NOTE: Transcription of the text of the video, you can translate it into other languages with a translator, so you don't miss anything🧐
In this video I propose a challenge to you
¡¡¡¡ Let's start!!!!!!!
Imagine that you have your perfect mouthpiece, in all aspects,
Treble, bass, chopped, sound, etc…
Imagine that you have your perfect mouthpiece, in all aspects,
high notes, low notes, staccatos, the sound, etc...
I already know that this is pure fiction and that it never happens, but for a moment let’s close our eyes, breathe deeply and imagine it.
Your perfect mouthpiece has the shape of a V-cup, with a rather bright sound that you like, but imagine that you have to play a piece that requires a darker sound and if you play it with your mouthpiece the sound would be too much bright.
This is the challenge I propose to you, how can you modify the sound to make it darker? But without losing all the other characteristics, staccato, high, bass notes, etc. that you like so much.
To have a darker sound there is only one solution, we need to create more air volume inside the cup.
And to achieve this we have several options.
- The first, you can make your V cup deeper, it would be a good option, it seems a contradiction since the cup is still V and you may think that the sound will continue to be bright, but being deeper you will have more air volume in the inside of the cup and compared to the previous cup which was smaller, it will have a darker sound.
(I I will expand on this concept in the next chapter of Romera Brass ACADEMY)
But if we make the cup deeper, there is a little problem
The distance between the vibration of the lip and the end of the cup will be further away and you may lose the center in the staccato.
- Another good option would be to make the throat or backbore larger, this will give you a more full-bodied sound and it will be a little darker, but again you can lose the center of the note, the air passage is larger and can make it harder for you to make the high notes.
In all three cases, making a deeper cup or a larger throat or a larger backbore, the sound will be darker, since we manage to create more volume of air inside the cup.
But, you will no longer have the perfect mouthpiece, you will surely lose in some other aspect. For each musician it will be different, but it will certainly not be the same.
A fourth option and for me, the best option to achieve a darker sound would be to modify the shape of the cup.
- In this case, I would make you a more U-shaped cup
(Remember that we are looking for a darker sound).
With the more U-shaped cup we will get more air volume inside the cup, but we will not change any other aspect, the depth of the cup, the size of the throat and the backbore are exactly the same sizes.
In this chapter we have seen how to modify the sound, with four different options.
1. Deeper cup
2. Bigger throat
3. Larger backbore
4. And my favorite, ❤️ make the cup more U-shaped
We had a V-shaped cup that produces a brighter sound and with the same sizes of the cup, throat and backbore, we have modified the shape of the cup, more U-shaped to achieve a darker sound.
We will continue talking about the cups and how to modify the sound in future chapters of Romera Brass ACADEMY.
Do not miss it.
I'm Toni Romera and I look forward to your questions and comments.
Greetings and lots of music