Mouthpiece Importance

[pete]

I've asked the essentially same question in the sax area, but let's be more specific, here :).

How important is the mouthpiece to you? In my case, I find it easily more important than even horn choice: I have a decent 1981 wooden Selmer Signet 100 (http://www.baldwincountyinstrumentexchange.com/assets/images/Selmer_Signet_100_Bb_Wood_Clarinet_2.JPG) (an intermediate horn) and I sound really good on it with my 20+ year old Selmer C85/120 (http://www.wwbw.com/Selmer-Paris-C85-Series-Bb--Clarinet-Mouthpiece-i15645.music) hard rubber mouthpiece.

But it wasn't always so.

I used to hate playing clarinet because I had a real POS Bundy mouthpiece and a slightly newer Signet clarinet. It was so resistant, I gave up playing for a couple years.

I didn't know you could change the mouthpiece.

When I started up again, the clarinet I got happened to have a Vandoren B40 mouthpiece (http://www.davidfrenchmusic.com/accessories/Vandoren_B40_Clarinet_Mouthpiece.htm) and I fell in love with playing again.

The current mouthpiece I have is even less resistant, IMO, and it sounds really good on any horn I've thrown at it -- and most of them have been student horns (although I've tried it on a Selmer 10 and a Buffet R13). So it's not necessarily the horn, as long as the horn is in decent shape.

[SteveSklar]

Good topic.

I think the mpc selection has a tremendous impact on the tonal quality. Try putting a wood barrel on a plastic clarinet - that affects it tremendously too.

But then, if you are after a certain tonal quality, say an R-13 "ring" then the instrument itself plays just as an important roll. Of course this is all debateable - there's a writeup by Moennig or Chadash about the design of the R13 and how that particular design - a 3 tier reamed bore - provides that certain tonal ring. It's all pretty interesting

[pete]

We can certainly do this same topic for barrels, too :). Un momento.

[robertsax]

It seems to me if you have a sub-standard horn (read cheap?), it doesn't matter how great the mpc is, it's still going to sound like a cheap horn. OTOH, if you have a great horn, a mpc that doesn't work for you could render whatever makes that horn great meaningless. But, get a setup that works for you and the great horn will live up to its expectations (assuming you know how to play). Not so with the inferior horn, IMHO.

[SteveSklar]

an el cheapo horn will sound better with a nice mpc than with an el cheapo mpc. Of course the percentage of impact varies of the entire equation. Player + embouchure + oral cavity + mouthpiece + reed + ligature + barrel + instrument + psychological (in)stability = tonal quality :mrgreen:

[Tammi]

A really nice mouthpiece can make a POS clarinet sound better, but put that same really nice piece on a really good clarinet......

It makes your old teacher very proud.

[Connical]

I agree with Pete. Especially when talking clarinets. I think clarinets are even more sensitive to bad mpc's then saxes. I know I can get by with a marginal mpc on a sax, but it really holds me back on a clarinet. I've always been able to modify my tone with more flexibility on a sax than on a clarinet. Less forgiving and harder to manipulate on a clarinet. Or maybe that's due to less time being spent on clarinet.

[PrincessJ]

I know for a fact that a bad mouthpiece can make a good horn sound awful, but a bad player can make a good mouthpiece and horn sound equally as terrible. Teehee.
But really, no matter how bad the horn, there is going to be some mouthpiece that at least makes the thing fit for marching or a middle school band enthusiast's first instrument. (Although, some of them out there seem pretty helpless *shudder*)
Get a decent horn, and try out mouthpieces. A bad MP can make a good horn seem like a bad deal. Try as many as you can, I do, I have a certain mouthpiece I hand selected for each horn and each event (jazz, classical, etc). I'm a picky little person.

[pete]

IMO, if you're a beginner, you should be using the mouthpiece your instructor wants you to have -- assuming, of course, that the instructor you have plays, as his main instrument, the instrument you're taking lessons on.

Now, if you're intermediate to advanced, I'd certainly say that you can go out and start picking out some kit that you like. As long as you keep in mind that a new mouthpiece isn't going to make you sound like Benny Goodman. It'll just help you sound more like you.