Does Your Setup Really Make A Difference? (No, I mean REALLLLLLLY)

Ok, I really mean it.  Does your setup really make that much of a difference?  I mean, does your horn to the mouthpiece, ligature and reed actually do something for you?

Yes and no.

Your Horn 

Your horn helps you up to a point.  Wooden horns sound a little nicer because they are made of wood and have thicker walls.  A horn with a larger bore gives you more room to move the sound around.  An extended horn allows you to play notes you cannot play on a standard horn.  Certain horns have notes that are right in a sweet spot, but most instruments are VERY similar.  A new horn or a nicer horn is not going to make you suddenly better.  It's great to have a nice horn (I have a very nice horn,) but that horn does not make me a good player.  You cannot learn to play with your eyes on another prize.  Learn to play what you have, plan to get something better in the future maybe (but never blame the horn as long as it is adjusted properly.)  Yes, broken horns suck, but you can even learn to play past certain leaks if you're really dedicated.  However, everyone can go to the shop (and most of the time your school band will pay for it.)

Your Mouthpiece

Mouthpieces make a big difference, and they are much cheaper than instruments.  You can play any mouthpiece you want, but it has to be the right one for you.  You NEVER EVER play a mouthpiece simply because someone told you to.  I don't care if Jesus whittled it by hand out of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  I just don't care.  The price of the mouthpiece of whatever other marketing they use is NOT helpful to you unless the mouthpiece is actually nice for you to play.  This is why you order mouthpieces on approval and try them.

Your Ligature

Ligatures provide response, but they do not make you a better player.  They do not allow you to do anything, but they do give you a certain level of response.  It is like the ammunition you put in a gun.  You can get the regular bullets, or you can get armor piercing rounds or you can go all military and get fragmentation rounds that explode when they hit a target.  Your ligature does the same thing, you're in a first person shooter with your ligature.  You can use something soft like a Rovner for softer response, or you can use a metal ligature for more crisp response.  The metals and materials make a difference, and you could spend a LONG TIME thinking about which one to use.  These ligatures do not make you better, but they allow you to do the things you already know how to do.

Your Reeds

Your reeds make a HUGE difference.  Go watch my videos and you can tell which reeds were good and which were not.  It's pretty obvious.  They die, and you have to rotate them.  They can make a HUGE difference if they are too hard, and they will squeak at you all the time if they are too soft.  You can spend a lifetime finding the right reeds, but they are the biggest predictor of your success because they directly interface with your air to make sound.

Notice how I never said any of these things makes you better.  I have actually seen marketing for ligatures and mouthpieces with "testimonials" of people saying that that product "allowed" them to do....whatever.  Guess what, if you need a specific product to do something that is relatively standard, you're not practiced enough at it yet.  You should learn how to do the thing really well, they you can do the thing on ANY equipment, but you can look for the equipment that makes it the EASIEST to do the thing?

If that made any sense...