The Monette Story

Monette mouthpieces were originally inspired by David Monette’s personal experience as a trumpeter. After trying most of the popular brands of instruments and mouthpieces, Monette found conventional equipment to have inconsistent playing qualities and poor intonation. It was time for a conceptual improvement in trumpet design, a step forward in the evolution of the modern trumpet that would allow players to realize a richer, more resonant, and more consistent sound with less effort.

After building his first few instruments in 1983, Monette concluded that the only way to fully realize his new and revolutionary trumpet designs was to redesign the trumpet mouthpiece. Inspired by the work of acoustician Dr. Arthur Benade, Monette realized that what was needed was a mouthpiece for each given key of trumpet that would provide a constant pitch center through the dynamic range and register. This would allow a more resonant instrument to be built that could provide a faster and more secure response, greater freedom, flexibility and endurance, and increased sound out front to the listener. It would also allow—and encourage—the player to “open up” physically and musically as never before.

The first Monette mouthpieces were made in 1985, and were immediately used by top Monette clients, including Wynton Marsalis and Charles Schlueter. Monette knew that in order to objectively design and build acoustically improved mouthpieces, he would have to be more consciously and objectively aware of the patterns he had learned in his own body use to compensate for the inadequacies of conventional equipment. At about this time he started to study Kundalini Yoga, and shortly thereafter he began studying Alexander Technique, two disciplines that help people to more efficiently align and connect with themselves as well as with others. Monette’s Yoga and Alexander Technique work was pivotal to the development of his mouthpieces and instruments. As Monette learned to release more of the obsolete muscle memory and body use in his own playing, his mouthpiece designs improved dramatically. By 1990, Monette felt his mouthpieces had evolved to the point that he could offer them not only to all his instrument clients, but to the public as well.

The Integral Mouthpiece

Monette decided that the next evolutionary step in mouthpiece design would be to build them into his best instruments! The first integral-mouthpiece Monette RAJA instruments were made for Charles Schlueter and Wynton Marsalis in 1990. The RAJA and RAJA SAMADHI instruments continue to be the choice of many of our top clients, although they are the most challenging for us to build. The futuristic sheet bracing, integral mouthpieces, double-bell design, and brushed 24k gold finish have become icons that distinguish Monette’s work in the music field.

An Expanding Line of Mouthpieces

Based on the success of the early Monette trumpet mouthpieces, the first Monette tuba mouthpiece was made at the request of Boston Symphony tubist Chester Schmitz in 1991. Since then, the line of Monette mouthpieces has grown to include not only an ever-growing selection of tuba and trombone mouthpieces, but also specialized mouthpieces made for the higher-pitched trumpets: Eb trumpet, A and Bb piccolo trumpet.