Quote:
Originally Posted by rowuk  Morris,
the comparison doesn't hold up. The difference in inner rim size is only a couple of % from big to small mouthpieces, not factor 5 or 6 like piano strings. The difference in cup depth MAY be 50-60%, but even that is not significant.
Range is governed ONLY by the ability of the lips to vibrate quickly and that has little to do with the mouthpiece... |
I didn't say anything about cup diameter.
I was speaking of cup depth.
Although cup diameter does affect range, cup depth affects the range more.
An octave higher in frequency equates to 1/2 the string length on a string instrument.
Same thing on non-string instruments.
If one brass mouthpiece cup is 50 percent the depth of another cup, then it is half the distance from rim to throat and so it reinforces frequencies that are an octave higher.
That is why people who use extra-deep mouthpieces like the Curry TF or the Yamaha 13E4 find that their range has dropped an octave; the cup is twice as deep and so resonates an octave lower.
Consider this:
Many players who have a range to High F on "regular" mouthpieces says that they lose an octave on their range when they play the extra-deep Curry TF or the extra-deep Yamaha 13E4.
Why?
Did their lips instantly become weak and instantly become incapable of generating those higher frequencies?
Of course not.
Playing a much deeper cup caused a loss of range.
The *opposite* is also true.
It is true, as I already stated, that a person must already have an embouchure that is developed enough to generate the higher frequencies.
But the choice of cup depth will then either reinforce those higher frequencies generated by the lips or fight against those higher frequencies generated by the lips.
As I said, the shallower mouthpiece does not give a person high notes, but it does reinforce the high notes rather than fight against them.
You can play a high note on a bass fiddle by really straining at the long string, but you can play that same high note with relative ease on a violin because its string length already reinforces such high notes without having to be strained.
People who have played a "mountain jug", or played across the top of a soda pop bottle as I described earlier, know from experience that the amount of fluid in the jug / bottle changes the frequency because the fluid level determines the depth of the air-space "cup" inside the jug / bottle.
If the fluid level is low then the air-space "cup" is deep and the resonant frequency is also low; in order to play a high note when the air-space cup is deep, one must then greatly adjust the angle of air flow and greatly increase the air speed in order to "falsetto" the high note.
But adding fluid to the jug / bottle to make the air-space "cup" shallower makes that high note easy without having to resort to "falsetto" measures.
But I'm not going to debate the matter further, because repeating the same things over and over gets us nowhere.
You believe one thing, I believe another.
Only if you were my wife would you be required to agree with me on everything
- Morris