Cheater Mouthpieces?

[razeontherock]

Can that difference, in this context, be defined as strain?

As in, if while strainingyou get more range out of a shallow, small, and/or restrictive mpc than that's bad?

OTOH, if you get the sound you need with less effort out of a "specialized" mpc and can then concentrate on musicality and better relate the proper musical statements to the audience, then you found a useful tool?
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"And this is life: that you know the Son, and the One who sent Him." The rest is just details

[dbacon]

If you need a crutch, that's one thing....
If you use a tool.....
That's another thing.....

[mcahynuacrkd]

Well said John.
I too have joined the ranks of the multiple mouthpiece horn players. With all of the different styles of music that I play, anywhere from legit symphonic band and sacred liturgical music to lead playing in rock , ccm and jazz, each genre of music places various demands on the player.
The first thing that I do these days is I search for what I believe is the best sounding horn. Once I select and buy the horn I then find the mouthpiece which makes this trumpet (horn) sound the best. Compare how each mouthpiece sounds. You might want to record your horn using different mouthpieces, then listen to the different sounds and determine which mouthpiece sounds the best.
As of late I play mostly on a Curry 1 1/2 C. The Curry 1 1/2 C is a great sounding overall trumpet mouthpiece, unless you really need to get up into the stratosphere, which in that case I personally use different pea shooter mouthpieces to get the job done.
In my opinion, although a C mouthpiece sounds very good, those of us who want our range to sail above that of most of the other trumpet players need to use a mouthpiece with more bite than a C.
A good trumpet player selects his or her mouthpiece very carefully. This was the context of an earlier statement that I made that has been quoted out of context, as in a good trumpet player knows to select their mouthpiece carefully, not just play on any mouthpiece (at all, as in without caring about which mp they use).
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[deleted_user_fdb91a0]

Switching mouthpieces is a shifty subject for some people, and the opinions are usually one or the other.

I think Mohan has a good point when it comes to younger players switching mouthpieces a lot. It takes some years and a TON of playing before one really "figures it out" from the standpoint of embouchure mechanics. And many players never actually "figure it out". Trumpet playing, especially playing in the upper register, really is a knack...sort of like juggling and riding a unicycle at the same time. Switching mouthpieces before the knack has been found just causes confusion in the embouchure and disrupts whatever muscle memory has been built.

I've found that a good gauge of whether or not a person has it "figured out", is if they can switch mouthpieces back and forth on the fly, and not be thrown for a loop. Also, these people usually have the same range on a large mouthpiece as they do on a smaller mouthpiece. Cup depth affects the color and amplitude of the sound, whereas diameter affects range, endurance, etc.

For what it's worth, I switched mouthpieces a LOT when I was younger. And though I stuck around the same diameter, it still probably stunted my growth a bit. However, I did learn a lot about how to play the instrument through the pitfalls of torturing my embouchure via mouthpiece switching. A couple years ago I settled on my Monette BL4S6 Prana, and love it. I've had no need to switch since then, because it offers such a broad spectrum of sounds.

My advice: stick with a medium-sized mouthpiece until you can play just about anything on it.

[WeaselMan1]

my advice would be to try out as many mouthpieces as you can get your hands on and find the one with the best balance of characterisitics: articulation, sound, ease of high register, "zing" in extreme upper register.