When is it time to buy a new Clarinet Mouthpiece
Apr 06, 2024
When is it time to change your clarinet mouthpiece?
Before talking about mouthpieces - will you think about your shoes? As you grew, you needed new shoes so that they would fit where you were in your growth as a human being. At a certain point, your feet stopped growing. How many pairs of shoes have you bought since then? Did you buy them because your shoes wore out? Change in style? Didn’t want to wear work shoes to go running? There are a lot of reasons that are shockingly analogous to why we change clarinet mouthpieces.
If you are anything like me, this question of a new clarinet mouthpiece comes up sometimes. I have answered this for myself a fair number of times. The evidence shows that I have over 50 mouthpieces.
Through this personal process and years of teaching students of all ages, I have come to an understanding as to why and/or when somebody should change mouthpieces.
Why should somebody change mouthpieces?
The only reason (kind of two reasons but they are so related that we can call it just one reason) a person should change mouthpieces is that the mouthpiece they are using is slowing their progress or preventing them from making the clarinet sound how they want it to.
The big times to change:
- Before one even plays a note on the clarinet
- In high school/one year into playing for adult learners
- College/two to three years for adult learners
- Post college
Let's take a look…
Before even playing the clarinet:
Unfortunately, most clarinets (the one exception is the Yamaha 4C mouthpiece that comes with all Yamaha clarinets) come with a mouthpiece that makes it incredibly difficult to play the clarinet. Why? I have no idea. The solution is pretty easy and one of the most impactful changes one can make in the early stages. Buy one of three mouthpieces:
The Behn Overture and the Fobes Debut are both wonderful and low-cost options to get a mouthpiece that will help develop and support good clarinet playing. The Vandoren 5RV lyre is the best option for getting started in their vaunted Vandoren line of clarinet mouthpieces. As an addendum, the 5RV is more than just good for just getting going. I have played the 5RV Lyre in my professional career in many places with many people.
As a teacher of many people of all ages, I can attest, with certainty, that having a mouthpiece that helps a student create good habits from day one is worth its weight in gold.
The high school/one year into playing for adult learners mouthpiece change:
At this point, it is certainly time to explore mouthpieces a little more. Vandoren is the direction I encourage people to go at this point. Without getting pedantic with information about the characteristics of different mouthpiece facings, finding something in the middle of the Vandoren chart of mouthpieces is the place to look. Usually at this point, there is a teacher involved and their input is priceless because they know exactly what the player is doing and what goals/challenges are in play.
Still, the mouthpiece that falls in the center of the Vandoren mouthpiece universe is the 5RV Lyre. At this point in anybody’s clarinet journey, staying in the center of the universe is the best blueprint. The goal in this stage is to continue to develop and refine our skills and there is no mouthpiece more suited to do this than the 5RV Lyre.
College/two to three years into playing for adult students:
At this point, there is most certainly a teacher involved and their advice is very important. Not only do they know what they are talking about, but in order to give you the best of what they have to offer, a student has to be playing equipment that makes sense in relation to how that particular teacher plays the clarinet. This is all under the assumption that this teacher has been selected by the student as a person whose playing they respect and admire. (As a side note - if at this point you don't respect and admire your teacher you have the wrong teacher).
This is when the choices get more complicated. The question of a machine-made mouthpiece (such as Vandoren) or a hand made/finished mouthpiece (examples Brad Behn and Clark Fobes from above) comes into play. One important and notable difference is the price. As one would imagine, having a handmade/finished mouthpiece comes a much higher price point. At the same time, at this point in one's journey on the clarinet, the price at this point should not take the same place in the hierarchy that it should have in earlier stages of development.
Post College/Four years into adult clarinet learning:
- At this point, it’s time to put one’s thoughts and assessments into a more primary place in the mouthpiece conversation. Here are some sample thoughts one should have at this point (these are essentially thoughts that were - and should have been - offloaded mostly to a teacher). The big question first.
Does the clarinet sound like I want it to?
If no….
- Is the tone what I hear in my head? How do I want the tone to be different?
- Is the response comfortable for me?
- Is the articulation what I want in all registers of the clarinet?
- Am I squeaking? (usually that question answers itself)
- Is there too much resistance? Too little resistance?
- Am I able to play loud enough?
- Can I control the quiet dynamics?
This is the moment where things have pivoted from the mouthpiece choice being primarily tied to what is best for developing and advancing one’s playing to what is happening right now and what needs to be different to produce the sound that is heard in one’s ear.
General Clarinet mouthpiece ideas:
No mouthpiece purchase is permanent. I can’t remember how many times I have bought a mouthpiece and thought “this is the last mouthpiece I will ever want”. I can, however, remember how many times that has been true.
That number is zero.
To be fair, that was my feeling in the moment (that makes it true), but in the long run, it did not remain true. The reason for this is simple, but needs to be relearned multiple (100?) times over the course of one’s clarinet journey; Equipment does not solve problems. Equipment allows us to make slight changes in our approach to make small changes in our playing that allow a path to make the sound we hear in our ear. We (almost) always end up sounding like we did before we changed mouthpieces.
My biggest piece of clarinet mouthpiece advice:
When one buys a new mouthpiece it is important to reevaluate our concept of sound. For our new mouthpiece to serve us in the way we want, we must have clarity in what we want to sound like and be able to honestly assess what is different than that in the way we actually sound. The new mouthpiece should direct us towards refining our internal sound concept. If we don’t keep that in mind, we will all find a way to make the same sound and have the same problems that we had before the mouthpiece change.
Also… buying and playing a new mouthpiece is fun. Don’t dismiss that part of the equation. Playing clarinet is a noble endeavor on all levels, but it is also fun. It is okay to buy a mouthpiece and not use it forever. At least I hope that’s true because I have done it more than 50 times!