Mouthpieces

Table of Contents

Getting the Right Mouthpiece

Especially for trumpet (and cornet, and flugelhorn, and…) the mouthpiece has a tremendous impact on nearly every aspect of playing, including:

  • comfort
  • tone quality
  • range
  • endurance
  • flexibility
  • dynamic range
  • intonation
  • player feedback (what the player perceives of his/her own sound)

Attributes of the Mouthpiece

  1. Cup (inner rim) diameter
  2. Rim width
  3. Rim contour (e.g. flat vs. rounded
  4. Rim inner edge (softer vs sharper)
  5. Cup (deep vs. shallow)
  6. Throat (diameter, length)
  7. Backbore (width, contour)
  8. Shaft (trumpet vs cornet, etc.)

The dimensions and shaping of each of these parts, the way these variations interact as a “mouthpiece system”, and the way the mouthpiece interacts with a particular trumpet (the “trumpet system design”), can have a tremendous impact on how the mouthpiece works for a particular player. As with every attribute of the trumpet, there are tradeoffs. For example:

  • A wider, flatter rim may be more comfortable, but it will impact lip flexibility
  • A larger diameter and/or deeper cup will enable a bigger, louder, darker sound, but will impact range and endurance

There is an excellent description of the parts of the mouthpiece and analysis of the effects on playing of varying its various parameters at this website. 

In the meantime, be aware:

  1. What works for your friends or teacher will not necessarily work for you
  2. It takes a few weeks of playing a variety of music to really know if a mouthpiece that feels right at first will work for you. 
  3. The “Right Mouthpiece” will change as as a young player grows, as a player gets stronger, or as their musical demands change
  4. The Right Mouthpiece usually depends on the kind of music you play (e.g. band, orchestra, jazz, solo literature). If you play a lot of different styles of music, you are likely to want several “Right Mouthpieces”!
  5. Different mouthpieces will work better or worse with different instruments, depending on the attributes of the instrument. In other words, a mouthpiece be great for your cornet but not your trumpet, or your Bb but not your C trumpet, or your current Bb but not a Bb from a different manufacturer.
  6. A mouthpiece may feel great but sound bad. Or it may sound great to you, but not so much in front of the bell. It helps to bring a friend or your teacher with you when trying out mouthpieces (as with trying out trumpets)