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Re: Open vs. Closed Mouthpieces

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2019-11-14 22:32

The Vandoren centeredness DOES make it easy to find your ideal facing because they are well made and offer a wide range to choose from.

The OTHER factor that you have not mentioned is the length of facing. The B40 is a relatively short facing (compared to the openness) and as a small tip opening person myself, it is one of the more open mouthpieces that actually worked ok for me (if I had gone down a few strengths on reeds).

You should try the M13 (NOT the one with Lyre after it). This is medium closed and a facing length that is sort of in the middle as well.......a really good basic mouthpiece.

For me, open mouthpieces give you the advantage of changing pitch and tone to a much greater degree while on the fly. This, of course, is the downfall of open mouthpieces too, because you have to work that much harder to keep the core of pitch and tone as you go through whatever you are playing.

So I'd say many symphonic players of the past tended toward the medium to closed openings because they have "built in" constancy.

Your problem with the M15 is that you are probably NOT taking in enough mouthpiece. If you play an open "G" and keep playing while you take in more and more mouthpiece eventually you'll get to a spot where you cannot control the sound and you get a big SQUAWK. Just back off slightly from there and that is the ideal spot to play that mouthpiece. You'll find (with the appropriate strength reed) that the mouthpiece will play quite freely now.

...............Paul Aviles

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Open vs. Closed Mouthpieces new

BaconLord

2019-11-13 20:46