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Side note related to music analysis…

There’s a YouTube thing that removes all melodic content from a Beatles song(s). It sounds just like a rhythmic analysis (pretty sure that was the intent…) one might do in music school. I posted it one time and received an absolutely visceral response from the wife of a friend I’ve known for 40+ years. He and I went to school together and he’s a really, really, well known professional jazz musician. She was not amused in the slightest. As a native NYer, she felt it was disrespectful to John, who many of them consider an adopted native NYer. “One of them.”

Everyone else commented on how interesting it was to hear the rhythmic components isolated.

People take their Beatles seriously.

MiBrassFS wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 12:13 pm Side note related to music analysis…

There’s a YouTube thing that removes all melodic content from a Beatles song(s)...
People take their Beatles seriously.

...as well as choosing to be triggered.
me...?? sometimes guilty of this myself. I need to do better.

He explained to her that it was a nerdy musician thing… no big deal in the end, but it was an interesting response and educational for me.

Any of these mouthpieces available? Cancelled orders,someone received and a bad fit? Curious to try. Playing a Laskey 32b. I do like it, but the FOMO…

MikeMason wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 12:59 pm Any of these mouthpieces available? Cancelled orders,someone received and a bad fit? Curious to try. Playing a Laskey 32b. I do like it, but the FOMO…

Everyone has paid...
I'll make another batch...and another...etc.

MiBrassFS wrote: ↑Tue Mar 25, 2025 12:13 pm Side note related to music analysis…

There’s a YouTube thing that removes all melodic content from a Beatles song(s). It sounds just like a rhythmic analysis (pretty sure that was the intent…) one might do in music school. I posted it one time and received an absolutely visceral response from the wife of a friend I’ve known for 40+ years. He and I went to school together and he’s a really, really, well known professional jazz musician. She was not amused in the slightest. As a native NYer, she felt it was disrespectful to John, who many of them consider an adopted native NYer. “One of them.”

Everyone else commented on how interesting it was to hear the rhythmic components isolated.

People take their Beatles seriously.

Yes, including me. But with maturity comes the acknowledgements of how much of every track was studio-created, and some tracks, especially the later tracks, which simply cannot be replicated. Then the next stage in the analysis is synthesis, understanding from whence they were inspired, and what may be a good way to perform any particular song live, especially after these last decades of Paul on tour. Recently a friend of a friend invited me to a recording session where he was re-doing the song Honey Pie off the White Album. Even though George played a Fender Bass VI as the bass line on the original track, I reminded the engineer that Paul wrote this in Music Hall style, and that the authentic bass instrument would have actually been either a recording bell tuba or sousaphone, being the style was before amplification for double bass. He wasn't sure at first, but then called me back the next day to bring the souzy. Meanwhile, I was diligently transcribing the isolated bass track, much as you describe hearing the backing tracks without vocals in the opening post, and woodshedded. He called me back the next day and said bring the souzy along. So two days later I show up with both a bass guitar and the souzy. So we spent some time setting the souzy and microphone up, and he played into my headphones what he had to that point with piano and other rhythm as I played along "just to get a level." At the end, I asked him if he had turned on the souzy mic to record. He said he did. I said, "OK, then. There's your track." Yes. One take. Everybody who hears it comments on its musicality and authenticity. While others were taking more than one take to record some more tracks, I sat around and drank good beer, as my job was done.

People find their “church” in all sorts of places. To me, that’s a good thing.


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@bloke Any chance of making up something like an “OGU, JR” with a smaller 32.3 diameter rim?

MiBrassFS wrote: ↑Wed Mar 26, 2025 4:46 am People find their “church” in all sorts of places. To me, that’s a good thing.


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@bloke Any chance of making up something like an “OGU, JR” with a smaller 32.3 diameter rim?

If there was only one church, there would only be one set of gigs and only one tuba player playing them.

The first batch left here today to your final destinations. I decided to send some of them to people who had some other orders sitting here waiting to ship, so I could combine stuff into single boxes for them, one or two people seemed extremely eager so I went ahead and sent theirs..
After that, I just sort of went in alphabetical. I'm sure hoping to see the rest in a very few more days..

We would be really interested in feedback as these start arriving at your doorsteps. I think you may find that this is not some wide open so-called "free blowing" mouthpiece, but is an "easy blowing' mouthpiece that makes a nice sound without working very hard, yet (hopefully) doesn't put any limits on the dynamic range. I'm hoping it also generates a nice type of sound for you.
I also really hope to see the second batch sometime this week, even if it's towards the end of the week.

Thanks again so much for continuing to give me a shot as I dabble in this mouthpiece stuff.

Mine is on the USPS truck, out for delivery, but I have a wound care appointment at the hospital, and then I have to drive into Jackson to Dillard's for new concert clothes. After lunch and arrival back in Third World, America, I will be practicing. I am playing Broughton on the Kurath using my OG OG*, and will trial the OGU at that time.

I'll give you some feedback later tonight.
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*"Original Gangster" Orchestra Grand

Okay, after a quick 30 minutes before having to leave the house for the day, I am using the OG on my Kurath for the concerto, and it is a bit boomy for my tastes.

The new OGU just permanently replaced it (for this tuba). I have to try it on my Mirafone 186, Yamaha 826, and Holton 345 to see how it shakes out. On the F, the tone is more or less the same but with more focus and… um… a little smaller. This is a good thing in my case.

Technique is about the same, with the low register having an easier blow and a better tone, overall.

I do not think I will like it on the Yamaha, but I bet the Holton lights up with it. I think the 186 might like it, too.

