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Allow me to introduce myself I'm Clint 'Pops' McLaughlin.

I've been doing Private Consultations on Embouchure Development since 1974, Custom Mouthpieces since 1977 & Trumpet Customizing since 1980.

I studied under two instrument designers, one of Mr. H.L. Clarkes students, one of Dr. Stevens students and finally under Don "JAKE" Jacoby (Listed as one of the top 5 trumpet players of the 50's & 60's & a graduate of the E.S. Williams School of Music).

I've had written correspondence with 41 Trumpet & 38 Mouthpiece Manufacturers. I've also gone over hundreds of method books as well as over 1,000 articles. These studies covered all major trumpet embouchures & more than 700 stock mouthpieces. They were written in a 400 year time period from the 1600's to the year 2000.

I was asked by the ITG for a bio; This is what I sent them.

My qualifications;
Well that is usually easy as most authors hold a terminal degree in the field that they are writing about.

However; there is no such degree in the field of Trumpet Embouchures.

My course work leading to my BFA and my grad courses did NOT cover anything in any of my books.

The experiences that did influence my books center around the following people.

My first teacher was Arthur Ford. He was an elderly retired college band director. He was also an engineer and had designed some instruments for Conn in the 40's and 50's. He had 2 trumpet teachers J.P. Sousa and H.L. Clarke. I learned about Lip Buzzing from him. To this day I experience things that I realize he had told me about.

I had a friend (David Wright) who spent a great deal of time in NYC and took 65-70 lessons from Roy Stevens. He is the person who showed me how things that were poorly described in the Stevens book were really done. I also learned that some of the absolutes in the Stevens book were NOT so absolute in person.

Dr. Ken Muckelroy who had studied under Ghitalla and Dr. Richard Tolley worked with me on the Farkas embouchure. I realized that some of what Farkas wrote about in his book (about aperture control) actually was taught by Stevens. I was introduced to the Pivot System (by Dr. Reinhardt) and how it was utilized.

Jack Smith was the band director and trumpet teacher at a local college. He had learned the Maggio method and wanted to see how it compared to the Stevens that I played. I did something very few trumpet players would do. I did an unneeded embouchure change for the sake of an experiment. (I was a double major in college and the Physics side of me loved to experiment.) I spent 1 semester playing only the Maggio and the next playing both the Maggio and my old Stevens. It was here that I added a pucker to MY version of the Stevens Embouchure. That not only helped the endurance but it also rounded out the aperture giving a more pleasing sound than is normally associated with those 2 embouchures.

I had a friend (Mike Johnston) who started taking lessons from Don 'Jake' Jacoby. He made more improvement in his first 2 or 3 lessons than he made in the 7 years I had known him. This interested me so I started taking lessons from Jake. I learned the proper way to use air and the value of playing relaxed. I wanted to be a teacher instead of a player. So I asked lots of questions about problems I didn't have, but I had seen in members of my college band. Jake even let me sit in on some other lessons so I could see how he fixed different problems.

Lastly When I finally decided to turn my notes into the book A-Z (I started in 75 and finished in 95) There was yet another embouchure out there that I had not yet played. This is when I studied and learned the Superchops embouchure. I had some phone conservations and written correspondence with Jerry Callet as well as his book. Again I did this for the experience and NOT out of a need to change embouchures.

A great deal of what I know came from the people I just mentioned. However some of it I acquired as a result of having gone through so many different embouchures. It is this experience that makes me different from so many other teachers. And I think it shows in my teaching and writing.

Clint 'Pops' McLaughlin