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In the most recent issue of The Horn Call (May, 2008) there is an interesting article by Frøydis Ree Wekre on horn playing and aging. I recommend the article, but one topic not addressed was that of the mouthpiece and aging. It was a topic I was thinking about a lot back when I made the following post to the original version of my blog on 9/17/06.
We had a horn day event at ASU yesterday (which went well!) with guest artist David Wakefield of the American Brass Quintet. Many great topics were covered but one in particular that I believe is rarely talked about was the mouthpiece lips interface and the aging process. This is a topic we spoke of outside of his main sessions. I have heard this elsewhere and he confirmed as we get older there is a point where we need a little more space inside the mouthpiece for the lips to work well. He shared his experience with this over the past few years. I have made small changes over the years and feel I am right at the point I need to move on to another rim that gives a even more space for the lips to vibrate. I will probably wait until my recital is over Oct. 8, but I feel clear that I am to the point a change is in order.
After the recital mentioned in the post I did make some changes. In short I had been playing an inner diameter smaller than 17.5 MM for years, but now play an 18 MM inner diameter Laskey 80J. Things just work better!
Two footnotes/tips. One is that you should as much as possible always use the same inner diameter, horn players are very sensitive to changes of this dimension, when you make a change stick with it. The other footnote/tip would be that as you try mouthpieces you should be able to find one that is equally good in the high and low ranges.
UPDATE: I would add I ended up going back to my “regular” inner diameter, but still like the feel/sound of a slightly bigger diameter. The other thing I would mention, for what it is worth, a well-known, now deceased, player told me his lips began to feel “leathery” at the point he really got up in years. I hope I don’t have that happen! I wonder though if he may have developed a metal sensitivity? That feeling is a possible symptom. More on that topic here.
