In last Wednesday’s article I presented a few tips on balancing horn practice with a full-time job. For myself, keeping my chops in good shape is tantamount to staying employed in the music field. My current positions demand professional playing standards.

One advantage however, of no longer having a full-time music position, is that some freedom is allowed to self-experiment. As long as I get my chops together for the gigs, the consequences for any new experiment gone awry are fairly low.

That being said, I have devised my own methods for getting enough practice time in every day. It has mostly been through trial-and-error and what follows is a rough overview of the outcome. The purpose here is not to propose a specific method so much as to demonstrate that it is possible to work a full-time job and still find the time to sound good and practice in the off-hours.

Anatomy of a secondary practice space

A permanent mainstay in my daily routine has been practicing in the car (outside of the home studio) while on break at work and while commuting. Necessity being the mother of invention, I have been doing this for many years.

There is a lighted mirror on the underside of the sun visor. It gets a lot of use, as I watch for nothing in particular and everything under the sun.

The French horn stays at home (or in the trunk) in my mobile studio – the focus here is on breathing and buzzing only.

Most of the items pictured above (and their uses) have been described previously, but here they are once again for reference:

• mouthpiece
• B.E.R.P.
• P.E.T.E.
• iPhone
• embouchure visualizer
• stopping mute
• old electronic tuner
• PowerLung

Lemons from lemonade

My daily work schedule includes commuting by car, a lunch break and four 15-minute breaks. The total amount of time adds up to over two hours and at some point, I decided to exploit this time specifically for practicing horn-related techniques.

The exact format and content of each session is somewhat improvisational, kept within the general confines of simple tunes, long tones, scales and arpeggios.

1. 30-minute commute to work
   Lip buzzing, mostly long tones, slow scales and glissandi in limited ranges
2. 15-minute breaks (2)
   Switch to the PowerLung, then slow scales and glissandi on the embouchure visualizer
3. 30 minute lunch break
   More mouthpiece visualizer and PowerLung, eventually switching to the mouthpiece/B.E.R.P. combo
4. 15-minute breaks (2)
   These are more intense sessions covering as much contrast as possible – high and low, soft and loud – while incorporating songs and tunes
5. 30-minute commute to home
   This is an optional session as I generally like to have both hands on the steering wheel. If I use this time, the P.E.T.E. or mouthpiece/stopping mute combo is done.

So on a daily average I get about 90 minutes of time “away from the horn.” I think of this time as akin to an athlete working out at the gym, and coming home to play the horn as akin to an athlete running an event.

An argument could be made that this routine is a poor substitute for real time on the physical instrument, or that it might in fact be harmful in some way. I would have no real response to that sentiment other than “don’t knock it if you ain’t tried it.”

Given my own circumstances it has worked out very well, and if you are in a similar circumstance I would urge you to give this a try and play around with the concept.

These days I come home from work energized and motivated to play the horn in the off-hours and interestingly, feel as though I have never played better in my life.

The first topic of the semester is choosing the mouthpiece and horn. There are a number of readings this week, but several of them are short. First up is this series of articles from the Hornmasters series:

• Farkas on Mouthpieces
• Schuller on Mouthpieces
• Yancich on Mouthpieces
• Berv on Mouthpieces
• Cousins on Mouthpieces
• Farkas on Horns
• Schuller on Horns
• Berv on Horns
• Merewether on Horns
• Tuckwell and Bushhouse on Horns

If you start at the first of those articles, week to week there will always be links from article to article in the reading.

Also read from Horn Articles Online the following article to review several of the topics covered in the readings above,

• Recommended Horns and Mouthpieces

and also review briefly the topic of “Geyer or Kruspe” here:

• Geyer or Kruspe?

The image at right is from another article by Bruce Hembd on choosing a French horn mouthpiece that is also highly worthy of review, along with any link of interest there. Equipment is a big topic and one that could be examined at great length as there are so many variables and thousandths of an inch really do matter. Some questions to consider in relation to the readings include:

• What were the typical setups used in the USA in the 1950s?
• What are typical setups today in the USA? Worldwide?
• What would be a good setup for an average student or amateur today?
• Are people who advocate for the single F horn for beginners stuck in the 1950s?
• What are the advantages of a thick rim? A thin rim? A gold rim?
• Which of the numbers and letters of mouthpiece models are arbitrary, and which actually relate to physical dimensions?

Consider elements such as cup depth, bore, inner diameter, and horn size and type in your answers when appropriate. We will discuss more in class (if you are following along online please feel free to comment here as well) and there will be more related to equipment to study and talk out next week when we get to descant and triple horns and more!

So what mouthpiece and horn do I usually play? Info below:

• Mouthpiece
• Horn

This is week 1 of a fourteen week course in horn pedagogy. The introductory article is here, and the series is presented for the educational purposes of our readers. In the spring the present series will be followed by a fourteen week course in horn repertoire.

To tease the conclusion first, I was very pleasantly surprised by the plastic (Lexan) Kelly MC horn mouthpiece.

Why a plastic mouthpiece?

This past fall I was riding in the car with my new tuba colleague Deanna Swoboda and noted that she had a Kelly tuba mouthpiece in her car. She kept it there for buzzing on. That gave me an idea, at the least their horn mouthpiece might be a good one to have around for buzzing.

