How to choose a trumpet mouthpiece: it should feel better straight away

A new mouthpiece is the right one if it does the job you want it for and feels better than the one you walked in with, and if it doesn't, it is not going to get better later.

Start with the job

The first thing to think about when you are buying a mouthpiece is the purpose. Does this serve what I walked in here to find? It is a tool for a job.

Does it sound bad in the middle register, but you can play a massive double high C on it? That might be a good mouthpiece for you, for certain situations.

People ask me which mouthpiece is the most efficient. More efficient at what? I am going to have an easier time playing classical music on a bigger mouthpiece, because it is built for that sound. I don't think there is a scale of one to ten.

I always say it is the one that gets out of your way. You have to decide how you want to sound first. Without that sound in your mind, it doesn't matter what you are playing.

It should feel better straight away

This is a hill I will die on. If a mouthpiece doesn't feel better than what you walked into the shop with, it is not the right mouthpiece. I am not really one for warming into a mouthpiece.

If you sound worse on it, or it doesn't serve the purpose, it is not the right buy. In my opinion it is not going to get better.

I would hope to see the benefits within the first three minutes of playing it. It takes about three to five minutes for the body to adjust to something new, if you let it. You should know pretty quickly whether it is better or worse.

The one exception

There is one exception. If you have always played a big mouthpiece, something from a 7C to a 1C, and you want to try a commercial lead mouthpiece, it is not going to be love at first sight. You have to learn to play that style of mouthpiece.

I really think there are only two styles: big and small. If you are used to a big one, a small one is not going to be easy. Going from small to big is probably easier, because the small mouthpiece is the harder one to play.

Buzzing higher on it proves nothing

A player asked me whether it was worth switching to a mouthpiece because they could buzz higher on it. I don't think that is a good enough indicator. It might be better for buzzing higher on. It might even be worth a try. But I would never tell someone to buzz two mouthpieces and work on the one they buzz higher on.

I can't usually play anything on a mouthpiece alone. That is okay, because I am not a mouthpiece player. I am a trumpet player. Put it in the horn and see what happens in the first few minutes.

My own mouthpieces

I have been very mouthpiece stable my whole life. Not horn stable, which is the more expensive way round.

I started on a Bach 1¼C when I was about seven, which is way too big for a seven-year-old. I played that until I was about fifteen. Then I moved to a very small mouthpiece with no markings on it, which I still have in a drawer. Then a Marcinkiewicz Bobby Shew 1.25, which was a huge leap in my ability. I moved to the 1.5 because someone told me to, and it wasn't as good for me. In 2012 I went to Wayne Bergeron's mouthpiece and played it for seven years. Since 2019 I have played my own model.

I have never gone backwards with mouthpieces. I want as few doubts as possible.

Play as many as you can, use very few

My biggest piece of advice is to play as many mouthpieces as you can. Every one gives you a new problem to solve and a new piece of data for your body. You start to understand what your chops need and what different things do to them.

Play as many as you can. Don't use as many as you can. Use one, two or three.

If you are nervous about a change, the best time to try it is the day before a rehearsal. Go into the rehearsal with the other one and see what happens. The worst case is that you get the old one back out and carry on where you left off.

It is all curiosity at the end of the day. I am very interested in equipment, but I try not to get lost in the small optimisations. They are a distraction from the work all of us need to do, including me.

One thing to try this week

Before you try a mouthpiece, decide what job you want it to do. Then play it against your current one for three to five minutes. If it is not clearly better for that job, put it back.

More trumpet advice

• Learning music by ear on the trumpet: sing it before you play it
• The truth about high notes on the trumpet: it is not your physiology
• Practise high notes in short sprints, on fresh chops