Picking a Mouthpiece
Unlike many trumpet players, I absolutely hate trying many different mouthpieces. I attempted to do this a bit when I first entered high school, but ever since then, I’ve abhorred the process. I’m writing this assuming that whoever is reading shares my sentiment in any way, shape, or form. This is advice that is largely geared toward beginner and intermediate-level players, so if you’re a professional, you probably won’t get much reading this.
The Harsh Truth
I’ve held the belief that in order to get to “know” a mouthpiece, you have to play on it for months on end in many different situations. To put it simply, you’re going to have to buy any mouthpiece that you want to try (unless someone is willing to loan you one for a long time), and depending on what you want to play on, that can become an expensive process very quickly. What I recommend people do is to buy cheaper versions of a mouthpiece that they would like to try, then when they find one that works (after trying it for several months), buy the “official” version of said mouthpiece.
If you still haven’t tried all of the standard size mouthpieces for your instrument, I would recommend you do that first before trying anything that can be considered a “specialty” mouthpiece. Here are a few companies that I would recommend buying mouthpieces from before you buy from a more traditional company (such as Bach).
Kelly - This is the brand I’ve used the most, especially for low brass. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have anywhere near as many options as they did in the past, but they sell these mouthpieces for fairly cheap. https://www.kellymouthpieces.com/
Faxx - I’ve tried a few of there mouthpieces, and they seem quite good. https://www.hornstash.com/faxx-trumpet-mouthpieces.html
Dillon Music - I’ve never tried these mouthpieces, but I love many of the instruments that have their name on them. They don’t seem to have many options for sizes, though. https://www.dillonmusic.com/search?q=dillon+mouthpieces&options%5Bprefix%5D=last
Blessing - I have not regularly played these mouthpieces, but I’ve heard great things about them. https://www.hornstash.com/blessing-trombone-mouthpieces.html
Guidelines for Picking a New Mouthpiece
When picking a new mouthpiece, you should stick with anything standard that you haven’t tried so far. If there are still standard sizes that you have yet to experiment with, buy those before you start looking at the more niche mouthpieces. I’m going to put a list of what I believe to be standard mouthpieces for each brass instrument; keep in mind that I’m a lifelong trumpet player, so my knowledge of other brass instruments is much more limited than my trumpet knowledge. I will be talking about Bach sizes unless otherwise indicated. If there are any standard sizes that you think I’m missing, feel free to let me know.
Trumpet - 12C, 7C, 5C, 3C, 1 1/2C, 1C
French Horn - I have no idea. Just from a cursory search, there doesn’t seem to be unified thought. If any French Horn players are reading and have some thoughts, I’d love to hear them.
Tenor Trombone - 6 1/2AL, 5G, 4G, 3G
Bass Trombone - 2G, 1 1/2G, 1G
Euphonium - Same as Tenor Trombone
Tuba - 18, 24AW, Conn Hellegberg 120S
Something else that I like to emphasize is that you should keep at least 1 or 2 mouthpieces that you don’t like to play on. It’s important to know what you like, but part of figuring that out is being aware of what you hate. You might really like how a mouthpiece sounds, but hate the way it feels. You might like how you sound on another mouthpiece, but you might be fairly out of tune on it. Having multiple mouthpieces that you feel incredibly different about is useful information to have and will help you in eventually acquiring the optimal mouthpiece(s) to suite your playing.
If you want more info, here’s a link to an article written by a friend of mine that I would consider quite knowledgeable on the topic: https://tsargentmusic.com/2022/09/09/how-to-select-a-mouthpiece/