So I began looking and noted they did show up on eBay at a very modest price. Finally I took the plunge and bought an example in clear Lexan. They come in a variety of colors, but clear appealed to me for the see-through aspect, to be able to see the cup and backbore shape.

First impressions

The marketing for these is geared toward use in marching band or by young students. The mouthpiece itself has a very smooth finish. It is generally similar in dimensions to a classic Schilke FARKAS MODEL mouthpiece (the basis for the Holton MC), but actually a bit longer, in the same way that a Lawson mouthpiece is similar but longer overall than a standard mouthpiece. The mouthpiece on the left is my FARKAS MODEL and on the right a Lawson. The bore of the Kelly is #14, appropriate for a MC cup. (#14? If you are unsure what that means, read this article, recently updated).

So how does it play? I was very pleasantly surprised, it actually plays rather well, better than probably most of the mouthpieces in the under $40 price range. The sound is a little brighter than my normal mouthpiece (Osmun, described here) but only by a degree, and really it is a pleasant sound that you can get used to, not harsh.

It buzzes very freely when held in the hand. Which is hard to explain but I think has something to do with the design and the light weight of the mouthpiece. Oh, and it is a lot of fun to use. This is also hard to explain but it is like a new toy and one that actually works on the horn rather well. Well enough that you might even be tempted to switch to one full time. This is a perfect stocking stuffer for yourself or the horn player in your life.

Where can a hornist make use of a plastic mouthpiece?

Besides marching band and young students I can think of at least two more great applications of a Lexan mouthpiece for the more serious player. [See UPDATE for a third use.]

One is as the car/travel mouthpiece for buzzing. It is again very light and unbreakable, and it won’t be uncomfortably hot or cold to use right away when you get in the car, like a metal mouthpiece often is.

The other use that comes to mind is as a cheap way to see if you have a metal allergy. Some students do have issues with silver and gold allergies. Temporarily try one of these and see if the problems go away.

As it is clear you may be thinking you could use it to see your lips buzzing. Unfortunately, the view is not that clear to the embouchure on a horn mouthpiece (the “window” is too small), and beyond that it fogs up almost immediately when you start playing. I believe it would have much use in the lower brass for viewing the embouchure, but not on horn.

Conclusions

It is light as a feather, comfortable to play at any temperature, sounds good, plays surprisingly well, and is pretty much unbreakable (unless you literally run over it with a car).

For me personally, the ideal car mouthpiece would have a rim identical to my normal rim, so this probably is not ideal. But it is pretty close and it being plastic is a plus, so I will be giving it a trial. And it is a lot of fun, well worth the modest price.

UPDATE January 2014

The line in the original review above was prophetic, relating to metal allergies. As I write this update I am into my second extended trial of the Kelly MC as I believe I have developed a sensitivity to my normal rim. (And I have a Houser H-Kote Titanium rim on order too to try in relation to this).

Early in this second trial period I did note something very interesting. The Kelly MC works great on my triple horn. As in really great. It is as though I stumbled onto something that other strong professional players may want to seriously explore. Triple horns are heavy, and something really good happens with the interface of my Paxman triple and the extremely light Kelly mouthpiece. I will be exploring this more, and now own a number of Kelly MC mouthpieces in various colors. This angle on mouthpiece design may be the cutting edge for triple horns (very light mouthpiece on heavy horn).

One other thing to note, very seriously, is that actually while the dimensions appear to be exactly identical, mouthpieces of different colors actually do sound a little different than the clear mouthpiece in this review. Something about the pigment in the Lexan changes the resulting sound, darkens or dulls it a bit. I also note that the clear mouthpiece feels slicker on the lips, more like gold. I prefer the clear plastic MC over all others that I own.

As will be noted in an upcoming review of the Kelly MDC as well, the shank of the Kelly MC is slightly bigger in diameter than a typical USA mouthpiece. It is not quite up to the size of a “European shank” (more here), but it is again slightly bigger and on some horns this could cause some playing problems. The rim is seen in this photo; the rim on the MDC and MC models is identical and very similar to a Holton MDC rim.

As I wrote this update I was surprised to note that the MC model was no longer listed on their website, only the MDC! I contacted the manufacturer and I am pleased to report that a new run of the MC mouthpieces is coming soon. As noted above, it really is a surprising and very nice mouthpiece that should have received more positive notice in the horn world. After I have given the MDC a fair trial I will also review it as well.

UPDATE: The MDC review is here. And I am back to playing on metal mouthpieces with either a Delrin or H-Kote rim. More on those soon, but in the meantime check this article by Bruce Hembd for more on H-Kote.

More evidence on the benefits of musical training
Recent research from a study in Germany indicates that musical training can help children use words.

The results of an 18-month study suggest “a positive transfer effect from musical expertise onto speech and language processing,” writes a research team led by Ingo Roden of Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, Germany.

In the journal Frontiers in Psychology, the researchers note that no similar effect was found for kids taking an enriched academic curriculum.

(More.)

