How To Buy A Cornet Mouthpiece

    This is a hot button topic and one that will never go away. Buying the perfect cornet mouthpiece, I made allot of costly mistakes during my search for the perfect mouthpiece. I have a collection of them sitting in a case and most of them I don’t play anymore. Every day, they remind me that I went about my search the wrong way. This kind of thing happens when information about a subject is clouded in mystery, hearsay, or just mingled in with other similar information you can care less about. When I first bought my Getzen 3850, I ordered a Yamaha 16e. The weird thing was that they were both delivered to my house on the same day. I thought it was a sign. The Cornet was delivered by UPS and my 16e was dropped off by the Uncle Sam Postal Service, only fifteen minutes later. Like so many others potential cornet players, I did my research and listened to the great cornet players produce the traditional rich cornet sound. Reading how most of them used big deep V cornet mouthpieces, I decided to get one of the biggest mouthpieces out there. It was also the same brand and same cup diameter of my trumpet mouthpiece. In my mind I knew that I was making the right decision. Boy was I wrong… I basically ignored the Denis Wick 4b clone that came standard with my Getzen. I think I may have played it twice before sticking the Yamaha into the lead pipe. The Wick clone had a nice sound but I did notice that I was producing a little of hiss and was turned off.  After that short trial period, I stuck my 16e into the receiver of the 3850.  The first thing I noticed was that the mouthpiece wasn’t seated properly. It moved around, almost like a loose tooth. Thinking to myself that I just spent some hard earned money on this thing, I’m going to play it anyway. It was tight enough in the receiver to play. When I played my cornet for the first time with the Yamaha, it was almost as if the gates of heaven just opened. The sound was stunning. Thinking that I had the right mouthpiece, I searched for and found scotch tape. After taping a piece of tape to the shank of the 16e it had a nice snug fit. I commenced to getting to know my horn, after remedying my mouthpiece fit problem.

   Later, with three months of daily committed wood shedding I decided it was time to pay a visit to one of the local jam sessions. I wanted to make my self known to the world. When I arrived at the jam session, I introduced myself to the bandleader. He was welcoming and curious about my cornet.  I played “Round Midnight”. Judging with my own ears, approval from the band, and the applause from the crowed, I thought that I did a decent job. After sitting down, I managed to rustle up a couple of business cards from a few of the attending musicians. The main topic during my conversations with them were centered around the cornet and about how nice it sounds and looked. About a half hour later, I was called back to the stage.

      The chart was “A Night in Tunisia “. Because I was the guy who showed up with the cornet, I was given the honor to solo first, after playing the head. When I played “Round Midnight “The band left allot of space for me to make the cornet shine in its special mellow way. All I had to do was just sit back and let all that mellow ear candy flow.  However, for “Night In Tunisia” it was a different story.  This time around the band was more intense. The drummer and keyboard were pushing allot of sound and the room was packed. There was a tenor sax and trumpet player on stage with me and they let me know they were going to add horn lines at the bridge, when it was my turn to solo. Noticing that I couldn’t hear myself while everyone was playing through the head, to compensate I played louder. I could tell that my chops were getting tired. Concern and doubt began to creep into my mind about me being able to complete the changes. It was getting so bad that I wasn’t concentrating on the changes.  Eating the microphone with the bell of my cornet didn’t help either. I still couldn’t hear anything. Exhaustion kicked in after blowing through the changes just one time. My chops were giving up the ghost. I couldn’t wait for the next run down the head to end. There was no way I was going to do three. At the end of my solo I backed away from the mic and accepted the applause from the audience. I wasn’t happy with my performance and I new there was something I had to do. I new I could do better.

   As musicians, we go through the halls of self doubt more than once through our careers. My self doubt led to insecurity and eventually a downward spiral.  From then on, week after week was the same result. It didn’t matter which club I played. Ballads worked great, but in situations where more volume and power were required I had serious problems. I wasn’t sure about anything. Regret about selling my Kanstul 1001 Chicago begun to set in.  I feared that all the comments stating that the trumpet is better for jazz than cornet were true.

   Thinking like a new cornet player, I decided to take the quickest route to fix my problem. The mouthpiece safari was the way I decided to go. Eventually I learned that the only things mouthpiece safaris were good for is messing up your chops and paperweight accumulation. Every week ended with a new mouthpiece after every bad performance. Please see Taking the Plunge As A Cornet Player for more.

  I finally learned that choosing the right mouthpiece for your cornet is pretty simple. This is not as big as a mystery as some make it out to be. The first thing you want to do is think about the type of sound you want your cornet to produce. Notice I didn’t mention where you are planning on playing your cornet. This is on purpose. Some guys like a mouthpiece for every venue. I am from the one-mouthpiece-for-everything camp.  One nice feature of the cornet is that you have a wide sound envelope. It can sound almost like a flugelhorn or almost as bright as a trumpet.

    The fitting of the mouthpiece into the cornets receiver is the second thing to consider. This may sound pretty obvious, but you will be surprised about how many cornet mouthpieces don’t fit your cornet. During my safari, I bought a Yamaha 16C4 for my Getzen 3850 and it wouldn’t fit my cornet.

     The third consideration for buying a cornet mouthpiece is how hard it makes you work for your goals. If you can accomplish 75% of your goals and concentrate on the other 25% where you are weak, your probably going to be happy cornet player. When I finally made the decision to buy a Denis Wick 2b I knew that endurance was going to be an issue. The features that sold me were the cup size, huge throat, tone and power. I always played on large mouthpieces, even when I played trumpet. I have greater flexibility with a large diameter mouthpieces and I don’t worry about hitting the bottom of the mouthpiece. All I had to do was just work on my endurance.

    The forth consideration will be how much time are you willing to spend on one mouthpiece, before you see your desired results. Part of the problem with mouthpiece safaris is the temptation to hop from one mouthpiece to the next searching for instant success. Don’t expect to be able to play everything perfectly, just because it is your new magic mouthpiece.  The magic mouthpiece does not exist. Don’t believe the myth. The magic is in your practice. Your must spend time with your mouthpiece. When I brought my Wick 2b. I made the decision to play that one mouthpiece only. I did it for a year. Now I have no problems at all with endurance.

   The last thing to remember when buying a mouthpiece for your cornet is to not bow to peer pressure. Most people like to purchase something based on information from a trusted source. Each one of your cornet mouthpiece advisors has their favorite mouthpiece. They are going to naturally tell you how great it is. If there was a mouthpiece that one of your advisors doesn’t like, trust me, they are going to let you know every bad thing about it. Pick the mouthpiece for yourself don’t let others pick the mouthpiece for you. Try out a mouthpiece you never tried before. My favorite trumpet mouthpieces were Schilcke and Yamaha and I tried them first, on my cornet. I let opinions of a couple of advisors turn me away form Denis Wick. I’m glad I finally made the decision on my own.  In the end, like me, you’re going to be the one who makes the final judgment about what piece you’re going to get.