sean007r

It appears that I am going to get to help the music director again this year at band camp.

The first thing that bugs me is he believes that all the kids should be playing on a 3C

This would be ok if he had some good players, but not a one of them has a good tone and only one can play a C above the staff, not well, but he can hit it and hold it most of the time, but tends to be sharp above the staff.

I am not a professional trumpet player or teacher but I'd like to make a little difference this summer at band camp and I believe that while the MP is not the cure all fix for this sections problem, we must start at what I consider the easiest fix first!

What do you think?

Cheers

Pedal C

If a student has a bad sound and bad range, the mouthpiece is probably not the biggest problem.

The best thing you can do with limited time (in my opinion) is to work on breathing and posture. There's been a lot of threads about breathing recently...you can probably search for "breath," "breathing," "full," or "relaxed" and get several descriptions of great breathing. A short version would be to breath in time with the syllable "OH" and release the air back into the horn with no hesitation or restriction. Lots of HS players have lousey breathing habits and this is probably the one thing that would help the most in a short period of time. A few minutes spent on breathing at the beginning of a sectional or rehearsal will do wonders!

As for posture, marching band usually makes us compromise ideal posture a little, but keeping the knees unlocked, hips over ankles (not sliding forward) and spine extended up are all possible at marching band attention. It's best to keep the chin slightly tucked, and not forward or raised, but keeping the horn level makes most people raise the chin. Keep the shoulders down and relaxed.

I apologize if you've heard all this before. It sounds like those kids could benefit from letting go of some tension and taking a relaxed full breath. I wouldn't mess with the mouthpiece unless they were playing on something really extreme (big or small). A 3C probably isn't holding them back and changing won't fix bad habits!

Good Luck!

Jason.

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RG111

Does this teacher suggest that all the players wear the same size shoe? When I read about BDs like that it runs my blood pressure up!
I have a former student attending a major university where the marching band trumpets were all required to play 3cs. I wonder where this jerk ever played trumpet himself.
Time for my BP pills!
Roy Griffin

commakozzi

Uh yeah, ditto. That's really annoying. Everyone's mouth and lips are different, and there's no one-size-fits-all mouthpiece. The band director should take the time WAY before marching season to have his students really experiment with different pieces and find which one feels the best for them. It takes a little knowledge too, I mean the band director should know that just because a Schilke 13A4A feels good to some kid trying to blast above high Cs doesn't really fit the criteria. Requiring all trumpet students to play on the same equipment just shows ignorance, and he/she probably learned that from a drum corps or someone of the same mentality. Sad. Anyway, the only thing you can do with them over a marching band camp is just to get them to breath and blow properly. Get them to relax when they play and that should develop a reasonably good improvement in their tone quality. Of course, they must learn good posture too. Marching band and drum corps are both fun, but a lot of bad habits and beliefs are born there, i.e. the one-size-fits-all mouthpiece BS.

tatakata

I think the guy is an ass (sorry screamingmorris). that being said 3C is a very good all around mouthpiece

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camelbrass

I think Pedal C has it.

I can see that one size doen't fit all and I can understand that rationale. However, at the sort of intermediate level that these high school players are at then for the sake of getting some consistency in their playing and avoiding the 'a new mouthpiece will fix this problem' syndrome I can see the directors point and a 3C is a great average. The lack of good sound and stability is unlikely to come from the fact that any player is playing a particular mouthpiece. More likely that its something more fundamental than that.

It's just a different take on it.

Regards,


Trevor

Eeviac

Don't lock your knees when you stand at attention, aren't they teaching anything in HS these days?

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King American Standard cornet made in 1940 + Olds 3C
Striving for a Touchy Tone, rather than obnoquious

jonalan

I'm with camelbrass on this one. There is nothing wrong with a 3c, especially since these kids are not advanced players and obviously need to work on fundamentals, and not be concerned with mouthpieces.

Once they move to the next level and are serious about playing, then they "might" start thinking about hardware (i.e., horns, mouthpieces, etc.).

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uatrmpt

I'll second what camel and jonalan says. As a trumpet playing band director, I've been down the mouthpiece safari road in my own playing and, frankly, I'd have been better off if I would have stayed on the 3C from my high school days. The mouthpiece and trumpet are just amplifiers of what's going on with the chops. If the kids are having tone/range/endurance problems, check the chops and not the mouthpiece.

Yes, it would be great to fit each kid to a mouthpiece; but, that really is "pie in the sky" thinking. There's simply not the time for it, nor the need. If a 7C isn't working, try a 5C or 3C depending on your preference. There is rarely a need to go larger. IMO, the only reason a change should be made that early in a student's development is if the lips are not free to move inside the mouthpiece. It's funny, I changed one beginner from a 7C to a 3C and then all the others wanted to change, when they didn't need to. Until the kid is putting in multiple hours of practice, and not ensemble playing, a day, a 3C will be fine.

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uatrmpt

*Double Post*

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