In a message dated 10/13/2003 6:45:16 PM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Hello all, > I read the article that Mr. David Goldberg suggeted, and one of the > things it said about recruiting horns (for succesful players or playing) was > > looking at the physical factors of the players. I will paste what it said: > > This subject is far more complicated than 'size of lips'. I've sat next to good players where you could only see the bottom half of their mouthpiece. The rest was somewhere in their lips. What size horn, and what size mouthpiece do you use? When I was about three years into playing I got the fourth horn position in a very, very good orchestra. Up until then I was always playing first, so I used a small mouthpiece to get the high notes. I could barely get my horn to play down in the fourth horn range, so I bought a Bach 3, the biggest they make, for the low parts. My teacher didn't want me switching mouthpieces. If I played the big mouthpiece, he wanted it used all the time, so I did. About four months later I went back to visit the orchestra I used to play in. We were reading some symphony, Dvorak 4 I believe, just getting to the good horn parts, when the conductor stopped and asked, "My God, where did you learn to play like that?" Now that I had the strength to play the big mouthpiece, I'd guess gotten much more powerful. Not only that, but my accuracy got much better. Check with your teacher, and see if that is a direction you should explore. The combination of hard low register and accuracy problems sure brought back memories for me. The only person I've talked to who had serious information about this subject is Scott Laskey. You might ask him. He makes mouthpieces, and has a web site. When I had him make me a custom mouthpiece, he asked me a lot of questions about how I felt about my playing, tone, sound, accuracy, endurance, that kind of stuff, in different registers. I got the impression that he really understands the muscles that make the embouchure, blood supply, and all that, and how it relates to the shape of the mouthpiece. He can adjust the rim to match you physically, then make modifications to change the sound to what you want. Sort of like shoes, first you determine what size you are, then you decide whether you want boots or dancing shoes. _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] set your options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
