|
Cup Volume Cup volume is the actual volume of the mouthpiece cup. Perhaps described as the amount of water the cup itself will hold. How do we measure cup depth, volume, and shape? Cup Volume is measured in cubic inches and it represents the area from the rim plane to the throat bore including depth and shape. Cup Depth is measured from the rim plane to the point where the throat bore begins. When using the term Cup Depth we are not taking into consideration the cup shape. Cup Volume is the only way to describe the cup in 3 dimensions. Residual Cup Volume is the amount of area inside the cup (GR measures this in cubic inches) minus the amount of lip engagement into the cup. For instance, if a player has a good amount of chop engagement into the cup and uses a Medium volume, the actual volume left over may be similar to a player that has less chop engagement and uses a small volume cup. Keeping that in mind, in general terms, larger volume cups have a lower First Natural Harmonic of the mouthpiece and may produce more lower partials in the sound, therefore, play with less "edge" than smaller volume cups. Note * The First Natural Harmonic will raise with added lip engagement into the cup. Example, a given mouthpiece has a First Natural Harmonic of 655 Hz with no lip engagement. Now add .100" of lip engagement and the First Natural Harmonic will raise to about 730 Hz creating stronger resonances in the upper partials. Too large a cup volume for a particular player may cause the sound to be "woofy" not focused, not brilliant, endurance to suffer, and range to be limited. Smaller volume cups on the most part are used where more edge is needed in the sound, with emphasis on the upper partials. These are generally used for commercial Bb trumpet playing and for use with piccolo trumpets. A cup volume that is too small for a particular player may not offer enough room for efficient lip vibration. Attacks may suffer, sound may be thin, and bottoming out may occur. Articulation and soft breath attacks are keys to determine if the cup volume is too large or too small .
|