The Yamaha likes huge mouthpieces, but the others (that I have built) like smaller ones. This one is not small at all, but it plays with the control of a smaller mouthpiece. The output is a bit less due to the throat size (a guess on my part), but that is an improvement from my point of view. Others may disagree with me, but luckily I agree with myself, at least, heh, heh…

Great work, Joe!

"I AM UNANIMOUS IN THAT!"

Ok, everyone, all together now…

Another hour on the Kurath:

Yeah, this mouthpiece is a winner for me with this horn. Once the concerto is out of the way, I will work on the three other tubas with this piece. Should be a fun ride.

Me likey.

I had to polish up the plating on the Yamaha because tomorrow is that photo shoot for the publicity poster for my upcoming solo performance with the local community orchestra, and it is (by far) the most photogenic of my tubas.

While it was out of the case, I tried the OGU for about 30 minutes.

It works great in the Yamaha. The Holton and Yamaha seem to like opposite extremes in mouthpieces. The Holton is the instrument I was thinking of when I purchased the OGU. Joe's descriptions of the specs and playing characteristics made me think that it would be a solid combo. I did not expect the Yamaha to like it very much, if at all. Seeing how well it has worked in the Kurath and the Yamaha, I am stoked about sitting down with my Low Etudes book and the Holton with the OGU plugged into the receiver. I think I have my new "general" mouthpiece. I have rarely owned a mouthpiece that I liked on more than one instrument, but this may have changed…

However, the Mirafone and Holton both use the same 186 receiver, and the Kurath uses a smaller version from an old 180 F. All fit this shank well. The Yamaha has a Euro receiver, and the OGU drops into it pretty far. If I like it enough on that specific tuba and Joe ends up offering a version with a Euro shank, I will buy one of them, too; I like this mouthpiece.

I also feel lucky to have snagged a one-piece, plated brass version. I like SS quite a bit, and I like modularity, but old school is still my preference.

If he makes another low-cost run of these you would be nuts not to grab one to mess around with. If he introduces a 3-piece SS version at his full retail price it is still something to seriously look at as it seems to be neutral enough to work on all tubas with solid intonation and an even response from top to bottom.

I don't sell stuff. I hate doing that. I am not being paid for an endorsement. I hate doing that, too. I am a nice guy, but when I give an opinion on a product, I am usually quite blunt. I have nothing negative to say about this mouthpiece except that the rim is different from what I normally use, and it is not interchangeable. However, it is something I like enough to get used to, as the results I am seeing are worth it. Everything is a bit easier and more relaxed for me.

I have already decided to perform the Broughton on this mouthpiece and to use it on the remainder of this season, including all my upcoming freelance work.

I'm glad you like it. I know (all too well) that I'm a weirdo so I can't assume that other people will like what I like.

The regular steel OG cup and shank is pretty close, but I like this throat better, I like this back bore a little better, on this fixed version I dropped the top of the cup diameter by 4/10ths of a mm (less work) and I shaved some off of the outside of the already narrow rim, because I'm one of those whose bottom of their nose is pretty close to their lips opening, and even that little bit more allows me to play really low easier, because I can jam the mouthpiece rim up against my nose just a little bit farther.

When I stuck it on the big big tuba (which requires so much precision and timing to play legato/bel canto), suddenly that tuba was noticeably more forgiving. Obviously not internally, but maybe inside my head I giggle a little bit when playing a bunch of those 32nd note "doodly-doodly" Marco Bordogni exercises that are way down in Rochut books two and three... They're (almost) easy.

When playing B flat tubas in sharp keys, valves two and three are depressed together fairly often, because that's how to play F sharp, and we all know that this length of tubing is pretty nebulous (same as trombones' fifth position, about which trombone players have made up a bunch of jokes - and for good reason), a bit difficult to find the focus, and on a B-flat tuba it's not much less cylindrical tubing than the fourth valve circuit on a C tuba... With this mouthpiece I can handle the F sharps with much more confidence (including the even more nebulous one that's up in the staff), though I really don't understand why or how this mouthpiece offers that additional ease of focus on those particular pitches.

"Forgiving" is the perfect adjective to apply to this great mouthpiece.

Also accurate would be "neutral" and "balanced", with all three being very complimentary descriptors.

Another hour logged. The difference in the rim profile is starting to blend into the background for me. I just needed to adjust to it via some repetition.

Not long ago, I reached out and one of you (thank-you again) sent me this excerpt from William Walton's "Crown Imperial" March.
The tempo is not break-neck (after all, it's a British march and a coronation march to boot), but (with really large tubas...not to mention that I'm now playing a B-flat with a crazy-large valve section bore size) I've always had to insert some articulations into this, and (also) I've had to be careful in order to make it all the through all of this (without leaving some of it out to breathe).

It's not that this is any sort of "miracle mouthpiece"...and - OK - I've spent some time on this excerpt recently "just because", but I'm able to play the four-pitch groupings "slurred" and (also, with the little bit smaller throat...and - if I don't get carried away) I get get through the entire "event" without stopping to breathe.

this mouthpiece: a return to "moderation in all things" (??), as well as (ok...unlike the overwhelming majority of historical and currently-manufactured mouthpieces) "Why so much metal surface area anchoring down the face?" (my belief) A not-wide/not-sharped-edged rim allows a tuba mouthpiece to "float" - as (unlike smaller brass) our front-teeth gap changes so very drastically - throughout the range of the instrument - and (I believe) our skin needs to move some along with our teeth/jaw. (another "my belief") Wide rims on tuba mouthpieces - rather than acting as cushions - in reality, act as clamps.