MOUTHPIECE LESSONS

I have a number of mouthpiece lessons for sale through my online store.These include embouchure lessons for the beginner and intermediate to advanced lessons based on the famous Shooshie and Joe Allard exercises. As with all of my lessons I explain the relevant technique in as simple a way as possible.

I think I have made more progress in this area of my playing in the last 3-6 months then I ever did 25 years ago. I have had lessons with reknown embouchure gurus and read all of the articles on this advanced technique and could never really understand all of the discussion around throat and tongue position, phonetics, vowels et al while simultaneously trying to blow air. I really didn't get any results at all trying to follow these explanations that may well puzzle a speech therapist. If this sounds like you and you have been struggling to get a grip on this technique than this lesson may be for you.

You will notice on my site I very rarely talk about reeds, ligatures and mouthpieces. If reed preparation and selection interests you there is a great article on the web by Joe Allard or one of his former students from memory which goes into great detail preparing reeds for playing. It may even be in the Joe Allard youtube clip?? There is also a David Sanborn youtube clip where Dave goes into great detail discussing his reed preparation and maintenance.

Personally, and its only my view, I've never seen the point (ignorance could be bliss). I find all reeds straight out of a box seem to work just fine. I might give it a few scrapes with a piece of sandpaper if it feels a bit hard but that's about it for me. I leave the reed on the mouthpiece all of the time and only take it off if it looks a bit warbled. Before I play I blow a few puffs of warm air through the mouthpiece to prepare for the session.

As for ligatures I have tried a few and could never really hear a discernible difference in the sound. I like the otto link mouthpiece and ligature because it makes it easy to get the reed set in the right place.

I think in our quest to be a better player or produce a better sound we can get caught up in things that probably don't make a lot of difference to our playing or sound. I have friends who are always buying or tinkering with their mouthpieces and initially there's a difference in their tone but after a week or so they seem to sound just like they did before buying the new piece or tinkering with their old one.

If there is one 'secret' so to speak to becoming an excellent musician I believe it lies in the development and achievement of exceptional aural skills.

Anyway, these are just my own personal views and some may agree or disagree.

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