Classifieds update
After a lot of hammer and nails work, I think that it is safe to say that our area devoted to pre-owned horns and horn-related items is once again up and running at 100% capacity. Some of the most recent horns posted for sale include:

• Conn 10D Eastlake
• Yamaha 567
• Soundwear French Horn Case
• Conn 8D Elkhart “400,000” series
• Conn 8D Elkhart “800,000” series
• Conn 8D Elkhart “H” series
• Yamaha 862
• Hoyer 6801
• Conn 6D Elkhart 1942
• Holton-Farkas H-181
• Paxman 20A
• Knopf
• Paxman 35st
• Paxman 80L

Accusations of xenophobia
Iconoclast Norman Lebrecht gets introspective while watching the recent New Year’s concert from Vienna.

Made up of peer-picked players from the Vienna State Opera, the Philharmonic was the last orchestra in the world to admit women, maintaining an all-male membership until as recently as February, 1997.

Today, it still has the fewest female musicians of any major classical ensemble. It has given any number of excuses for practicing discrimination, from claiming that women with babies would not be suitable for long overseas tours, to arguing that they would destabilize its singular sound.

(More.)

Of pearls and swine
At The Yard, the ‘YardMaster’ waxes poetically on the last day of 2012.

What we have to offer as polished, committed, and vulnerable artists is something truly special. We pull hair across strings and spit into tubes, and an audience feels our breath and bodies as we turn pieces of wood and metal into something that words can’t describe.

These are our pearls. Every day we must strive to hone our skills, not in the pursuit of mastering an objective and technical craft, but to better express ourselves through our instruments and through music

(More.)

On the value of entertainment
At Being Musical. Being Human a rational argument is made for taking music a bit more seriously in terms of its value.

… as music teachers and arts advocates, we need to take forth the message thatmusic is not just entertainment. I certainly agree with this point, and support efforts to make it better known to school administrators, parents, and student musicians themselves.

But I also believe we need to be careful how we go about refuting the perspective of “music as mere entertainment.” We can stray from the true nature of the arts when justify music’s place in schools through its contributions to other skills like abstract reasoning, language acquisition, math proficiency, self-discipline, and spatial intelligence.

(More.)

The balancing act
Jennifer Borkowski speaks in this interesting video on over-training in students. Her discussion centers around how teachers can look for key signs to see if their students have hit a mental or physical block.

The purpose of scientific study
Put in perspective, I can always appreciate scientific studies on the mechanics of wind and brass performance. In this regard I can also appreciate Dave Wilken and his efforts to stay on top of current research.

Whenever a someone publishes something like this [a study] there are always some in the community who will call such research meaningless, but I think it’s neat to take a scientific look at what we think we know. One of the neat things about research is sometimes we learn something new that’s completely unrelated to the original purpose of the research.

For example, when Lloyd Leno first began his high speed filming of trombone embouchures he was doing so to see if the lips vibrated at the same frequency of the pitch (he found they do, by the way). Along the way he was surprised that while most of his subjects had downstream embouchures, one was upstream.

(More.)

What’s popular?

Here are some of the most visited and popular pages at Horn Matters, dating from July 1, 2012 to today.

1. Horn Matters Classified Ads
2. Playing Tips
3. The Vintage Conn 8D
4. Choosing a French Horn Mouthpiece (I): The Basic Parts
5. PDF Documents & Research
6. A Fingering Chart for Single F, Double, and Single B-flat Horns
7. PDF Orchestral Horn Parts
8. Setting Goals: 3 Tips for ‘Keeping it Real’
9. Choosing a French Horn Mouthpiece (III): Weight, Plating and Shopping Tips
10. Choosing a French Horn Mouthpiece (II): Cup, Throat and Bore
11. Archives
12. The Value of a Professional Instrument Cleaning
13. Horn-related Events
14. PDF Horn Solo Parts
15. From the Mailbag: Kruspe or Geyer–Which is Better?
16. About John Ericson
17. Horn Pedagogy Week 1: Choosing the Mouthpiece and Horn
18. The Mind of the Horn Player
19. Online Practice Tools
20. Giardinelli Horn Mouthpieces Through the Ages
21. On Defensive Hornists and Accuracy
22. PDF Exercises & Technical Studies
23. How to use a Sink Hose Adapter to Clean a Horn
24. Thoughts on ‘Quality’ and an Overview of Trusted Brands in French Horns
25. The Best Music Schools
26. Buying a Horn II: What I Bought
27. Get a Grip for Better Comfort
28. Transposition Tricks: Bass Clef
29. Internet Memes: What if Action Mega-Star Chuck Norris played French Horn?
30. Review: The ‘PowerLung’ Breathing Device
31. Hornmasters: Farkas on Mouthpieces
32. Horn Pedagogy Week 4: Embouchure Overview
33. About Bruce Hembd
34. Symmetry and Balance: 3 Reasons to Not Worry about an Off-Center Embouchure
35. Horn Pedagogy Week 2: Descant and Triple horns, Mellophones, Care and Maintenance of the Horn, and Left Hand Position
36. About Horn Matters
37. University of Horn Matters
38. Horn Pedagogy Week 13: Lip Trills, and Muting and Stopping the Horn
39. Four Tips for Getting Back in Shape after Taking a Break
40. Transposition Tricks: Old vs. New Notation

Random videos

A live performance of the Beatle’s For No One, complete with a walk-on horn solo.

* * *

Witness the robotic machining process of a Wedge French horn mouthpiece.

* * *

Probably not a great idea to imitate this stunt.

