This product is no longer on the market !!!!!
The following two paragraphs have been reprinted from the original online advertisement and do not reflect my opinion of the product in any way.
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“The NPS, No Pressing System, is an application that controls the pressure of your lips on the horn. It is a tube that is hooked on and replaces the original main pump (lead pipe) on the trumpet. The use of this system helps you find a better intonation and a better sound by adjusting the way you blow into the trumpet.
The No Pressing System (NPS) is the result of many years of research by the music professor, Mr. Cesare Ficcadenti, who has more than 25 years of teaching experience. The NPS is perfectly integrated with every system or method of study. It helps you to achieve good results better and faster. Amateurs and professionals can finally use a system that will help them solve one of the main problems that occurs when you play the trumpet: the excessive pressing. Many people tend to press their lips to the mouthpiece too much (press the mouthpiece to the lips), resulting in an incorrect sound and intonation”.
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In our every continuing struggle to share new and possibly important information about new developments in our trumpet world, I share this new product and include the following disclaimer- “I have not tried this product nor do I have any firsthand information on its merit”.
A good friend sent me this information a few weeks ago and wanted my opinion on its value. I found the concept interesting for the problem of excessive mouthpiece pressure is something we all deal with every day.
After carefully reading all the information in the advertisement, I continued my search for more information and found a very short and less than helpful article in an earlier International Trumpet review. The information in that article did not help me learn any more than what I could glean from the original advertisement so my opinion is limited to what you can read on their site at NPS.
Now if you still would like to know what I think of this devise, knowing my lack of first hand contact with the NPS, here we go.
Any products which will help to limit mouthpiece pressure is good.
And……
“Any product which will help to limit mouthpiece pressure and not contribute to more problems is even better”.
And this is where I have an issue with the NPS.
The title “No Pressing System” is misleading for no one can play a trumpet without some mouthpiece pressure on their lips. Without some pressure, the player will not be able to seal the contact aria and thus control air from leaking around the rim of the mouthpiece.
When first viewing the NPS product, I was impressed at the high quality of the manufacturing as it appears to be an impressively machined product constructed from solid brass. That fact brought up an interesting thought. Just how much does this attachment weigh? After several hours of searching through various reports in at least four different languages, I found that few articles did more than just copy and paste the information which I have included at the top of this post.
In my search for “first hand evaluations” of the NoPressingSystem, I was able to find one review done by the International Trumpet Guild which did not help with my search. The reviewer was only able to point out that the mechanism did illustrate the difference in mouthpiece pressure between the reviewer and one of his students.
Other sites gave different evaluations but were only opinions for none of these contributors actually had the product on hand for evaluations.
Comment #1
“After actually listening carefully (to the advertisement video), I do not believe he played higher than a G below high C. And most everything else was below middle C. Just practice and save your money for a good horn. WHAT A GIMMICK”!
Comment #2
“Yes, I agree – this demonstration proves nothing over the standard natural horn. I really was unimpressed with the tone quality of the sound out of the horn”.
Comment #3
“NPS=BJS. Big Joke System
There are (a few?) players that function with very low pressure. This is not normal and I will state that many players have quit trumpet because of the frustration involved in attempting to do this. I know of many more in this category than have benefitted by it.
Successful playing is an evolutionary process for almost all of us. We can all reduce pressure by learning to breath better, improving our body use and developing a better daily routine. That means working on US not looking for PLACEBOS”.
Comment #4
“I have tried these things, the pitch of the horn changes, the focus of each note and the intonation and blow. My take is that a Gizmo will not help the player not getting good personal advice, and when involved with a good teacher, they can improve also without a Gizmo. If the player is really good, then they can get away with just about anything – and reap benefits from things not really suitable for weaker players”.
My question is, what does a weak player twist out of shape to get a Gizmo to work? If support is the issue, then what does the Gizmo do to help by limiting possible pressure – nothing except frustrate the player with those weak chops”.
Comment #5
Conventional hard work where the investment is physical instead of monetary is still the best medicine for all wind players ails!
My evaluation of this product is based solely on what I have seen and what others have posted and for that reason; I do not claim to have any more knowledge than anyone else on the “NoPressingSystem”. And with that said, here is my conclusion –
“The benefits of this attachment to your instrument do not justify the additional weight and obvious change to your natural playing style even though it does illustrate how much excessive pressure you are placing on your lip”.
