Organizing Mouthpieces

How many times have I heard the phrase, "Oh no! I can't find my mouthpiece!" Surprisingly, not very often this year. Teaching close to 180 band students with most students sharing three to an instrument means some serious mouthpiece organization is in order. 

I cannot take credit for this idea but it works marvelously. I call it the "Cup in a Cup System." I am fortunate enough to have an itinerant musician who comes in twice a week for two period to assist with my program. My itinerant has been doing this job for over 30 years and I am soaking up a lot of his knowledge right now. He came up with this genius idea:

1. Find a shallow box or a box lid. We used lids from boxes of photocopy paper.
2. Glue some paper cups into the lid. White glue works just fine but I was in a rush so I used the E6000 glue.
3. Place another cup inside the glued-in cups. 
4. Give each student a label or piece of masking tape to write their names on and have them stick the label inside the top cup.
5. Students place their mouthpiece and reed inside the cup.

Each lid is  labelled with the class code and I managed to clean out two shelves in one of my cupboards so it is super easy for my students to just open up the cupboard when they come in and collect their mouthpieces. 

There you have it!  A place to store mouthpieces that is more effective than having them loose in an instrument case or at the bottom of a backpack or locker.