How to Choose Clarinet Mouthpiece

Are you wondering which clarinet mouthpiece you should buy? When you looked into buying clarinet mouthpieces, I bet you were shocked at how many different mouthpieces were available to you. They vary in shape and sizes! At first, you would be thinking, 'Why are there so many mouthpieces?' You may also be wondering what difference each different mouth piece has. I'll tell you everything about choosing your clarinet mouthpiece here.

The price of the mouthpiece varies because of the material it's made out of. The wood differs slightly which can change the price of these mouthpieces greatly. For example, the beginner clarinets will be made out of cheap wood or plastic or rubber that are just there to help you create a decent sound on the clarinet. When you are a beginner, you are just learning your instrument so the mouthpieces don't really matter.

When you get into jazz band with your clarinet, you should consider buying a jazz mouthpiece. Now what's the difference between a jazz mouthpiece and classical mouthpiece? The jazz mouthpiece has a more open tip allowing you to have less resistance when you blow air through the mouthpiece. The resistance is there to create a deep, rich sound that a classical clarinet should make to blend in with the band, but it's not the same in jazz. For jazz, you definitely want an open mouthpiece where you can blow air easily through your horn and create loud noises. It's also easier to execute jazz techniques on the mouthpieces such as flutter tonguing or bending on a clarinet.

For classical, you want to make a beautiful, controlled sound. That's why classical mouthpieces are different from jazz mouthpieces. They have a more closed tip than compared to the jazz mouthpieces therefore making it harder to push air through the mouthpiece due to resistance, but creates a sound that blends in with the entire band and is very beautiful and pleasurable to listen to. I'm not saying that jazz is not beautiful to listen to, but you can easily notice a big sound difference between the two styles of clarinet being played in these different styles of music.

There are also quite a lot of cool looking mouthpieces such as the one that you can see through. Some of these are great sounding, but most of the reason I ever purchased this was of curiosity and the looks. It is sometimes pretty disgusting to see your own spit go down the clarinet, but also very cool at the same time. Good luck becoming an amazing clarinet player everyone!