* * *

Yes, the holiday season has already passed but this is just too cute…

* * *

Back a few years ago I wrote (at some professional risk) a number of items on the mellophone, including an article on mellophone mouthpiece options in my Horn Articles Online site.

Following up on that, I very recently had the chance to try the Jupiter 7CH mouthpiece, which seems to be only sold packaged with their Quantum mellophone. From the website, this is “a unique Hybrid mouthpiece with French horn cup that is perfectly suited for warm ballads and ensemble use.”

I located one this past week, and it feels great to my French horn chops. When this was being developed a source indicated to me that it was based on or similar to a Schilke 31 horn mouthpiece blended into a mellophone cup/shank, and was based on a mouthpiece that had been used by horn doublers at the Disney theme parks.

In the photos with the horn mouthpieces a Schilke 31 is on the left and a classic Schilke FARKAS MODEL on the right. The #14 bore of the Jupiter is just fractionally smaller than the #13 bore of the Schilke 31, and the rim is essentially identical. The cup of the Jupiter is however a good bit shallower than either Schilke mouthpiece.

The second pair of photos compares the Jupiter to a standard Dennis Wick E-flat tenor horn mouthpiece and the IYM hybrid mouthpiece. Note the length of the Jupiter is similar to the Wick but of course the rim and cup are much wider on the tenor horn mouthpiece. (What is a tenor horn? See this article). The IYM rim is somewhere between the two rims in width. As noted in yet another article, I personally like the sound and feel of the IYM, but the rim does not interface well with my chops.

For some horn players it won’t matter a lot but for me, the way I set up on my lower lip, I need a horn rim to play comfortably. Overall I really like how the Jupiter hybrid mouthpiece feels and plays on first impression. It fits the “grooves” on my lips very well, producing a smoky flugelhorn or descant horn sound on the mellophone. This is to say also that it will never catch on in drum corps, their brass techs mostly seem to strongly favor a sound that “cuts” and come to everything from more of a trumpet playing angle. But perhaps it will catch on in marching band use and I certainly would hope that it or a similar clone  by another enterprising maker could be more widely available for horn players who double on the mellophone (or tenor horn, it works fairly well on first impression).

With a final footnote being at Arizona State, where I teach, due to a recent curriculum change marching band is no longer a required course in any degree program! So if you or prospective students you know are thinking about music education and don’t want to play in marching band at all, ASU is an option to consider.

Horn Matters has now passed 2,000 articles of total content. The following articles are the top 9 overall, looking at stats from the inception of Horn Matters in 2009 to today.

9. From the Mailbag: Kruspe or Geyer–Which is Better? (Ericson)
Equipment is a popular theme in the site, this article touching on a perennial topic in the United States.

8. Giardinelli Horn Mouthpieces Through the Ages (Ericson)
Mouthpieces are important! This one lays out the differences between older and more recently produced Giardinelli mouthpieces.

7. Events
This article is actually a standing page on the site rather than an article, but it is our hope that the listings are handy and useful to our readers, as reflected in the high traffic of the page.

6. A Fingering Chart for Single F, Double, and Single B-flat Horns (Ericson)
This one is a short one with a link to the PDF, which is a handy one.

5. Choosing a French Horn Mouthpiece (II): Cup, Throat and Bore (Hembd)
Mouthpieces again! This is part two of a series that is the most popular series of articles ever posted on the site.

4. Choosing a French Horn Mouthpiece (III): Weight, Plating and Shopping Tips (Hembd)
Part III is more popular than part II!

3. The Vintage Conn 8D (Ericson)
The iconic “American” horn; a look at their older and more recently produced instruments.

2. Choosing a French Horn Mouthpiece (I): The Basic Parts (Hembd)
Part I is the most popular one of this series. And a horn fanfare for….

1. French Horn Transposition Chart (Hembd)
This is by far the most popular article on the site! A great reference page for students to keep handy in their folder.

We aim to have a variety of content and good solid information on every aspect of horn playing. Thank you for your support, and keep checking back for more from Horn Matters.

A curious reader asks:

I have several mouthpieces and rims that need to be re-plated. Should I trust local sources such as jewelers to have it done, or should I send them to a mouthpiece maker? I hate for them to be sitting around unusable.

Dave replies

Your best bet is to send them to a mouthpiece maker who will strip them chemically, and then clean and re-plate them.

Why a mouthpiece maker?

You know how carefully a mouthpiece is made, how accurately its profile is determined and the mouthpiece is turned and plated. Anything you do to remove the old plating and add new plating can change (will change!) that profile.

A competent maker will know this, and will take care to strip all and only the old silver plating, and will also know not to buff and polish the surface so as to change the profile of the mouthpiece.

The other parameter is how much silver will go on to the mouthpiece, and this is where the jeweler could possibly either under-plate or over-plate. A mouthpiece maker will know about how much silver plate will sufficiently cover without reducing the inside profile of the mouthpiece.

After you do your research and pick someone to do the work, I suggest you send one or two mouthpieces at a time. Send the ones you could afford to lose first, and then test them when they come back to be sure the work is to your standard.

A jeweler might be able to do a good job, but good results are far more likely if you have the work done by someone who knows the needs of the musician.

