Practice techniques with Dave Taylor

Posted July 31st, 2023 by Christan Griego in Uncategorized | No Comments »

I was on a trip to NY recently and sat down to talk shop with Dave Taylor. I wanted to make sure I asked him all the questions I get asked, and Dave did not hold back. I asked Dave to share his warmup techniques, his practicing style, and how he uses each one of the David Taylor line of Griego Mouthpieces.

Dave and I have known each other for over 26 years, and we are always learning new things from one another. Dave has always started with a quick warm up followed by a 20-minute rest. I was able to explain to him why that is such a huge key to him successfully playing for hour long concerts.

It’s a long video but Dave Taylor if anything, is one of the most entertaining people in the industry. So, sit back and enjoy…

Bowman Mouthpieces

Posted August 6th, 2020 by Christan Griego in Company News, General, Uncategorized | No Comments »

The past two years we’ve prepared for this moment. Dr. Brian Bowman’s mouthpieces are now available through all of your Griego Mouthpiece Dealers. If you know of a Dealer that carried Bowman mouthpieces before but is not a Griego Dealer, no problem. Have them contact us at sales@griegomouthpieces.com to get set up.

Trombone Cleaning Rod Now Available

Posted June 15th, 2020 by Christan Griego in Company News | No Comments »

I preferred “Clean ‘N Go”, but when I Googled the name, it came up as a car wash in many states, so I had to go with what the webmaster and wife told me to do. Boring, but will help with searches for “Trombone Cleaning Rod” and people that do not know about Griego products.

We made 100 of these back in 2017 and sold them all by word of mouth. We got nothing but great feedback so we decided it was time to release them to the world. It’s nice to have a handle, and it’s very nice to have a small 6″ container that carries your cleaning rod.

Watch this video to make sure you’re loading the cleaning rod with cheesecloth correctly and using the cleaning rod correctly. Be careful to not overextend the cleaning rod and dent your end crook accidentally.

If you ever have any questions please ask them before you try something that could be wrong.

here to purchase your own Trombone Cleaning Rod (TCR 3000)

Trombone Cleaning Rod (TCR 3000)

Trombone Cleaning Rod (TCR 3000)

Trombone Cleaning Rod (TCR 3000)

USPS Shipping during Covid Crisis

Posted June 2nd, 2020 by Christan Griego in Company News, General | No Comments »

We wish our customers nothing but health during these current times.  Due to the pandemic that is going around the world we are currently unable to ship to the following countries.

 

Please view the link before making your purchases.  We appreciate your business and can not wait for things to be back to normal.  Please support your local brick and mortar stores that are Griego Dealers.

 

See you sometime in the future.

 

Christan Griego

 

 

NAMM 2020

Posted January 9th, 2020 by Christan Griego in Company News, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Griego Mouthpieces will be going to NAMM in Anaheim California with mouthpiece kits. We are sharing booth space with Getzen Instrument Company, and Edwards Instrument Company.

Many of you know that I’ve worked at Getzen/Edwards the past 21 years and built mouthpieces at GSI on the side. Griego Sound Inventions is what GSI stands for if you’re interested.

It’s been a crazy 17 years of making mouthpieces and we’re still having fun. Drop by and test the new mouthpieces.

If you know that your local dealer is going and you cannot, ask them to drop by and see if they will stock some Griego Mouthpieces so you don’t have to become a dealer and get into NAMM.

Holiday Recovery

Posted January 3rd, 2020 by Christan Griego in General, Tips | No Comments »

Welcome back, your instrument says as you open the case.  It’s been a couple of weeks because you took off to go visit the family for the holidays.  After cleaning and relubing old trusty “it’s time to practice” you tell yourself.

 

This is the point where I put the instrument down.  I grab my rim or mouthpiece and head to the piano.  Slowly I buzz long tones getting my face warmed up with equal pressure N, S, E, and W.  I remind myself that after time off it’s a good time to evaluate everything and slowly build back into the “normal practice routine”.

 

It generally takes me nine days to get back into normal playing shape and I don’t rush it.  I treat my facial muscles like I would any other in my body.  You wouldn’t take 2-3 weeks off of jogging, weight lifting, bike riding, yoga, or cricket and expect to immediately go back to that activity where you left off.

 

Don’t disrespect your face and rush back into a heavy workload, ease back into it and you’ll be a better healthier player because of it.    Every day I build from the previous day until I’m comfortable with the workload and practice time that I need to stay in shape.  Everyone’s idea of “in shape” is different of course so remember that and do what your body needs.

 

The other option is to take your instrument with you on your holiday break, with your practice mute,  and just keep your face on.

