connloyalist

Yes, great replies! Very instructive, especially the "resistance" vs "impedance" explanation.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that you really don't need to blow air "through" a trumpet (or any other cup mouthpiece instrument), we just use air flow because without it we can't vibrate our lips. In that same place I seem to have read that the sound waves reflect off the (open?) bell back to your lips and this is experienced as resistance, with only single digits percentage wise coming out as audible sound. Without that reflection/resistance, you can't play because you couldn't maintain a vibration. Meaning the resistance isn't the bore, it is the reflection of the sound waves.

Am I remembering this correctly or getting mixed up?

It seems to me to make some sense, because the narrowest part is the throat of the mouthpiece. Wouldn't the implication then also be, that for example misaligned valves cause resistance not so much by narrowing the bore, but by causing additional reflection of the sound waves. If true, then anything that increases the reflection of the sound waves, adds resistance (tight bends over easy ones, for instance?).

Regards, Christine

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Main instrument: 1948 22B New York Symphony
Member of the Elkhart-Conn 22B Fan Club