To close out the year for Horn Matters, we do check the stats and the below are the top 14 articles or pages on the site for 2013. Traffic has been good and the number one article was viewed over 10,000 times! The titles are fairly self-explanatory — click on any of the links below to read the articles that were of the most interest to our readers.

1. French Horn Transposition Chart (Bruce Hembd)
2. PDF Exercises & Technical Studies
3. Choosing a French Horn Mouthpiece (I): The Basic Parts (Bruce Hembd)
4. PDF Horn Solo Parts
5. The Vintage Conn 8D (John Ericson)
6. Playing Tips (John Ericson)
7. Thoughts on ‘Quality’ and an Overview of Trusted Brands in French Horns (Bruce Hembd)
8. Choosing a French Horn Mouthpiece (II): Cup, Throat and Bore (Bruce Hembd)
9. A Fingering Chart for Single F, Double, and Single B-flat Horns (John Ericson)
10. Symmetry and Balance: 3 Reasons to Not Worry about an Off-Center Embouchure (Bruce Hembd)
11. Choosing a French Horn Mouthpiece (III): Weight, Plating and Shopping Tips (Bruce Hembd)
12. From the Mailbag: Kruspe or Geyer–Which is Better? (John Ericson)
13. PDF Orchestral Horn Parts
14. Events

Congratulations to Bruce Hembd for being the most popular writer on the site!

Looking at the big picture, interest seems strongest in the general topics of performance and equipment. I expect that Bruce and I will be posting less often as we have covered so many topics in quite a bit of depth already, but we will keep our thoughts on the site for sure with a goal of bringing new, quality content of interest to our readers.

In late 2012 I posted a review which I titled The Surprising Kelly MC Lexan Mouthpiece. Since that review was completed I have given the Kelly MC two extended trials and that review is updated further.

But the MC is not their only Lexan (plastic) mouthpiece model, the other one presently on the market is their MDC model.

As readers might guess, the mouthpiece is patterned generally after the venerable Holton MDC. The MDC in the photo is actually the MDC I purchased and used from late high school into college. My Holton is number 13 bore and the Kelly a slighlty smaller number 14 bore at the throat, but the cup is nearly identical. As seen in the photo, the Kelly is longer than the Holton and as one could guess has a somewhat different backbore.

Like is also seen with their MC model, the shank of the Kelly MDC is slightly bigger in diameter than the metal Holton mouthpiece. It is not quite up to the size of a “European shank” (more here), but it is again slightly bigger and on some horns this could cause some playing problems. On the other hand, the shank seems to fit my main instruments well with the exception of one. On that horn these mouthpieces clearly do not fit in far enough and the high range is very poor. For that one I may someday experiment with sanding down a shank (of a MC) to improve the fit.

As far as how it plays, the Kelly MDC I would rate as a bit better than the Holton, but both are fairly generic horn mouthpieces that lack some color and character. The sound is a bit dull in other words. Some might consider this to be a plus because it is a “darker” tone, but in reality I think it lacks some projection (and volume) compared to the Kelly MC. But, again, this may be a plus for a younger student with a harsh tone.

From the rim end it can be seen that the rims are quite similar. The Kelly rim is identical to the rim on their MC model. It is interesting but not surprising to note that as the MDC was the first mouthpiece I played on seriously as a horn student it still feels fairly comfortable, although a bit too rounded to really use for the longer term (for me; I personally need a rim that has a little flatter profile).

My longer review of the Kelly MC has been updated/expanded and is also worth checking again; do not underestimate this mouthpiece! The positives noted there as to metal allergies and weather hold totally true for the MDC.

Either model would make an excellent car, purse, backpack, or travel mouthpiece and the price is really right, these presently list for only $25 each and can be found for less than that.

As to the Kelly MDC specifically, I have several of these around now and in particular find the MDC works pretty well on natural horn relative to using the MC on modern horn. It is really worth checking out, but more advanced players do check out the MC first, it is I feel the better of the two Lexan models.

As noted in the recent article on mouthpieces and metal allergies, my current working theory is that may I have developed a sensitivity to my gold rim. This has led to the testing of a number of rims, Houser with their H-Kote finish and also Moosewood in Delrin. A few notes.

Initial trials can be very taxing. Any practice session where I tried several rims was killer. You just are not used to the rim is a big part of it, switching around rims works the muscles a bit differently.

Contour and width make huge differences. Early on in the first selection I had available of Houser H-Kote rims the two leaders were the Jon Ring rim and the Bloom rim. The Ring rim was very similar in inner diameter and overall width to what I had been playing but has bit different peak shape. What I found was, for me, that different peak made my high range go flat! The Bloom rim is very similar to the very first screw rim I ever used, early 1980s Giardinelli that I was told then was a Philip Meyers rim. It is a bit narrower than what I have been playing in the recent past, with a smaller inner diameter too, but on it the high range came back into focus. And that the Bloom rim was very similar to something I used to play yet again proves the “Mouthpiece Wheel of Doom” theory, which basically states after any mouthpiece trials you will end up back where you started.

They sound different. What I also found especially interesting was just how audible the difference is between different rims. On a rim similar to a Laskey rim my articulations are OK but with a narrower rim they tighten up right where I expect them to be. Also with a wider rim the tone is certainly a bit more dull overall. At one time I played a Farkas rim, but at this point that rim width negatively impacts my sound to such an extent I could never go back to it.