Just a thought,

 

I’ll do that next year……

Midwest Recovery Post

Posted December 23rd, 2019 by Christan Griego in Company News, General, Tips | No Comments »

Chicago this time of year is tough.  It’s cold and the wind seems to tear through your body when you step outside.  We setup the booths on Tuesday morning starting after 8am and we’re normally done by 2pm.  We have people arriving all day and we get our schedules organized for the exhibit booth starting at 9am on Wed-Friday.

 

It’s not tough work per se, it’s more the standing on your feet and the constant barrage of sound hitting your ears that makes you exhausted.  Jonathan over in the Yamaha booth lost his voice from all of the yelling over the noise.  Personally my voice survived, but is still a bit ragged 3 days later.

There were a ton of people that visited our booth to try instruments and Griego Mouthpieces.  It was nice to hear people play and help them find mouthpieces that fit their instrument better than what they were on before the show.

 

Marshall Gilkes and I did a tongue and cheek video on how to test instruments at the event.  While it was meant to be funny, the more I thought about it I think it wasn’t all a joke.  You should play something articulate like la gazza ladra, something legato like rochut or bolero, and even Tuba Mirum.  Some people thought we were making fun of them, but it’s not, it’s making fun more of the environment and many interesting conversations we have.

 

You need to make sure your equipment can play these different styles so while our video was tongue and cheek, it may have been more serious than we meant it to be.    Hope everyone out there has a great and safe holiday season.  See you in January.

Custom Mouthpieces

Posted December 21st, 2019 by Christan Griego in Uncategorized | No Comments »

There is a lot of business that we turn down and it’s generally when it comes to custom mouthpieces. I work at Edwards during the day and we make our mouthpieces at Griego Sound Inventions which is about 7 minutes away from where I work during the day. I go to GSI in the morning before Edwards, at lunchtime, and after 4:30pm which is when my day ends at Edwards.

This doesn’t allow me a lot of time to do design work which means that I have to do this during family time or on the weekends. My main machinist Chris knows our designs in and out and he produces our mouthpieces every day. In order to do custom mouthpieces it takes about 3 hours of production time away from our machines. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but with all of the models we produce it does hurt production overall.

It’s hard for me to say no to someone, and there are times when a custom alteration is easy and we can accommodate the request within our production without too much disruption.

If we can’t do your custom work I would suggest calling Hammond in Chicago who is set up to do custom work more efficiently than myself.

Greg Black also does a great job, but I’d suggest visiting him rather than ordering by phone in order to get exactly what you are after.

We appreciate your business of course, but there are only so many hours in the day. I’m trying to maintain some balance within my work and personal life, not only for myself but for everyone at GSI that works so hard.

Congratulations on your Engagement!!!

Posted December 19th, 2019 by Christan Griego in General, Tips | 2 Comments »

If you’ve watched my masterclass you know what I’m about to talk about.  How deep your mouthpiece goes into your leadpipe.  It is all the rage to diminish the gap between the end of your mouthpiece and your leadpipe’s venturi.

 

“It’s so free blowing” sells instruments.  Why?  Because it’s easy to fall in love with one aspect of an instrument.  Being free blowing will allow you to play loud, this is absolutely true….  in the middle register.  The problem comes in the upper register when you need to have some (correct amount) of  compression to lean against to play loud.  Without any compression in the instrument (or if your mouthpiece goes in too far) this can cause an issue.  You may have to provide the compression yourself, with your aperture, which can cause tension to come into the sound and the size of the sound to diminish or even backup into your body.    Does this make any sense?

 

This doesn’t mean that you should choose a mouthpiece that sticks way out of the leadpipe.  It does mean that it’s part of the overall equation that needs to be assessed carefully.  If you’ve chosen a large mouthpiece and it plays smaller (tighter) than your previous “smaller” mouthpiece it is quite possible the you should make sure the engagement is the same, or check to see how it varies….

 

We once checked a manufacturer’s mouthpieces engagement.  Four different mouthpieces from different time periods all the same brand.  They all had quite different engagement which caused them to play quite different.  When we design a mouthpiece we find the optimal engagement and then make sure all the mouthpieces we make are the same.  It’s not rocket science, but if you were aware of all the variances out there you’d think it was…

 

 

New Oft Mouthpieces

Posted December 17th, 2019 by Christan Griego in Company News, General, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Sometimes it takes me a while to get a new product up on the website. Part of it is that it takes time to get to the paypal buttons made, content written, and our webmaster updated to get all of the new products up.

The other side of the coin is that after developing a mouthpiece I want to make sure that it’s 100% ready and no changes need to be made before offering to you.

These Oft mouthpieces, for example , have been tested in BSO for the past year and we know they’re working the intended way. No alterations were needed for Toby on his last trip here. I know you don’t want to know all the details of manufacturing, but we do properly test all of our products in great length before putting them in the public eye.

Hope you love em.

« Older Entries

Categories