While I personally can't get any sound out of a Neil Sander's mouthpiece, my teacher from freshman year of undergrad was a Sanders student and had used one, and occasionally still did, with success. A friend of mine ended up using a Sanders rim after I transferred too.
While the concept may seem ridiculous and the average player may not necessarily prefer or benefit from one of these goofy looking mouthpieces, mitigating factors like braces outweigh the other factors. Moreover, if the mouthpiece works for someone even WITHOUT special circumstances like the braces, who cares? It honestly doesn't surprise me though that a judge at a state solo and ensemble type festival had a hissy over something like that. At least in my experience with Solo and ensemble type things, all of the judges aren't necessarily qualified to judge. Chris --- Phil Hooks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have been teaching students for over 40 years. Years ago, when Neil Sanders > came out with his mouthpiece, my recollection is that one of the benefits of > the wide rim with the concave design was that it would help to relieve some > of the discomfort of wearing braces. Over the years I let only a few students > use it, all of them of which had to play their French horns in marching > bands. These were the days before the marching mellophones. After marching > band season I would have them return to their regular mouthpieces. > > > > I currently have an 8th grade student who came to me with multiple embouchure > problems, including puffing the cheeks (he looked like Louis Armstrong) and > excessive movement of the embouchure with each note. These issues have been > difficult enough to deal with, but now recently he got braces. And it could > not have come at a worse time, since he was preparing for the State Solo > Festival, playing the second movement of Mozart #1 (grade 4 on the Maryland > list). He was having a difficult adjustment to the braces, so I let him try > the Neil Sanders mouthpiece. He said that it was more comfortable than his > regular mouthpiece and that he could play better with it. So I decided to let > him use it for awhile, to get over this hump. > > > > The judge at the solo festival had a fit over the Sanders mouthpiece. He told > the student that he should get a teacher (I don't know who he thought I was) > and to get a "real" mouthpiece. Notwithstanding all this, the student played > well and received a Superior rating. > > > > My question is this, by having the student use the Sanders mouthpiece, have I > really done such a terrible thing as the judge intimated? Am I really that > bad? > > > > Phil Hooks > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > _______________________________________________ > post: horn@music.memphis.edu > unsubscribe or set options at > http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/tedesccj%40yahoo.com > __________________________________ Yahoo! Mail Mobile Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Check email on your mobile phone. http://mobile.yahoo.com/learn/mail _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
