This product was supposed to be delivered immediately, since it was immediately available. Next to other products’ packaging being destroyed before being packed in a postal box, this product suffered an unexplained delay. For the last three orders, Thomann seems to have had and still has someone on staff that continuously messes up my orders and Thomann’s good reputation, but customer care refuses to contact the distribution center. They literally take my products out of their packaging, and push them back in again in such a way that they wreck the inside of my packaging, or simply stomp on the DVD-casing. Thomann, fix it!
Original review:
But then you still need to learn to alter the pitch. If you want to learn to play the trumpet, until then you might want to get something simple, to make sure you practice your buzz sufficiently, reducing the time needed to learn to play the actual trumpet as soon as you get one.
This trumpet mouthpiece is solid, as in sturdy. With a bit of practice I need hardly any pressure other than to hold it against my lips to get a variety of “tones.” I do have to say it helped me a great deal checking Charlie Porter’s illustration of how to buzz properly in terms of embouchure. Arban’s book doesn’t really explain anything in terms of the technique. The man was actually clear on the fact that he had no idea how to get a proper embouchure when you read the lines, not just between them, if you ask me.
Is it a professional grade mouthpiece? No, it isn’t. This has nothing to do with playability, because in practice when you get a professional mouthpiece it won’t be that much easier to get a buzz, unless you get an easier cup-size. And with this cup-size and Mr. Porter’s explanations, I got my first clean buzz the second day I had it, after learning to sufficiently relax into it, which doesn’t mean that I pouted my lips. I did follow his instructions. (Tip! For the highest of tones, angle the airflow up a little bit, more toward your nose, this will allow for an even smaller aperture without pressure to the lips. Sorry, Arban.)
The reason this isn’t a professional grade mouthpiece, when I listen to people playing their professional mouthpieces on YouTube, is quite frankly that it hasn’t been tuned. When you put it in a trumpet, it isn’t going to make the trumpet go out of tune, the length of the trumpet tube determines its pitch, but if it has been tuned properly to any pitch, this will greatly improve the response of the trumpet, dialing in on all of the overtones it produces. The sound will become more clear, because the tones get to resonate freely in the mouthpiece as well. A mouthpiece like Thomann’s ultra-budget 1-1/2C will make your sound a bit muddy, which is a different thing than mellow. Mellow means that it would emphasize the undertones.
Can Thomann do better and do they have to? I don’t know. With some modern technologies it might be possible to offer tuned mouthpieces for a minimal prize. Either way, to practice your buzz, it doesn’t have to be tuned, your buzz just shouldn’t flutter. That means that a mouthpiece like this performs way above average and is more than minimally sufficient to get you started on buzzing.
