Posted by Matt G on March 26, 2001 at 11:03:29:
I was working with a student the other night and noticed something quite unique about trying out mouthpieces. I had my student buzz on numerous mouthpieces on the same pitch. As he was I asked him to take note of the sound of the buzz coming from the mouthpiece, especially if he thought it was going to have a bearing on the sound out of the bell (a fairly decent 14K). It does (not a real surprise), but it made the student notice the timbre of the mouthpiece and its ultimate effect on the sound of the horn. This further convinced me that one cannot tell by a look alone how a mouthpiece will play. I sounded darkest on a Dillon Geib 3 and my student sounded darkest on a Warburton (TE) Rose Model. From just using the mouthpiece at first and determining the sound we wanted most to come fromt he end of a Conn 14K sousaphone, we turned something the student first came in with that he thought sounded terrible (with the help of an old Mirafone mouthpiece) into (to quote Joe S.) a great sounding 4/4 tuba. As I age and goof around with the mouthpiece more and more, I feel that this has more to do with what comes out of the bell than the 16' of tubing after it as well as response, clarity, articualtion, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
I just though I would mention this as I haven't stumbled across anything really mentioning using the sound being projected from the mouthpiece as well as the pitch as a practice tool.
Anyone else have any similar experiences?
Matt G