Monette Mouthpiece update

[barryj1]

I have been playing on my new (i.e. first and only) Monette FL cornet mouthpiece and must say that it is a fantastic piece. It took a while to adjust as the mouthpiece responds differently than my previous Flip Oaks 1XD and Denis Wick no letter 2, but it is a pleasure to play. The tone and intonation are flawless in all registers and the rim quite comfortable.
One has to get in the habit of relaxing and not muscling the notes. Additionally because its the prana model, the horn requires a bit more air in order to play down the pitch centers.
At best, I am and have always been an intermediate level cornetist, but this mouthpiece makes me sound better than I have in the past, even in my college years. Given the fact that I'm presently pushing eighty, that's quite a pleasant and unexpected development.
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Getzen 800DLX cornet, Monette 1B FL prana cornet

[Subtropical and Subpar]

That's fantastic. I use a Monette B11 - older model, pre-Prana and all the rest of it - on my Connstellation cornet and the timbre and control are just phenomenal. It's not as deep as a FL / flumpet cup but it's probably a notch or two deeper than your typical B cup in Bach lingo.
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32 King Silvertone cornet
36 King Liberty No. 2 trumpet
58 Reynolds Contempora "Renascence" C
58 Olds AmBessador
62 Reynolds Argenta trumpet
65 Conn 38A
95 Bach LR18072
03 Kanstul 991
11 Schilke P5-4 B/G
21 Manchester Brass flugel

[Danbassin]

Congrats!

Monette flugelhorn and the cornet mpcs with deep VEE cups, riffing on turn-of-the-century cornet mpcs, are so much fun to play. And, after past experiences many of us have had with great sounding deep cups leaving us ultimately unsupported in different registers, at different dynamic levels, or after a few too many minutes in the chops, Constant Pitch Center is an almost miraculous thing to be able to lean on.

Your sense of “more air” being needed is something I’ve been thinking of lately, coming on almost 30 years of playing Monette mpcs - I think the fact that we no longer have to focus so much from the neck up on muscling our instruments around, the focus does turn to our breath support almost automatically. Muscling/forcing Monette gear is unnecessary and counterproductive, and the attention to our body’s resonance, from our alignment, to the flow of breath, through the sound we have in our mind, to the intention of our musical line, out into the hall, through the audience, and back to us from the acoustic…that sounds so much better than focusing on buzzing and brass playing!

Happy buzzing - with your head over your spine!
-DB
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Daniel Bassin
Conductor/Composer/Trumpeter/Improviser/Educator
I play: Monette - CORNETTE/MC-35/Shakti C/Raja A-Picc; Monette-converted 70s Bach 37; Ricco Kühn T053; Benges and various antiques.
MPCs = Monette Unity 1-7D, 2-7M, and DM4LD

[barryj1]

Last night I was playing simple scales and warm-up exercises extending slowly from well below the staff into the upper register. The top notes cut off around C# or D. The slurred scales went up effortlessly and slotted/locked in the upper register with no strain or loss of tonal richness.
I can't play too much higher simply because I've lost considerable compression over the years (i.e. my lungs simply don't work as well). At the end of the day there's no swelling or discomfort, which is the way a brass instrument is meant to be played.
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Getzen 800DLX cornet, Monette 1B FL prana cornet