Placement of Mouthpiece- Up Or Down?

The question of mouthpiece placement is an issue of air efficiency. When everything is working efficiently ie. mouthpiece placement, angle of horn, mouthpiece pressure, etc. the sound will indicate this balance. When I say efficient conditions, this is indicated as a big sound. Experienced trumpet players recognize this tone and describe it as “fat”, “well rounded”, “on fire”. To the uninitiated it might be described as a room filling sound. This was illustrated to me at Roosevelt University in downtown Chicago when Mr. Bud Herseth illustrated a musical passage to his room full of excited listeners. When “Bud” blew an air stream into his horn, the sound could only be described as “on fire”. His sound seemed to have a halo of fire encircling his bell. The room was instantly fill with the most beautiful trumpet sound I had ever heard. That is what I mean by an efficient playing style.

Efficiency depends on several factors and because of the many elements needed for an efficient playing style, most players do not have this balance and because of this imbalance, they will never play to their full potential. That includes yours truly. I am still improving these elements and each time I get closer, I become a better player. Some players seem to be able to have this balance when starting to play and we refer to them as naturals. In some cases this could be the eight year old I encountered in Texas, where the first note he ever played was a F above high C. Up to that time he had never played a note on a trumpet. These naturals are sometimes a frustration to many of us. Most of us are not in that gifted group. The odds of an average player being able to play in the most efficient manner is very slim.

So what can we do to become more efficient players? The secret is in the sound coming from your bell. If your sound is dull, unexciting or uncentered, you will need to start identifying the elements needed for a big sound. In this post we will begin to review the importance of mouthpiece placement. In our previous post, we covered the importance of placing your mouthpiece as close to the center, left and right as possible. In this post, we will describe the differences of placing the mouthpiece equal distances up and down on the lip.

Advantages of the mouthpiece low on your lip-

Generally speaking, a low placement of a trumpet mouthpiece will increase upper range due to the fact that less vibrating area is in the mouthpiece cup.

Low placement of the mouthpiece will generally give the sound more edge which is an advantage when playing in a jazz ensemble, especially in a big band setting.

Advantages of the mouthpiece high on your lip-

Due to the added amount of meat within the mouthpiece, the tone is usually darker in timbre.

Softer passages are much easier with the mouthpiece placed high on the lip.

Flexibility increases with a high setting of the mouthpiece.

The embouchure can gain more strength and endurance with a high setting.

A high mouthpiece setting allows the embouchure to recover quicker than a low setting.

These general characteristics can, and will be disputed by some of our readers and I encourage these contrary opinions to be submitted.

Whether you are a high set or low set player, what we are looking for in your tone is the full rich sound described above. Some players have a tremendous sound playing on a high setting and an equal amount of fine players are using a low setting. The issue we have here is whether the air is being used efficiently when producing a big sound.

“Stay away from extremes”

In order to produce an efficient sound, the most ideal position of the mouthpiece will be centered up and down. By placing the mouthpiece in this position, the player will be gaining advantages from the high and low setting. Moving the mouthpiece lower will lose some tone fullness, endurance and flexibility. Moving the mouthpiece a little higher will tend to lose ease in the upper register. After many decades of playing and teaching, “I feel that the ideal mouthpiece placement would be in the center of the lip, both vertically as well as horizontally”. You might ask “in what position is my mouthpiece”? I play with the mouthpiece centered as much as possible horizontally and just a little high vertically. I prefer the higher setting because I like a darker sound and better flexibility. I also have to mention that I do not have the greatest high range in Branson. Mouthpiece placement is a give and take situation for most players.

In our next post, I will continue to illustrate the most efficient way to play trumpet and at that time I will address the air flow direction into the mouthpiece.