My first experience with a mouthpiece.
When I started studying trombone, my teacher recommended me to buy a mouthpiece of a specific brand and model (which I prefer not to mention).
I bought it at the only music store in my town, full of drums and electric guitars, I think when I asked the man who served me for a trombone mouthpiece, I don't think he knew trombones had a mouthpiece.
After consulting some catalogs, he found the mouthpiece I wanted.
It took more than two months to arrive 😅
Finally, I have the mouthpiece in my hands!
I came home excited to have a "New Mouthpiece". I opened the box, took the mouthpiece out of the plastic bag and the first impression was horrible, the silver was all blackened, but the most surprising thing was how poorly made it was. At that time, at the age of 18, he already had some knowledge of turning mechanics.
The interior was completely scratched and to my astonishment the hole was visibly crooked with a step inside. Without trying the mouthpiece I went back to the store to check if that was normal.
The man looks at it and tells me that he sees it well, takes out of the drawer a "Magic cotton" to clean metals and the truth is that he let it super shiny.
However, it did not seem normal to me and I demanded that he changed my mouthpiece.
Fortunately, when he ordered my mouthpiece, he also bought two of the same models and still had one in the drawer. I opened it up and although it was also blackened, the interior seemed to have a better appearance and resigned I settled for this new mouthpiece.
I still have that mouthpiece.
With my first mouthpiece I made my first adjustments, “so to speak”.
First, I modified the shape of the inner rim, since it was digging into my lip. The first experience was phenomenal.
Then I felt much more comfortable.
Later, I opened the throat, you know the air flows and that's when I made my first mistake, " Now, this time, I fucked up." but it was also my first lesson to know how the mouthpiece worked
Perhaps the bad experience of buying such a poorly made mouthpiece led me to be such a perfectionist with the mouthpieces that I now make.
Will continue….