Speaking of “big names”… As noted, some of the rims I tried were those of big name players, and several of those not mentioned I can’t imagine playing on ever! What their designs prove to me is either they are quite different in lip structure than I am or they are hugely strong or both. If the XXXX model rim doesn’t feel any good to you, just move on. Don’t feel like a wimp or whatever, it is just not for you.

I could go on and on. This topic is a hugely important one and I am sure there are many fine horn players who do not adequately explore it. Rim choice can hold you back from your potentials and is a topic well worth looking at closely. I am still exploring it now in fact, and soon will have more on cups and bringing everything into focus.

FOR MORE QUICK READING I highly recommend this article from a few years back where Bruce Hembd is trying out H-Kote rims as well. The photos above are actually photos by Bruce from his earlier Horn Matters article.

Sticking with the general topic of the article last week, the Wagner tuba, today we have an oddity, a Wagner tuba mouthpiece.

Exhibit “A” is this Mirafone Decker model T Wagner tuba mouthpiece from the 1980s. It is solid nickel silver (which is somewhat unique in itself–it is not plated) and very cool looking, turned to look like a miniature tuba mouthpiece with a horn rim and stem.

It fits and works well on our ASU Mirafone Wagner tubas, with a shank well sized to the instruments, but as I note in the text of my book on the Wagner tuba,

While the appearance is rather different, aside from outer shape, the mouthpiece itself is the equivalent of a large horn mouthpiece. This model works very well on Wagner tubas, but no better than any other similar sized horn mouthpiece with a well fitting shank.

I also have a Mirafone Decker model D descant horn mouthpiece that is made from the same blank shape and it also works well on our tuben. I do love the look, but standard horn mouthpieces really do work fine, speaking generally, on Wagner tubas. This photo shows that cup and also the Wagner tuba mouthpiece from the rim end.

While this particular model is long off the market, it should be mentioned that Wagner tuba mouthpieces are still made; for example Moosewood has a WT model listed, #6 bore with a deep cup.

To hear a Wagner tuba and learn more about my book/E-book on the topic see this article.

If you follow the horn and use Facebook you probably have noted that Houghton Horns has a new line of horn mouthpieces coming out soon (more here). While they are a Horn Matters advertiser, I was following the development of this line for other reasons and was very interested to see the H3 model as I did help (in a small way) with the development of this mouthpiece.

Keeping up with Internet trends is one of the things we strive to do with Horn Matters, so first up is my “unboxing” video (direct link here), which if you know me you will I think find humorous as well. It was not in any way a paid endorsement, just was a fun way to check out the new mouthpiece. More details and impressions follow the video. [UPDATE: And, proving that it was not a paid endorsement, I managed to mispronounce Houghton, they say it as “how-ton.” Sigh.]

The Houghton H3 is inspired/based on a classic design, the old Schilke FARKAS MODEL, produced before Farkas became associated with Holton. I am a fan of the design and posted an article on the original FARKAS MODEL mouthpieces (here) a few years ago. In short, Farkas arrived at this design through intensive, hands on trial and error.

Thousandths of an inch matter in mouthpieces, so while the old “block letter” mouthpieces are similar to the Holton MC, it is a lot better mouthpiece. At least some of them!

The original mouthpiece varied a bit over the production run which is said to have been only about 1,000 units. I own two of these. The example on the left in the photo is the one I mention in the video, that I won Third Horn in Nashville playing on it, so it is special to me. Sadly, it never really fit any successive horn well as the shank is somewhat undersized, which seems to have been the standard size made of this. The example on the right is one I picked up later. It never felt as good, and I suspect the main culprit was the rim which is wider with a narrower inner diameter (and too doughnut-like for me), but undoubtedly other dimensions are out of spec as well if examined very closely.

Derek Wright was much more intimately involved with the development of this model. A DMA grad from the horn studio here at Arizona State, he knew of my interest and that I had examples, so I loaned both of them. What I hoped was having both they could figure out what was better and worse between the two examples and, combined with other examples and experimentation they could arrive at a design that exceeded the original.

My initial impressions of the new H3 are extremely favorable. It has a big sound and they corrected the shank size issue, it fits standard, modern horns much better than the originals. The H3 certainly plays better than the originals I supplied.

The rim is based on the rim of the example I favored of the two and feels great. The only difference is the inner diameter is just a bit larger on the H3. I am very interested to try this rim again after the years, the initial impression is very good and I believe I can play successfully on stainless steel. I have been playing on Delrin most of the past year, as I seem to have developed an allergy to silver and gold rims (more here). 

The biggest change and “X-factor” element is the mouthpiece itself being stainless steel. Materials impact things and I suspect the bigger sound I notice is directly related to the use of stainless steel (and possibly also the difference of outer shape and weighting).

In the even bigger news category, besides being offered with a screw rim (you can use any Houser rim, and really most any screw rim made in the USA on this cup) you can also purchase it at a more affordable price as a one piece model.

I like the sound it produces on initial impression quite a lot. You will have to hear it in a room to decide but this is a very fine mouthpiece.

The bad news is these have not yet shipped to the general public. I know I have students interested to try it but sorry, I am busy trying it! But they will be shipping out by the end of October and this model I think is an extremely interesting one that will generate some sales.

