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On wind instruments the mouthpiece is that part of the instrument which is placed in, or next to, the player's mouth. In conjunction with the player's lips and, on many woodwind instruments, a reed, it produces the basic musical tones that characterize each particular instrument, from the single reed of the clarinet or saxophone to the flared turned brass tube of the horns, such as the trumpet, trombone, tuba, and the bugle. The double reed of the oboe or bassoonThe bassoon is the tenor member of the woodwind family. Like the oboe it has a double reed and overblows an octave higher. It is considered to have a tone color similar to that of the human voice, particularly in the central and upper register. The bassoo may also be thought of as a mouthpiece, although it is rarely referred to as such, because only the reed is placed in the mouth, while on the clarinet, a portion of the instrument itself is as well.
Mouthpieces are human-machine interfaces designed to transmit the maximum musical information from the mouth, lips, tongueAlternative meaning: Tongue, Highland The Tongue is the large bundle of muscles on the floor of the mouth that manipulates food for chewing and swallowing. is one of the organs of taste. Much of the surface of the tongue is covered in taste buds. assists and lungs of the performer into the air column of the instrument. On the performer's side, mouthpiece must be matched to embouchureThe embouchure is the shaping of the lips to the mouthpiece of a wind instrument. Less frequently, it is used to mean the mouthpiece itself. The word is of French origin and is related to the root bouche 'mouth'. The proper embouchure allows the instrumen, the exact way of setting the mouth parts to transmit the maximum of musical information to the mouthpiece.
Thus, the mouthpiece, attached to its instrument, is a means of extending the expressive power of the upper body. The typical mouthpiece is capable of playing only a few notes on its own, often with poor tone. By varying the air column in a myriad of ingenious ways, these few notes are transformed into many notes of many tones on the various instruments.
In western instruments of the European classicalThis article is about the broad genre of classical music in the Western musical tradition. For the period of music in the 18th century see Classical music era, for articles on classical music of non-Western cultures, see: List of classical music tradition tradition, there are several different kinds of mouthpiece. One of the most common is the one seen on brass instrumentBrass instruments A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose tone is produced by vibration of the lips as a player blows into a tubular resonator. Brass instruments are also called labrosones literally meaning "lip-vibrated instruments" (Baines, 199s, which is a type also used on several non-western instruments. This consists of a simple circular opening which leads to the main body of the instrument. The player causes his lips to vibrate while they are placed next to this opening. This causes the column of air contained within the instrument to vibrate.
The mouthpiece of many brass instruments, including the trumpet and trombone, is cup shaped, although the French horn's mouthpiece is simpler, being only slightly flared. The degree of flaring, and the exact shape of the "cup" if present can greatly affect the timbre of the instrument. The width of the opening in the mouthpiece also has an effect. A mouthpiece with a narrow bore is generally preferred by horn players who concentrate on the upper range of their instrument, and a wider bore by those who emphasize the lower range of their instrument in their playing.