Confusing or just different strokes??

[ScottA]

Yesterday on my FB feed there was a comment from Ronald Romm saying that he finds many players are far too open in their mpc setting and encouraged them to put their lips closer together. Later, while at the gym and listening to a podcast with Bobby Shew, I hear him say that many players he sees are too closed and need to open up their chops!.

Both amazing players and both incredibly successful in their careers. Is this just a different approach based on the type of music these guys play or is it a fundamental difference in playing? Thoughts?
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Scott Apelgren
Indialantic, FL

[JWG]

Hi Scott,

Too closed versus too open?: You ask a good question, but a question which I believe becomes irrelevant by choosing mouthpieces with an inner diameter that fits properly.

If you choose a mouthpiece that mismatches your lips and/or underlying dentition, you force your lips to become too closed in a small diameter mouthpiece or too open in a too large diameter mouthpiece.

I suggest finding the right size of mouthpiece first, where the red of the lips fits into the mouthpiece from bottom lip to top lip without going oversize (i.e., skin protruding into the mouthpiece) or undersize (i.e., the top or bottom of the mouthpiece resting on the red of the lips and cutting off blood flow). Once you find a good fit for your particular face, then opening or closing your lips becomes a function of controlling the muscles around your lips. You will open and close the lip aperture as you need to change pitch and dynamics.

Now, some pro players whom I greatly admire fundamentally disagree with the idea that mouthpieces are like shoes and should physiologically fit. However, I have helped enough school kids to know that kids should upsize their mouthpieces as their bodies grow. My own kids both started on Bach 10.5 rims, went to 7 rims, upsized in middle school to 3 rim, and high school they settled on 1.5. My daughter especially bounced between a 3 and 1.5 as she is smaller than my son and me, but by senior year and throughout college she played a 1.5. However, other kids, especially those with thin lips could not go bigger than a 7 rim without suffering "blow out" due to too much lip falling into the cup. Similarly, a colleague of mine who had the thinnest lips I had ever seen on someone over 6 foot tall had difficulty playing on anything bigger than a 10.5 rim.

The objective explanation for what I have witnessed arises from lip size and/or dentition behind the lips. Find the right size shoe and your feet will not suffer; find the right mouthpiece size and your chops will not suffer. As my dad would tell me, K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid! Also, do not engineer a problem for yourself by changing something that works; that is, "do not fix it until you break it."

Good Luck!
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Flip Oakes Wild Thing Bb and C with 1.5 TCC, XT, C, C-O, O, & L mouthpieces
Bach 183S (undersprung valves & straight taper pipe) with 1.5 Flip Oakes XF

[ScottA]

Thanks, but I wasn't really looking for advice here, just a conversation. I have been on the same size mouthpiece (Bach 5-ish) for 20+ years. But I do enjoy trying out different makers take on them from time to time.

I was a GR trained consultant and dealer for about 10 years and I am in total agreement that the right fit is everything!
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Scott Apelgren
Indialantic, FL