likefoxes

I bought a pretty battered trumpet off ebay the other day because i have decided to teach myself how to play. What mouthpiece would be better (and more forgiving) for a complete beginner. I read somewhere that 'C' mouthpieces are best, but i don't really know what that means. The mouthpiece the trumpet came with has A8 written on it. Any advice on mouthpieces for a complete beginner? thanks

screamingmorris

Although many beginning trumpet students of many years ago traditionally started on Bach 7C mouthpieces, many of us consider that a lousy mouthpiece because it is actually deeper than most "C" cups and it has a sharp "bite" on the inside edge of the rim.
You might try a Bach 3C which is available almost everyplace.
It is slightly larger diameter than a Bach 7C and is slightly shallower than a Bach 7C, making it a good all-round mouthpiece to try.
(I discovered that our local music store keeps lots of Bach 3C's on hand but usually doesn't carry Bach 7C's anymore, so things have changed in the 35 years since I was a teenager.)

Every trumpet player eventually learns what cup diameter and cup depth works best for him in terms of tone and range and flexibility and endurance.
But you will need to start with a common mouthpiece like Bach 3C for the first year or two just to "get your feet wet" in developing your initial "embouchure" (pronounced "OM-boo-sure", meaning the muscle formation around the lips for playing a brass instrument).
Then you can change to a larger or smaller, shallower or deeper mouthpiece if you need to.

A deeper cup gives a mellower or darker tone.
A shallower cup gives a more brilliant tone.

Smaller diameter cups and shallower cups help with endurance in playing high notes.
Larger cup diameter and deeper cups give a richer tone for playing ballads.

In the Bach mouthpiece system a "1" is biggest diameter and "10" etc are smaller diameter.
"A" cups are deep while "E" cups are shallow, with "C" cups falling between.

In the Schilke mouthpiece system everything is the opposite.
A "5" is a very small diameter while a "24" is a very large diameter.
An "A" cup is very shallow while "E" cups are very deep, with a "C" cup falling between.

- Morris

likefoxes

thanks, thats basically everything i needed to know

jazz9

I didn't know 7C's were considered bad mp's. I guess I'll have to find something else to play on.

bagmangood

7C are definitely not bad mouthpieces
There are good starter mouthpieces and some (like art farmer) never move away. Its all about what the player wants

commakozzi

I left the 7C in the 9th grade in high school and went to a 3C. After years of trying different mouthpieces other than the 3C I am back to my tried and true! I wouldn't have considered the 7C a bad mouthpiece either, and I think there are even several pros that still use it. I'm 32 years old and I love my 3C still, and don't think I need anything else. However, I do think that I may experiment more later as I am kind of going through an embouchure change (or more correctly and mpc placement change).

screamingmorris

I didn't say that Bach 7C's are inherently bad mouthpieces.
I said that "many of us" consider them to be bad mouthpieces for us because they do not work well for us with the wrong cup depth and wrong bite.
Other people do quite well with them.
There was a long thread in Trumpet Herald a while back in which several people talked about how much they don't like the Bach 7C and how it is strange to pick that particular mouthpiece for *all* beginners.
So the Bach 7C is not the universally good mouthpiece for all beginners that tradition used to dictate.
Nor is it an inherently bad mouthpiece.
Beginners should be given some choice of mouthpieces rather than all told "Use this for the first 5 years and then we'll let you decide if you want to try a different one."
It makes no sense to tell a student that the Bach 7C has a "medium" cup depth when in reality it is the deepest "C" cup in the Bach line.

And, as I pointed out, our local music store no longer keeps new Bach 7C's in stock because most students are now using Bach 3C's instead.
If the original poster's local store is the same way, it would make no sense for me to recommend a Bach 7C that he would have to special order when several nice Bach 3C's are available on the shelf.

By the way, I routinely use a Bach 7 and a Bach 7E, both of which work much better for me than a Bach 7C ever did.
I'm still not crazy about the rim and bite, but I've learned to live with it.

- Morris

hagertheherald

My original mpce was a 7C. For range, my teacher put me on a JetTone 1A over 30 years ago.

After intonation problems, especially in lower regester, I tried a Schilke 14A4A. Intonation improved, but recorded sharp for me in higher regester.

Back to the 7C over 20 years ago, & have recorded in tune ever since. Hear lots about the 3C on this site, may try that one day, but I like to take one mpc & make it work.

Hardware changes in my experience are not something to do lightly. Frequent mpc changes are, in my experience, the one thing that can screw up an embouchre more than most anything else.

Best advice given to me on this site is to get a good teacher that can give you personalized instruction and advice. To that, I would add the teacher you pick should have some experience in recording work, so you can hear them on record to know they can back up what they are teaching in a style you both respect and admire.--HH

Bloomin Untidy Musician

C is too small for me. I am more of a DD man due to the size of my lips; nudge, nudge, wink,wink, say no more!

greenpeppers

I am a beginning trumpet player too and the mouthpiece I am currently using is a 7C and it says "Olds" on it. It does not have the compact look of most mouthpieces I see but rather is a little elongated. My teacher says it's fine but I'm just wondering if I should be using a traditional shaped mouthpiece. Would it make a difference? I've been making good progress (for a sax player) but I feel like I'm hitting a plateau. It's probably just the one of the normal peaks and valleys you hit as you learn to play an instrument, but the mouthpiece shape has always concerned me. Do you think I should change?