Anything you want to perform on the instrument, you should be able to perform on the mouthpiece... in fact, the mouthpiece IS the instrument.
- Wise Brass Teacher
Want to help your young brass players develop better pitch accuracy? Have them practice with the professional musicians on their mouthpieces. Learning to match pitch on their mouthpiece can help both their sense of pitch and their accuracy on their instrument.
Professional Players Perform the Melody
In EEi the EEi Music Studio, students can practice along with professional musicians performing the melody. On many examples, they can even hear the melody by itself so they can focus on matching tone and pitch of the professional musician.
Steps for Brass Mouthpiece Practice in EEi:
Step 1: Select an exercise in EEi
Step 2: Set accompaniment to None with Melody On
Step 3: Practice on mouthpiece with the EEi melody line
Step 4: Record and listen to several takes to check progress
Helpful Hints:
Using headphones (Studio style – one ear on and one ear off) will help give the students a clear sense of how their pitch relates to the professional player.
If possible, practice fingering on the instrument while performing on the mouthpiece so the performance on the instrument is even better.
Student Discussion / Activity:
Students can practice and record themselves to see if the information they are putting into the mouthpiece matches the line of music. This is also a terrific ear training exercise. They can record multiple takes and see how their mouthpiece pitch accuracy improves from Take 1 to Take 5. They they can play it on their instruments to see if it is easier.