The Mouthpiece Made of Carrot

It’s the moment all brass players dread.  You’re on the gig, you open your instrument case and there’s no mouthpiece.  When I was 13 I was playing tuba in a brass band which was playing at the Royal Albert Hall and my mouthpiece was no where to be seen.  My parents never let me live this down and whenever I do something for my old school music teacher she always introduces me to her pupils and audience as the kid who forgot his mouthpiece (the last gig I did for her was at Christmas and 43 years later out popped the story again!).

How to make a mouthpiece from a carrot...

Years later when I was a pro tubist I had a gig for British Rail to play for a launch of a new, exciting train (that never got built).  The band was hidden behind a screen and was supposed to burst forth and play “When The Saints Go Marching In” at the end of the speeches and a short film.  Once again – arghhh….. no mouthpiece.  I called home but had to whisper as the speeches were going on.  My wife thought it was an obscene telephone call and slammed the phone down.  By the third call I convinced her I had no time to be obscene – this was an emergency.  She despatched a taxi and the mouthpiece finally arrived seconds before the big fat finale.  So traumatised was I by this that I keep a mouthpiece on me all the time even though I only play the tuba ten times a year.

Louis Armstrong - When The Saints Go Marching In

So last week Enrico Tomasso opens his trombone case and bloody hell, there it isn’t……   Now this is the type of challenge Pete Long relishes – he’s the chap who’ll sort it out.  He asks me to go to the kitchen and fetch a carrot and a knife and moments later he’s whittling and presents Rico with an orange trombone mouthpiece.  It works!  And, furthermore, good though the band meal was, it was rather small so Rico was able to eat his mouthpiece after the show!  A win win situation.

How To Fashion A Mouthpiece From A Carrot

If you watch the video and hear Pete going on about B&F productions I should explain that “Bodge and F*** It” is the unofficial name self-bestowed on all Pite/ Long musical ventures.