Many years ago, at the home of Philip Farkas, I held in my hands a copy of the mouthpiece of Dennis Brain. Farkas was actually at one point (before his association with Holton) working with Schilke and Brain to potentially market a copy of his mouthpiece. My main memory is the small inner diameter and the thin rim. These two elements are parts of the puzzle of all that made his playing great.

Farquharson Cousins was a student at the Royal Academy of Music at the same time as Dennis Brain, playing alongside Brain a number of times. In the second edition of On Playing the Horn he recalls,

Dennis Brain’s mouthpiece was, by modern comparison, a small affair. The old silver threepenny bit (which hornplayers used to carry as a measuring device) would not even lie in the cup, but stood, so to speak, half out of it. This I verified on several occasions as Dennis sometimes experimented with different mouthpieces, but (let me hasten to add!) always the same rim. (The type that used to be known as the ‘Busby’ mouthpiece – named after Tom Busby, a well known London horplayer of the 1920s).

This mouthpiece above would appear to have that same rim, and came to Arizona associated with the Hawkes piston valve horn owned by Arizona State University (more here). It is marked Hawkes & Son London with the letter B stamped on side. The inner diameter is very small and would only suit someone with quite thin lips. It fits the crooks on the Hawkes horn well and tightens up sound production, but does not fit a modern horn, especially not one made for a European shank mouthpiece such as the Alexander horn later used by Brain.

The second photo shows the rim compared to the more modern rim of a Holton XDC. Where the differences come in has to do with sound and sensitivity. It has a small sound but is at the same time very sensitive and must have fit his unconventional embouchure very well.

The above is a portion of the text of a lecture-recital presented at the 2011 International Horn Symposium in San Francisco. A full article version of the session is in preparation. The reference on the information that Farkas/Schilke planned to sell a copy of his mouthpiece is from the Nancy Jordan Fako book on Farkas. For more on the horns Dennis Brain played and on the IHS session I presented see this article.

I have seen the following meme go around Facebook several times:

As a horn teacher I have to say this meme, while it sounds like good advice, is very wrong.

Sure, long tones are important, but only to a point. Yes, it is a skill to master. But essentially they are weight lifting for your chops. They end up being a part of many warm-up routines. The reality is I rarely work on long tones after the first minute or so of my warm-up routine. It is not as though you can’t achieve the same effect of training your lips by playing real music.

A mouthpiece change however can make HUGE differences in every aspect of your playing. It can take you from sounding like a good student to a pro in literally an instant. It can improve your tone, your high range, your low range, your endurance. Everything.

I really worry about teachers who don’t actively work with students to search out a better horn and a better mouthpiece, as both hugely impact the ability to reach a high level on the horn. Telling students to do long tones in this instance is just lazy teaching, ignorance. Some horns really need a European shank mouthpiece to focus the high range, for example. There are so many variables to balance and you can only get there through thoughtful, guided testing.

In short, no teacher can inspire your high Bb to speak better if it is just a bad note for your combination of horn and mouthpiece, and long tones alone won’t get you to the highest level of horn playing either. You need the right equipment.

And mouthpiece choice is a topic I think most horn students intuitively know is an important one, as one of the most popular article series ever posted on this site is the below by Bruce Hembd, on choosing a French horn mouthpiece. Get reading, there is a lot of information on the topic in Horn Matters.

• Part I: The Rim and Preliminary Thoughts
• Part II: Cup, Throat and Bore
• Part III: Weight, Plating and Shopping Tips

Continuing this brief series on the F horn and the 19th century, spending close to two months mostly playing the F horn on period solo literature has been an interesting project and learning experience.

In part I of this series I hint at some thoughts on tonguing, and I would briefly repeat that certainly the F horn requires very careful attention to tonguing in the upper range (the Eli Epstein book, reviewed here, has some of the best advice you will find).

Another part of the puzzle is the mouthpiece. About three years ago I posted a two part article on mouthpieces for horns with a high F side (starts here). In short, a shallower cup is advantageous on a triple or descant.

But when it comes to long horns like a single F horn or a natural horn, a deeper cup is advantageous; it is acoustically more suited to the F horn.

The interesting thing I have found though is that, among those available in my “collection,” the several that have what I would call a double cup work the best.

Double cup mouthpieces are more associated with other brass instruments, especially the trumpet. Basically for a horn mouthpiece the design as you look at the main cup looks the same but then there is a secondary “V” shape (the “double cup”) that leads down to the actual straight bore (the small point) of the mouthpiece. It results in a very deep cup that has a throat that is closer to the small end of the mouthpiece than where it is typically placed.

The three mouthpieces that have the most promise for me right now on the single F are a 1980s vintage Atkinson H-10 (H being for Horner, but this one somewhat modified by me in grad school), a Moosewood Anton Horner 12, and a Moosewood LGC model. All of them have the double cup to varying degrees, which seems to help substantially with the rough attacks in the higher range that I get on any “modern” mouthpiece, and it also helps with slurs. Right now I am leaning toward the Atkinson example, but each has good points to consider.

The big picture point being that if you are playing anything serious on the F horn or on the natural horn your normal, modern horn mouthpiece is likely not the best choice.

