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trickg · 04-28-2005, 01:54 PM

Great post!

In my personal experience, my playing was always at it's best when I was a one horn, one mouthpiece kind of guy, and I have believed for some time that the more you jack your equipment around, your consistency and accuracy take a hit. I believe that the chops muscle will over the span of several weeks, fine tune themselves to the specific setup of one horn, one mouthpiece, and when you change all of that up, they cannot make that fine tuned adjustment - call it finding the correct "feel".

That being said, I am also of the belief that there are times when you need to try to broaden your horizons to find something that allows you to make that fine tuned adjustment with the least amount of adaptation or work from the player. If you are playing a setup that fundamentally is not efficient for one reason of another, then changing some aspects of your equipment setup is a good thing. When you try a new trumpet or mouthpiece, chances are, once the honeymoon is over, you are going to have some problems at first with consistency and accuracy, but the potential for greater ease of playing is better.

I recently purchased a new trumpet AND a new mouthpiece and at the moment I'm still fiddling with some things to find the mouthpiece that I think will offer me the best potential for what I want out of it. But, once I find it, chances are I will play the same basic setup for years to come. I have played the same LB Strad with the same two mouthpieces (lead/legit) for about 7 years with a couple of exceptions: (note: if I thought I could get away with playing rock band on my legit mouthpiece and not work myself to death, I would - it's the ONLY reason I use more than one mouthpiece.)

I have had a mouthpiece made that works very well as an all around piece
I had some structural modifications made to the trumpet which in my opinion made it better for the kind of playing that I do.

As tweaked as my former setup was (and it is pretty good) I think that the new setup is going to offer a much greater potential once I get used to it and settle into the one basic setup that I will use for rock band gigging.

04-28-2005, 01:54 PM	#2 (permalink)
trickg Forte User Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Glen Burnie, Maryland Posts: 2,054	Great post! In my personal experience, my playing was always at it's best when I was a one horn, one mouthpiece kind of guy, and I have believed for some time that the more you jack your equipment around, your consistency and accuracy take a hit. I believe that the chops muscle will over the span of several weeks, fine tune themselves to the specific setup of one horn, one mouthpiece, and when you change all of that up, they cannot make that fine tuned adjustment - call it finding the correct "feel". That being said, I am also of the belief that there are times when you need to try to broaden your horizons to find something that allows you to make that fine tuned adjustment with the least amount of adaptation or work from the player. If you are playing a setup that fundamentally is not efficient for one reason of another, then changing some aspects of your equipment setup is a good thing. When you try a new trumpet or mouthpiece, chances are, once the honeymoon is over, you are going to have some problems at first with consistency and accuracy, but the potential for greater ease of playing is better. I recently purchased a new trumpet AND a new mouthpiece and at the moment I'm still fiddling with some things to find the mouthpiece that I think will offer me the best potential for what I want out of it. But, once I find it, chances are I will play the same basic setup for years to come. I have played the same LB Strad with the same two mouthpieces (lead/legit) for about 7 years with a couple of exceptions: (note: if I thought I could get away with playing rock band on my legit mouthpiece and not work myself to death, I would - it's the ONLY reason I use more than one mouthpiece.) I have had a mouthpiece made that works very well as an all around piece I had some structural modifications made to the trumpet which in my opinion made it better for the kind of playing that I do. As tweaked as my former setup was (and it is pretty good) I think that the new setup is going to offer a much greater potential once I get used to it and settle into the one basic setup that I will use for rock band gigging. __________________ Patrick Gleason email me at: trickg1@hotmail.com "What we do in life echoes in eternity" "At my signal, unleash hell." - Maximus Decimus Meridius