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Chonking, Choking? How much mouthpiece

Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-03-07 15:53

I've noticed several mentions recently on "taking more mouthpiece". Ken Shaw recently included that in his advice on making fuller sounds.

I've personally been running in to some of the challenges of getting the "right" amount of mouthpiece into my mouth while playing.

My experience centers around my attempt to master the use of a Vandoren M30 (like my super-sounding teacher uses). It has a very long lay and sounds better with a lot of reed flapping inside my mouth. As the mouthpiece is withdrawn, the sound gets weak.

Contrast the M30 with some with "normal" length lays. When these shorter mouthpieces are pushed too far into my mouth, they will "chirp" when tongued. My teacher says that that is a sign that too much mouthpiece is taken.

With the M30, its difficult to take enough mouthpiece to get a chirp.

Turns out that I've gotten lazy about taking enough mouthpiece. I discovered this when playing some of the Kroepsch and Baermann exercise that cross into the altissimo. If I don't have enough mouthpiece crossing the altissimo break, the sound up there will be thin, or the notes won't even form (BLUSH).

On the other hand, it is more work to use all that mouthpiece, and my embochure tires quickly.

SO: THE QUESTIONS: Do you folks play with the mouthpiece near chirp position? Did you have to re-develop your embochure to do so? What happens when you cheat and let the horn fall out of your mouth?

THANKS

Bob Phillips

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