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DaveH
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Joined: 20 Nov 2001
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 Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2004 7:30 am Post subject: |
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| Nonsense Eliminator wrote: | Two suggestions:
What I will talk about is my observations. I played with a Denis Wick booster for about a year, when I was a student. I found it did make the horn slot more securely, as advertised, and it did tend to lead to a heavier sound that was easier to control at extremely loud dynamics. However, it also resulted in thick, dead articulations and and a rather inflexible, colourless sound. One day in rehearsal I was trying to play something light and delicate, and I took the booster off and never used it again on the big horns.
The only use I have for my booster is sometimes I will use it on piccolo trumpet, when I'm playing something loud and obnoxious (like Schmuyle or the end of Petrushka). I find it somewhat mitigates the ducklike character of the piccolo trumpet -- although it also deadens the response, so I often leave it off in these situations as well. Fundamentally, I think that for a lot of people the attractiveness of heavy mouthpieces comes from mistaking "dull, thick and dead" for "warm, dark and mellow."
I would say that my observations are fairly typical of my colleagues. The incidence of Megatone mouthpieces is a lot higher in high school marching bands than in professional symphony orchestras. Generally, I think it's fair to say that I just don't like the deadness in the sound that heavy equipment tends to produce. Some people do, and they're welcome to play whatever they want. If you're thinking about adding mass to your mouthpiece, though, I would simply suggest that you listen carefully for what I would call the "negative" effects of the extra mass. |
I'll very much agree with this.
There is a lot of "blasting" that goes on in high school bands, and maybe the Megatone facilitates this blasting. ( I was in a high school band many years ago - we did a lot of blasting). Just as a side comment, I think that all this blasting, in addition to excessive mouthpiece pressure, banging the mouthpiece against the lips, and trying to play in cold temperatures, are among reasons why many marching band players so often complain about embouchure problems, and how being in the marching band has somehow ruined their playing. Yes, prolonged blasting will do that, and wreck the sensitivity of the embouchure...
However, I don't care for blasting, so I don't find the argument that the Megatone allows for better tonal stability at higher volume levels to be important or meaningful. If the sound needs to be loud or amplified, then use a microphone...
I don't care for the extra mass equipment, be it mouthpieces, instruments, sound sleeves, valve caps, or whatever, for the reasons so well stated above.
Thick, dull, and dead is a good description that I have found to be true for me. IMO, those things just make playing the instrument harder and require more effort. And, I don't like the kind of sound that these devices are intended to help produce. My idea of trumpet tone is hindered by anything that adds weight to the horn, including the horn itself...
To each his own, however... |
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