My Experiences with Colleagues and Pupils

When I finished studying at the State Music College in Cologne in autumn 1929 (my trumpet teacher was Chamber Musician Ludwig Werle) almost all the students from the music college had to earn their living playing in dance halls or cafes.

From Cologne I then moved, with various dance bands and light music orchestras, via Hamburg, Bremen, Hanover, Breslau (now Wrocław in Poland), Düsseldorf, Zürich and St. Moritz in Switzerland, etc. to Berlin. As I wanted to stay in Berlin, I stayed there as a freelance musician.

I always appeared as a soloist in these orchestras and so I had four solos prepared: Carnival of Venice and Napoli by Staigers-Bellstedt, Zigeunerweisen by Sarasate and Csárdás by Monti. Since I had most success with Carnival, it was latterly the only one I played—sometimes three times in an evening.

Among professionals this sort of thing soon gets around and young trumpet players were always coming to me and asking how to get such a good embouchure. With many of these young colleagues I noticed that they were placing the mouthpiece wrongly on the lips and rolling the lips in or out.

I well remember a case in Hamburg of a young Belgian trumpet player of 19 or 20 who came to me; the build of his jaw was very unsuitable for playing the trumpet (Illustration A) in that his lower jaw lay well back so that he had a receding chin. He played 2nd trumpet in a dance band and was very musical but could reach G above the stave only with great difficulty. He held his instrument pointing downwards like a clarinet. I told him he should get himself a mouthpiece made with the lower half of the rim projecting 4 to 5 mm (Ill. B) so that the lower lip would get a better grip on the mouthpiece. About two years later I met him again in Bremen and he told me he could play much better with the mouthpiece I had recommended. He was playing 1st trumpet in a seven-piece band.

Another colleague in Hanover had in his youth had an accident to the right-hand side of his lower lip, damaging the muscle which encircles the lips. When he played the right-hand side of the lower lip bulged out like a large red knot. My recommendation (Ill. C) was to have the mouthpiece rim widened at the side so that the lower lip would be restrained.