Large tenor pieces
Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2023 12:21 pm
Hi all,
I've been a bass trombone specialist for many years, I've only ever worked professionally in trombone playing bass.
Recently, I had a lighter schedule, so I signed up to a tenor trombone audition for fun and to have something new to work on. I hadn't played any tenor for probably well over a decade, but worked hard and got a much better result at the audition that I was expecting. As a result, I've been booked for some semi regular work on tenor.
I found in my preparation for the audition the only way I could get any sort of acceptable consistency in my playing was to use my normal bass slide and a bach 1 1/2G mouthpiece, which is much smaller than what i usually play on bass. Range/sound wasn't really a major issue but it was hard work from an endurance perspective getting though things like bolero in the context of an audition round. I put in a lot of effort trying to use actual designed tenor pieces but as hard as I tried I couldn't get a sound I was happy with and it just simply wasn't as good overall as when I played the 1 1/2.
Now that it looks like I will actually be doing some more tenor seriously, is there any easily accessible mouthpiece that has a 1 1/2G rim but smaller dimensions inside the cup? I feel that's the sort of design I should experiment with but im not sure if any standard makers do something like that.
I'm hoping not to sink a large amount of money going the custom route if I can avoid it (especially if I dont know if I would even like it) so if anyone is aware of a semi standard design like I've described I'd love to be pointed in the right direction.
Just for context, I tried the whole line of the big alessi signature griegos (the 1 size line its called?) and some big rim/shallow cup JK design already when I was preparing for the audition, but none of those were what I was looking for, mainly feel I just can't fit enough parts of my face in the rim that I need to use.
I've been a bass trombone specialist for many years, I've only ever worked professionally in trombone playing bass.
Recently, I had a lighter schedule, so I signed up to a tenor trombone audition for fun and to have something new to work on. I hadn't played any tenor for probably well over a decade, but worked hard and got a much better result at the audition that I was expecting. As a result, I've been booked for some semi regular work on tenor.
I found in my preparation for the audition the only way I could get any sort of acceptable consistency in my playing was to use my normal bass slide and a bach 1 1/2G mouthpiece, which is much smaller than what i usually play on bass. Range/sound wasn't really a major issue but it was hard work from an endurance perspective getting though things like bolero in the context of an audition round. I put in a lot of effort trying to use actual designed tenor pieces but as hard as I tried I couldn't get a sound I was happy with and it just simply wasn't as good overall as when I played the 1 1/2.
Now that it looks like I will actually be doing some more tenor seriously, is there any easily accessible mouthpiece that has a 1 1/2G rim but smaller dimensions inside the cup? I feel that's the sort of design I should experiment with but im not sure if any standard makers do something like that.
I'm hoping not to sink a large amount of money going the custom route if I can avoid it (especially if I dont know if I would even like it) so if anyone is aware of a semi standard design like I've described I'd love to be pointed in the right direction.
Just for context, I tried the whole line of the big alessi signature griegos (the 1 size line its called?) and some big rim/shallow cup JK design already when I was preparing for the audition, but none of those were what I was looking for, mainly feel I just can't fit enough parts of my face in the rim that I need to use.