The mouthpiece of a wind instrument is that part of the instrument which is placed partly in the player's mouth or on the player's lips. The mouthpiece is a circular opening that is enclosed by a rim and that leads to the instrument via a semi-spherical or conical cavity called the cup. From the cup, a smaller opening (the throat) leads into a tapered cylindrical passage called the backbore. The backbore is housed in a tapered shank, which is inserted into an opening called the receiver on the main body of the instrument. Single-reed instruments, capped double-reed instruments, and fipple flutes have mouthpieces while exposed double-reed instruments (apart from those using pirouettes) and open flutes do not. The characteristics of a mouthpiece and reed can play a significant role on the so