Author: Morrigan
Date: 2010-07-21 16:01
Hi everyone,
I've got this dilemma at the moment. I've got two Greg Smith mouthpieces, one Chicago and one Cicero models. The Cicero I bought years ago and has a low serial number, and I've used it for about 6 years now. The Chicago was a more recent one, purchased from Howarths in London.
The Cicero has quite a bit of resistance and if you've got the wrong reed or get too tense, you get a brassy sound. However, it has a wonderful, colourful depth to it that I've never experienced in any mouthpiece before. The colours and sonorities you can produce with it are seemingly endless. The Chicago is remarkably free-blowing, works with any reed, has perfect response and a lovely warm sound. However, it is the same warm sound all the time; it isn't as variable as the Cicero, and you can't make as much of a 'special' sound with it. However it plays so easily.
It may also be worth noting that upon recording both mouthpiece (using my phone, so not that reliable), there wasn't much difference is sound; I think the difference is in the feel. Staccato / articulation in general sounded considerably 'tighter' with the Cicero (but requires more work), but both have the same basic tone.
I'm not only seeking advice here on which you think is better to have and why, but generally, HOW do you choose a mouthpiece? What are we looking for? Do we keep our preconceptions about sound or try something different? Make a decision based entirely on someone else's ears? Just go by feel, remembering that you basically will always sound like yourself?
I appreciate that nobody could make a call on which mouthpiece I should be using because you've never heard me play and it is my decision in the end, but I want to understand more about what most people look for in a mouthpiece.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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