Tartellog

I’ve heard all of these:

“Play the biggest mouthpiece you can.”

“Play the smallest mouthpiece you can.”

“If you’re not in New York or LA, you’re not really doing it.”

“New York and Los Angeles suck.”

“Play one mouthpiece for everything.”

“Switch mouthpieces for each situation.”

“You must choose between playing classical and jazz.”

“You have to be able to play everything.”

And my favorite:

“Player X is the best in the world.”

“Player X is terrible.”

We seem to exist in a world of extremes.  In most situations the extreme answer being the most viable solution is rare.  Much like our current political climate, as soon as a discussion begins people must choose one of two sides which are often pushed to an extreme.  So in my continued effort to get the online world to be more representative of the real world, I am starting a new movement- Radical Moderatism.  That’s right, should you join me we will do our best to investigate what questions we want answered, and come to a reasonable solution.  Let’s start with the five polarizing statements above.

1)  Largest vs. Smallest mouthpiece:  It’s an argument as old as time.  You want to play more orchestral literature?  Unless you’re some kind of lightweight that can’t handle it, you need the Macho Mahler 5000.  The rim is slightly larger than a tenor trombone mouthpiece, and the throat is big enough drop a golf ball through.  You want to play lead?  You must get the Double C Express.  The rim is just smaller than a French horn mouthpiece, and the cup is a bit shallower than a contact lens.  It’s the rare player that gets optimal results from an extreme approach.  The best answer is usually somewhere in the middle.  When looking for equipment it’s important to find the balance between the best results coming out of the horn with the right amount of work going into the horn.

2)  If you haven’t made it in a big city, you haven’t made it.  Another worthless statement.  There are great players all over the world.  The difference in the big cities is that there are usually more great players and more live music.  But here’s something I don’t hear talked about a lot.  There are also more bad players in big cities precisely because they’re big.  So being in a big city doesn’t say anything about one’s playing.  Not being in a big city doesn’t mean anything about one’s level of play either.

3)  One mouthpiece vs. switching.  This is one of the dumbest arguments in the trumpet world.  Like most useless arguments, there is no right answer here.  There are world class players on both sides.  The problem is how adamant both sides are about being right.  Here’s my advice- if you’re going to regularly use more than one mouthpiece, you should practice on it every day.  The most common problem I see people have when switching mouthpieces is that they are much more comfortable on one, as it is their main piece.  So whatever they switch to is not nearly as comfortable, which usually results in (at least) sound and tuning problems.

4)  Narrow vs. broad focus.  This is the one that bothers me the most.  There are great and terrible players on both sides of this fence.  It’s amazing to me that, because one player has been successful doing one thing at a high level, that an assumption is made that the only way to reach that level is to do only that one thing. Should you wish to pursue a career doing one thing, that doesn’t mean others cannot reach the same high level while pursuing a career with more variety.

5) Great vs. Terrible. I’ve heard this argument several times- always involving professional players. Just because you are not a fan of a certain player does not mean that person can’t play. And just because you are a fan doesn’t make that player great.

Too often, having a discussion with someone that disagrees with you pulls both of you to extremes. It’s time to recognize that the truth usually exists somewhere in the middle. Let’s meet there.