The other “update” to note as this series progresses is that in part I I was mostly playing on a reproduction period horn made for me by Rick Seraphinoff. At this point now I have however gravitated to another horn I own, one I made with his help but combining new, authentic parts with the body of a modern single F horn. The body is a vintage King horn but it was rebuilt with a crook to match the design of a Gumbert model horn (ca. 1880) that I saw photos of in a book. This photo is of the horn when I was rebuilding it; presently it also has a screw bell. That a Horner cup mouthpiece works well on it makes total sense, too, as Horner was a student of Gumpert (the name is actually spelled with a P, but on all of his publications it is spelled with a B).

Playing mostly this instrument for so long has taken this type of project to a new level for me (any prior version, such as described here, was part of usuing a group of horns on a recital). This project has given my accuracy a checkup too, in the same way that natural horn playing does. The F horn playing will continue into the summer, be looking for another update in a month or so.

Continue to Part III of series

To kick off a series of short reviews this summer, first up is the Kelly 6V mellophone mouthpiece in lexan plastic. A few years ago I reviewed their horn mouthpieces, and it bears repeating right off that the MC horn mouthpiece, especially in the crystal material, is surprisingly good. Likewise, the mellophone version also is quite good compared to a standard, metal example of this type of mouthpiece.

Fact: legions of horn players play the mellophone every summer and fall in the United States. One of the first things we have to cope with as a group is the topic of mouthpiece choice. I have a longer article from a few years ago on options over in Horn Articles Online, and in this review I will touch as well on comparisons between some of those options and the Kelly 6V.

First off, why use a plastic mouthpiece? There are two big reasons. One would be metal allergies, discussed further in this article. The other is temperature. One vivid memory from my freshman year of high school was the football team advanced to state, the band went, it was COLD and my mouthpiece was so cold, and finally my valves froze. A plastic mouthpiece won’t solve the frozen valves but it will make for more comfort at the lip contact point.

In the photo are seen a lineup of mouthpieces you could use on a mellophone. Left to right, we have the Jupiter hybrid horn/mellophone mouthpiece (reviewed here), the Kelly 6V, the IYM M-2, a DEG Mello 6V, a Curry 1HTF, and a Kelly MC with a mellophone adapter. Note that I have placed them in order by overall length.

Of course the is some ideal length for any mouthpiece in relation to an instrument, but what it is exactly for Mellophone I could not tell you. I can tell you the Kelly 6V is a little shorter than the DEG 6V which I think is pretty standard for this type of mouthpiece. Comparing these two directly my initial impression is the Kelly has a better sound and plays better. Of course it still has that “third trumpet” sort of sound typical of mellophone rather than a horn sound. The Curry 1HTF is not really a mellophone mouthpiece but is commonly used, it has a bit bigger/better sound, and then you get to the other options all of which have a more Flugelhorn related tone.

The rim on the Kelly 6V is a trumpet rim with a lot of cushion, similar to that on the DEG 6V but I feel a bit more rounded. Would not be my personal first choice (I would rather play something like the Jupiter hybrid in terms of the rim) but seems to be the type of rim that brass techs for marching bands and drum corps think have to be on a mellophone mouthpiece.

To close, the Kelly did in fact work well on my test instrument, a King. These are certainly worth a look. With the horn mouthpieces I found the colored mouthpieces had a deader tone than the crystal mouthpieces, so on horn I would say go with the crystal version, but the colored ones may be worth more of a look on mellophone, they should cut a bit more of the harsh edge out of the tone.

Equipment is a topic that has come up quite a few times in Horn Matters.

Still though, I can be as excited as the next person to finally break through and get an equipment issue sorted out. Last week a new mouthpiece arrived with some others I had bought for students to try. But this one was purchased for me, a Houghton H-2 cup in brass. I knew it would be similar to the Houser San Francisco cup I had used on other horns some, in particular I liked how the SF cup made my smaller Geyer style horn feel but not sound, it had a brittle sound on that horn, at least for me and my embouchure setup.

But backing up, I made my original two solo CDs (Canto and Les Adieux) playing on a big Paxman 25AND, seen here when it was shiny and new. I loved that horn, used it for years, I had absolute confidence in my intonation and it was the most ergonomic for my left hand of any I have owned. But I had switched to other horns as my primary instrument, and then when I changed over to using a plastic rim (due to metal allergies, more here) I never could get it to feel right on any mouthpiece I could use on it. A little stuffy, a little unfocused. It was a puzzle that I was getting close to giving up on — I was considering selling and moving on.

But then the Houghton H-2 arrived and the horn is back! Totally back. Not stuffy. Not unfocused. Due to some magical combination of the cup itself and the fit of the mouthpiece into the instrument.

With that sorted out then the other horns I have quickly fell into place too. My Paxman triple feels great on the SF cup (it has a slightly larger shank, a three piece model — somehow I had not used it on this horn previously) and the Geyer style horns I use work best on Moosewood. Horn playing suddenly has became a lot more fun again as the horns I use regularly all feel more dialed in and in focus.

While this specific mouthpiece may not work for you at all, there is an underlying truth that happiness can be a new mouthpiece, the right one can dial everything in and the wrong one leave you feeling like it is you that can’t play. The fact is that you can visualize great tone and articulations all day and not ever get them if you are on the wrong mouthpiece. Don’t give up on the search.