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Getting the first sound on your trumpet is not the hardest part. The hardship comes when you try to recreate that sound and make it better each time! The Mouthpiece makes a big difference in how successful a beginner a beginner, student, or professional makes sound. In this interview, Denis Wick artist Chris O'Hara explains what makes a quality beginner mouthpiece, and how to get your student set up on their new mouthpiece.
My long-suffering wife said, “You’re just never satisfied!”. Many a true word is spoken in exasperation. I had tentatively suggested, in about 1969, that somebody ought to design mutes that actually played in tune and worked in every register. We had been recording film music with Bernard Herrmann, who had helped to make all those Hitchcock films such a success. He was contemptuous of the old fibre mutes that I and my LSO trombone section were using. He called them "psychological mutes” and we knew what he meant.
A PRACTICAL AID TO A BEAUTIFUL SOUND, by Denis Wick
As every teacher knows, a good tone on any brass instrument needs a properly set-up embouchure; a good teacher will spare no effort to ensure that the student's embouchure is as efficient as possible. These days one may assume that the young player will have a reasonable instrument and a sensible mouthpiece. To this one must add what many teachers would regard as the most important of all - good breath control.
This year’s 4BR Special Award goes to Denis Wick — a man who revolutionised the way modern brass band sounds.