Hi Ken,
I went through a similar process with the woodwinds. I started with the
alto sax, a used "Silvertone" from Sears. During the WWII years, instruments
were hard to get. I finally got a slightly better one, also used. Then I
started looking at mouthpieces. I went to the Brilhart line, where you had
to choose the lay and opening desired. I found that the more open
mouthpieces gave more volume and tone, but were harder to control. For
students, I found that the mid-range designs were much better until the lip
is well developed.
In college, I bought a Bob Dukof "pro" mouthpiece for the alto. Great tone
and volume, but, again difficult to control.
When the college band needed a bassoon for concert season, I was recruited
to fill that role. That was a real challenge. Versatility has its place,
but I was never outstanding on any instrument.
Did I mention the oboe..........
Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken Norton" <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Olympus Camera Discussion" <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 11:44 AM
Subject: Re: [OM] IMG: 80-Year-Old Trumpet Returns
> Speaking of...
>
> Back years ago when I played the french horn, I bought a custom mouthpiece
> by Neil Sanders. It's a customized wide-rim 17M for the french horn. Most
> wonderful. Expensive at the time, that's for sure. I delivered a lot of
> newspapers to buy that thing. My older sister plays french horn
> professionally and she also has a couple of them which are slightly
> customized for different purposes.
>
> Well, one of my daughters is playing the french horn now and occasionally
> she forgets to bring her standard-fare mouthpiece home from school. (the
> school has horns for use at school and she has one at home so she doesn't
> need to tote the thing back and forth every day).
>
> Well, it doesn't happen often that she leaves her mouthpiece at school,
> but
> when she does, she borrows my old mouthpiece.
>
> I was simply amazed and reminded why I bought the thing.
>
> 1. High notes. You can play over an entire octave higher without ripping
> your lips open. Low notes are more difficult to get, but altogether, my
> range increased by 1.5 octaves with the mouthpiece. Not an insignificant
> improvement!
>
> 2. Purer tone. It's much easier to hold a note without drift and all notes
> within your range have similar sound with less variability
>
> 3. Slight increase in backpressure. Reduces air flow. I set a school
> record
> by holding a single note for over two and a half minutes.
>
> 4. Less fatiguing. It's easier to practice much longer.
>
> The problem with the mouthpiece is that it is nearly impossible to march
> with--besides, it's probably smarter to go to the plastic mouthpieces
> anyway
> so you do break teeth or freeze your lips off when it's cold.
>
> I'm wondering how long should she wait until she converts over to using my
> mouthpiece? I bought mine four years after starting playing and never had
> a
> single regret about it. She's in her second year of playing now. When we
> hear her practice with the mouthpiece, every advantage listed above is
> instantly revealed. The difference is night and day. She enjoys using it,
> I
> know. But I'm also aware of the years it takes to build a strong
> embouchure
> and I don't want to shortchange that process by going to a high-end,
> hot-rodded mouthpiece instead of forcing the lip development on the junk
> mouthpiece.
>
> I have not spoken to her band teacher/director yet--I know I need to, but
> I'm not sure when to broach the subject.
>
> AG
> --
> _________________________________________________________________
> Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
> Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
> Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
>
>
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|