Mouthpiece is short for mouth: the cavity where the teeth and tongue meet, which allows food to enter the digestive tract. Different types of holes and openings are also called mouth.
A mouthpiece can be a hollow piece that is part of certain musical wind instruments. The musician must rest his mouth on the edges of the mouthpiece and blow to generate the sound.
Made of wood, ivory or metal, the mouthpieces appeal to the vibration of the person’s lips to produce sounds. In the case of the ensemble of brass instruments, such as the trumpet, the clarion, the trombone and the tuba, the mouthpiece is usually made of brass. This class of instruments have the particularity of changing notes without pistons or keys, only through the pressure changes made by the player on the mouthpiece.
Woodwind instruments, such as the clarinet, flute, oboe, and saxophone, have mouthpieces in which the vibration is generated by reeds. These types of mouthpieces allow you to produce a single sound on each instrument.
How to choose the right mouthpiece for a trumpet
Unlike other instruments, such as the guitar or piano, to which musicians can easily adapt without many demands, the experience of playing the trumpet is largely influenced by the characteristics of the mouthpiece. For this reason, it is very important to choose one that allows us to play comfortably, and for this we must take into account various factors.
In the first place, there are the questions about the size of the mouthpiece: it must have an adequate thickness, so that the part that comes into contact with our lips gives us the feeling of having an extension of the body and not with a foreign object. that has gotten stuck in our mouths. If the mouthpiece is too wide, the performance becomes less flexible; On the contrary, the narrower the more flexibility it provides, but the resistance is reduced and this can lead to discomfort.
The shape of the mouthpiece is also important. This can be sharp or rounded: the first allows to attack the notes with greater clarity, and produces a more metallic sound; the second, on the other hand, increases comfort but reduces the clarity of the lower notes. It should be noted that most musicians lean toward sharp mouthpieces.
Another point to take into account is the diameter of the cup, the opening that remains inside the oral cavity, since both this property and its depth directly affect the tonal extension of the instrument (the number of notes it can produce, from the lowest to the highest) and the volume of the sound.
The neck, on the other hand, is a gear that is in the mouthpiece and connects it with the instrument. Its size is important to achieve the best results, and that is why it is necessary to inform yourself and try several options until you find the most appropriate one. A neck that is too large can lead to more fatigue in the mouth; In short, a small one is a good idea, since it reduces the effort of the musician and improves the quality of the performances.
Other meanings
A type of tube with a wide sector where a cigarette is placed is also called a mouthpiece. The person who smokes inhales the smoke through the opposite sector, on which he rests his mouth. Thus the smoker avoids touching the cigarette with his fingers when smoking.
Finally, the mouthpiece is the sector of the pipe that the subject places in his mouth to smoke.
