[Trombone-l] Mouthpiece advice

[Wayne Dyess]

On Dec 2, 2007, at 5:26 PM, Ray Horton wrote:

> Among the two or three dozen high school students I've had over the  
> last decade or so, I had three that the 6 1/2 AL was too large  
> for.  All three were small of build, two were female, and all three  
> seemed to have serious jaw or tension-related problems that I could  
> never fully solve (one, who was principally a violinist playing  
> trombone for fun, later had surgery in college).
>
> I just mention this to point out that:  yes, the 6 1/2 is a great  
> all-around mouthpiece, but, there are kids out there for whom it  
> might not work.   I had another, (again, a very small guy, but no  
> real problems except that the 6 1/2 was too big,) for whom I  
> delayed moving from a 7C to a 61/2 until 11th grade (used an  
> adapter on his 42B for a year or so) and had good results with that.
>
> I have some young kids (6th, 7th graders) come to me with a 12C and  
> I do try to get them off of that as soon as I can, but I often use  
> the 7C in between.  Any disagreement with that?
>
>
> RBH


None whatsoever, Ray.  There is no magic formula for every student.   
That is why most of us would agree that it is a good idea for  
students to take privately.  When I got to college, George West took  
me off the Remington and tried to get me onto a Bach 7 (not the C, I  
don't think)... but I gravitated back to the Remington because the 7  
wasn't working for me.  I didn't like my tone, and my endurance  
suffered.  The rim of the 5G is very similar, at least it is to me,  
to the Remington.  It has a somewhat larger cup, and that helped me  
with my low range more so than tone -- though that was a nice by- 
product FOR ME.

Yep -- I'm right there with ya.  I, too, have had smaller students  
for which the 6-1/2 AL was not a good fit.  I still advocate that it  
is a good starting point when a student is making that first  
instrument purchase.  Then, with the help of a private lessons  
teacher or their band director, the student should make any necessary  
change as soon as possible to something that works for them if their  
first try isn't yielding results.

Same page?

--Wayne



Dr. J. Wayne Dyess
Professor of Trombone
and Director of Jazz Studies
P. O. Box 10044
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