Mouthpieces

Ok,

I know most of you know already, have a preference of your own, or are well beyond this stage. But, I'm often asked what the best mouthpiece is to buy.

Of course, when someone asks this question, they are normally not very experienced or are perhaps asking with regard to their beginner students.

People might say there is not really a right or wrong answer to this, but there is: If you are asking this question, its for the benefit of your beginner students and in that case, its a Yamaha 4C, no question. Or, you are a professional (advancing student) and don't have the possibility of trying 30 different mouthpieces before spending a fortune on one, that might or might not be that great in the end- in this case, I say Vandoren AL3 (TL3 for tenor, BL3 baritone etc.) (not AL4!).
 

Why not a Selmer?

Well, the answer is, you can find a great Selmer, but you can also find a dud. You can send your student to the shop to buy a Yamaha 4C, and they will get the right thing every time. There is simply too much variation in the sound, response and QUALITY of Selmer to trust an unexperienced player to be able to tell the difference between a good/great/useless mouthpiece. (Trust me, I've been to the factory and have seen them being made-by 6 people- more than 100 per day...)

For the pro/advancing student, of course you can make up your own mind- but it is very helpful to have a reference. This has traditionally been the Selmer C* but the point of having a reference is that it must be consistent, and this is simply not the case with Selmer. Which is not to say that you can't find a great mouthpiece from Selmer, but you might have to be prepared to search, spend a lot of money, and quite frankly- throw some away (for the love of saxophone, don't sell them to your students!). Also, if you don't have the luxury of trying before you buy, which is very often the case in NZ, I would recommend only to buy a mouthpiece from the people producing consitent products (Yamaha/Vandoren).

Its simply too much money (and has such an influence on the quality of sound and ultimate enjoyment of playing) to throw away on something that you don't know is the best value for what you have to spend.