 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: JamesE
Date: 2004-09-13 18:16
Most of us seem to have a number of mouthpieces we have acquired over the years and I am wondering if there is a general trend in using them. Do you always use your latest, best mouthpiece? Or do you rotate among a chosen few depending on the time of day, season, weather, etc?
The reason I ask is that sometimes I sit down to practice and just can't seem to make the current setup work. Switching reeds helps, but also switching the mouthpiece for a while seems to get me going again.
Would you share your current practice and ideas?
Thanks, Jim
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Author: Ralph G
Date: 2004-09-13 18:52
This flies in the face of all that is good and proper, but sometimes a particular mouthpiece works better for me at a particular time. I don't mean playing situations -- sometimes I just quit sounding good on a particular mouthpiece. It usually coincides with rotating in new reeds. Right now I rotate largely between a Greg Smith Kaspar, Vandoren M30 and a Vandoren M13 Lyre (brief plug here for the M30 -- I've been very impressed with this thing).
Don't follow my example -- pick a piece for a given situation and stick with it.
________________
Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.
- Pope John Paul II
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Author: GBK
Date: 2004-09-13 18:53
Stanley Drucker has been using the same mouthpiece and ligature set-up for over 50 years ...GBK
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Author: donald
Date: 2004-09-13 19:59
i have never been happier with my sound and playing since i stopped using a different mouthpiece every week and just stuck with one good mouthpiece. i have now used the same mouthpiece ALMOST exclusively for 18 months. i have two other mouthpieces that are very good- these i keep in case of future disaster etc
i performed at Clarinetfest 2003 on this mouthpiece, and received compliments on my intonation and tone (from those who didn't walk out after the second piece!). At the time i felt i was only performing at 70%, so i was pretty happy with that result.
find something good and stick with it, that's my advice!
keep playing the good tunes
donald
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Author: William
Date: 2004-09-14 00:12
I have played on either my Chicago Kaspar #14 or a Charles Bay copy of it, for the past 35 yrs for my "serious" clrinetting. And yes, I too have a drawer full of other mouthpieces that I have purchased over the years, including some particularly great ones from Gregory Smith that I will use if my two main mpcs become damaged.
On my jazz clarinets (I carry R13s in both my alto and tenor sax cases to avoid the hassel of having to switch from gig to gig), I am using a pair of WW G8s that my old college professor refaced and modified for me a few years ago. They work great, and I see no reason to try anything new in this area at this time.
Our university professor of clarinet, however, switches mouthpieces on a regular "whime of the moment" basis. I once asked her what mouhtpiece she was using, and she had to look in her case for the answer. BTW, she always sounds great, "no matter what".
Ben Armato, the Reed Wizard guy and former NY Met clarinetist, once told me that he used the same mouthpiece for his entire career.
Others, around here, have complained that their mouthpieces, like their clarinets, become "blown out" after a few years and need to change to get the sound back.
Bottom line: do whatever works for you, but try to always be consistant.
My theory is, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Rely more on practice than on new equipement. It's cheaper.
Post Edited (2004-09-14 00:15)
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Author: John_May
Date: 2004-09-14 03:06
The right tool for the right job, I always say. I switch fairly frequently depending on what instrument or style I'm playing (although it's really not completely necessary).
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Author: BobD
Date: 2004-09-14 13:38
Stanley must surely be the exception...or he doesn't tell all his secrets. I've had the very experience mentioned above by most posters and was relating my experience to my standmate. I do believe that there are variables or the interactions of variables that we don't recognize. Yes, I seem to rotate periodically among my 3 or 4 favorites.....It's like having a bad hair day....
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Author: OpusII
Date: 2004-09-14 14:07
Have to agree with BobD....
Also when I'm feeling sick I use everytime a different mouthpiece to compensate the sound....
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Author: D Dow
Date: 2004-09-14 14:26
My primary mouthpiece now is the the Hite d facing which I use in orchesta(always)...
a problem that I tend to encounter with the concert band I am in is the pitch is generally much higher and so sometimes I use the B40.
So 90 percent of the time I am using Hite pieces.\
David Dow
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2004-09-14 14:38
When with my mouthpiece I get bored
and being no Stanley Drucker!
