Last Stop, Carnegie Hall: New York Philharmonic Trumpeter William Vacchiano

Chapter 6: Vacchiano’s Use of Equipment

81 Chapter SIX Vacchiano’s Use of Equipment F The Mouthpiece as each Vacchiano student attests,Vacchiano possessed an uncanny knowledge of the inner workings of the mouthpiece and how to find the right mouthpiece for each student. He stated: if you have a problem with your feet, you change your shoes. if you have a problem with your eyes, you get different glasses. Why should the lips be different? if someone is playing on the wrong mouthpiece he will never know the difference. if you give a student a mouthpiece that doesn’t fit him, you may hinder his career.1 This knowledge came from many years of personal experience, as well as analyzing each student’s embouchure and facial structure. The first time Vacchiano became aware of the importance of the mouthpiece is related in the following story: one day,i was walking on 57th street and i met georges Mager. i was pretty depressed about my playing. after i told him what mouthpiece i had,he explained that it was too small for me and then proceeded to give me a copy of his mouthpiece.That night we were doing Don Juan and i kept kicking my second trumpet 82 Last stop, Carnegie HaLL player and telling him, “Don’t double; don’t double!” i thought he was doubling me because my playing was so loud!2 He continued: i went from this crazy, small mouthpiece i’d been using to the one that he was using. it doubled my sound, my range, my speed of tonguing. everything just opened right up. i have a large face and here i was using that tiny mouthpiece! i didn’t even know it until i met him and i saw what was possible. if i hadn’t met him, i probably would never have known that these things were possible until, perhaps, much later in my life. This was 1933 or 1934, before i joined the orchestra. i used it for about a year, and then i realized that it was even too big for me, so i went to [george] Bukur. This was another lucky thing for me because he had a special backbore that was given to him by a Mr. schmidt in germany. He made the mouthpiece just a little bit smaller and, with the new backbore, it really did the trick. it gave me just the kind of sound i was looking for.3 another example Vacchiano gives of the importance of mouthpiece selection involves Bruno Jaenicke, former principal horn of the philharmonic : This is a true story of a really great horn player, Bruno Jaenicke, who was principal horn in the philharmonic. at the beginning of one of our seasons, Jaenicke seemed to be having a little trouble. We all looked the other way and were apprehensive. a few weeks later, as if a cloud had been lifted, Mr. Jaenicke sounded great again. When we asked him the reason, he said he tried to change his mouthpiece. He was in his sixties and should not have tried to improve such fine playing. although the above story may seem like a contradiction of my theories, don’t be afraid to experiment with new mouthpieces. Mr. Jaenicke ’s case was different; here was a great player who could’ve been destroyed by a bad mouthpiece. of course he knew good from bad, so no damage was done.4 83 VaCCHiano’s Use oF eQUipMent Most trumpet manufacturers include a relatively small mouthpiece with each new trumpet.Vacchiano hypothesized that this enabled many young players to play with a good range quickly. He estimated that one out of every ten students continued to play after a year or two, so it does not matter to the other eight or nine what they play. The one or two students who have the talent and desire to continue studying have been dealt a great disservice due to the mouthpiece, because the lips will outgrow the mouthpiece. if the manufacturer included a large mouthpiece, this could discourage the student early on and dissuade him from playing the trumpet. Careful guidance by the teacher is needed to assist the student in finding the right mouthpiece at the right time. “an aspiring pianist does not have this headache. all keyboards are the same!”5 “The mouthpiece is ninety-nine percent of the battle. You can’t change your lips to...