Archived under: Equipment, Mouthpieces, Teaching
Mouthpieces for Beginning Hornists
Choosing a mouthpiece for a beginner is an interesting topic. I have been thinking about this recently as I am working with several sixth graders this year. The best mouthpiece from their perspective is the one that is the easiest to play upon. Giving it a little more thought, the number one choice for horn with that being the goal would probably be the Yamaha 30C4, with the Schilke 30 also being another good choice. The Yamaha 30C4 is too small for an advanced student, the bore is smaller than number 20 (most horn mouthpieces are produced in the range from roughly an 8 bore to 16 bore), but really this mouthpiece plays well and makes sense for a beginner. A goal is to make the horn easier to play so they stick with it–they can switch to another mouthpiece with a little larger bore later. Those Yamaha folks know something; it makes perfect sense to me now that they ship this model out with new horns.
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