Cup Depth Matters!!

INTJ · Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2023 10:32 pm Post subject: Cup Depth Matters!!

I always warm up at home before rehearsal. Then I get there early and play just a little before rehearsal formally starts. So at Jazz Band tonight, when doing my little bit of playing before it was time, I didn't seem to have the sizzle I usually have.

I share the lead book with a former pro player. We were reading a bunch of new tunes and he gave me most of the lead. Playing up to G above High C. Everything seemed okay, but after playing for about 45 minutes I suddenly crashed. The mouthpiece felt like was swallowing my face. I even mentioned that.

I started discussing how I was going to have to step things up, etc. Maybe I had been a little lazy--even though every practice session at home for the last month or so I have been playing John Harner's solo on Kenton's Send in the Clowns and getting through that well. If you don't know, it has a lot of high sustained 4 ledger line Fs and Gs.

Well, as I was packing up my stuff I noticed I had grabbed the wrong mouthpiece. I have a MP case with 4 almost identical looking MPs. They all have the same rim, but the cups go: shallow, med-shallow, medium, and medium deep. 95% of my playing is on the shallow cup, and when I have to play classical stuff I use the med-shallow on the Bb horns and the medium cup on the C. I almost NEVER play on the medium deep.

So I payed an entire 2 hour rehearsal, mostly on lead, with my deepest cup MP. I started feeling a little better after that. I don't have to work anywhere nearly as hard on the shallow cup to sizzle and project as I do on the deeper cup.

This is the first--and last--time I have done something like that........

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BreakFromTheHerd · Veteran Member Joined: 12 Apr 2022 Posts: 137

I bet you fared better than the dude who brought his Bobby Shew Lead piece to a long orchestral rehearsal.

INTJ · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2023 11:14 am Post subject:

Jaw04 · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2023 11:17 am Post subject:

Been there done that. In the practice room, playing lead on a deep cup is not a problem.. but when you do it on rehearsal/gig you'll be dead pretty quick.

INTJ · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2023 1:29 pm Post subject: