mouthpiece temperature on warmup and performing, one of my former teachers, Glenn Dodson (RIP) 1st Tbn Phila Orch, told me during a lesson that whenever the Orch went by bus to a concert venue, the instruments were transported on a special truck.  Glenn always had his mouthpiece in his pocket, not in his case on the truck. 

When I arrive at a venue and unpack my horn (tuba), before I even play a note of warmup, I look for a sink where I can wash my mouthpiece and run it under warm water. I get much better response right from the start if the mouthpiece is warm, no matter what the ambient temperature.
My 2¢.
Cheers,
John


On Feb 22, 2012, at 9:26 AM, Bob Smith wrote:

While we're on the subject of mouthpieces:
Has anyone ever designed or tried to design a mouthpiece where the part that contacts ones face is not the rounded end of a cylinder?
In my own case,  my upper lip protrudes slightly more than my lower lip. This gives me a problem (on the trombone) that when I play the lower Bb and A, blowing parallell to the instrument at mf, these two notes often suddenly change to a 'burping ' sound. To eliminate this, I tip the instrument down for these two notes. However, this reduces the quality of the sound somewhat, as I'm not blowing parallell to the instrument.
I feel that a mouthpiece where the part that contacts my lower lip is more prominent than the part contacting my upper lip would overcome this problem, and wouldn't diminish the quality of the rest of the register.

I've often thought of trying to modify a mouthpiece. Could a plastic mouthpiece be modified in this way?

Cheers

Bob Smith


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