I just get out the old sandpaper
and reface that sucker.
And when I miss a note in band
or orchestra I blame
the mouthpiece --- 'cause it's not MY fault
for not achieving fame!
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2004-09-14 15:58
I used to switch back and forth with all the various mouthpieces I've owned over the years, but finally settled on the Grenadilla wood Kaspar Greg Smith model and haven't changed in several years.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2004-09-14 16:22
Well, since Dave S started it:
It is surely becoming cliché,
The words Daniel Bonade had to say -
Your mouthpieces, on a lake in a boat
Pick out one - throw the others afloat.
Take it home and go learn how to play.
..GBK
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Author: William
Date: 2004-09-14 22:02
I'll bet that Letterman would have loved to help Bonade test his selection theory with a WILL IT FLOAT segment.
Imagine, "Oops--Paul, I guessed wrong. They sunk to bottom like cement. I'm sorry DB, you'll have to just make up a new theory to save face".
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Author: Gardini
Date: 2004-09-14 22:31
This article that I found on a different BB thread, mentions Stanley's interest in different mouthpieces and a mountpiece swap he made with the author. Does he secertly practice on a variety of different mouthpieces and perform on only one, or his - "the one mouthpice for thirty year s" urban legend?
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20B11FF3F5D0C738EDDAF0894DC404482
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Author: GBK
Date: 2004-09-14 22:38
Stanley has played on the same Lelandais mouthpiece (occasionally touched up by Matson) for his entire career.
His has a number of back-ups, including 4 copies made specially by Vandoren when he visited there in person, but he told me they are not quite the same...GBK
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Author: mkybrain
Date: 2004-09-14 22:51
I've only got 6 mouthpieces :( and I only like 2 of them, the lomax and some sort of zinner that i know nothing about except that i just like it.
Though actually i find playing jazz, for example Bugle call rag, on the lomax to be easier than classical. I use the medium open lomax classic. Anyone else who uses lomax feel the same way?, or is it just me? maybe its just that the embechoure is easier to form for jazz, i dunno.
Post Edited (2004-09-14 23:03)
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Author: mkybrain
Date: 2004-09-14 23:08
also, do i remember correctly that someone here was told by Eddie Daniels himself that he uses the same set up for everything that he plays?
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Author: D Dow
Date: 2004-09-14 23:15
Dear GBK
Alot of symphony players tend to have back ups...
at a recital I remember seeing Eddie Daniels with a mouthpiece case with a pile of mouthpieces(IN IT) once.
As to Drucker he too may fear of dropping his Lelandais and of course an emergency copy would be needed for the concert.
I have 3 David Hite pieces and one is especially nice that he made for me personally...I also have a Grabner refacing on one which is really nice too.
The Hite pieces work really well in orchestra for me.
I think that a working musician in an orchestra certainly should carry two mouthpieces with him/her.
David Dow
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2004-09-15 13:18
Any player performing should have the backup mouthpiece in the case!!!
I have 2 of everything with me at all times. Though the time I used my other clarinet when my best one broke, the pitch was all wrong - it was about 1/2 step flat............. 
;)
Post Edited (2004-09-15 13:20)
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2004-09-15 13:24
Seriously speaking though - in high school at a summer music festival the Orchestra performed Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and my Bb Clarinet really did break - at the start of the slower section my Low C# spring broke and the key opened. I quickly figured out what had happened and looked over at the 2nd Clarinet thinking about taking his horn to finish the piece.
However the 2nd player was playing a plastic bundy and the kid was pretty gross in the first place. I really didn't want to play his Clarinet so I picked up my A Clarinet and transposed the rest of the piece.
Fortunately it was the last work of the concert and it went fine.
Good thing!
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Author: BobD
Date: 2004-09-15 21:34
Oh, where's those rubber bands when you need them!!
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2004-09-16 03:11
I was too young back then to have known about using them.
I have a whole repair kit w/me when I perform.
Though one time in Orchestra (Riverside Symphonia) I used toothpaste to "glue" the Bass Clarinetists pad to hold.
It worked for the concert just fine.
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