Turkey Season is just almost here! Time to make sure you are ready! Start with a single and double reed call when you are first learning. These reeds take less air and are easier to make sounds with. The diaphragm call must fit your mouth. Most problems dealing with diaphragm calls stem from improper fit. I've found that the standard mouth call is too large for some women. Put the call in your mouth, with the open end of the horseshoe-shaped frame pointing out, and move it around with your tongue.
Move it back and forth from one cheek to the other, and onto and off your tongue, to get accustomed to the feel of it being in your mouth. Once you're comfortable with it in your mouth, which could take several hours or days, move it into the roof of your mouth, about half way back, with your tongue. Hold the call gently in place with your tongue, with the open end out.
Then move it back into your cheek. Continue doing this process until you get over the "gag reflex". You can gently bend the aluminum frame of the call to fit the roof of your mouth if its a bit too wide.
Bending it too much will loosen the reed s and make the call difficult to operate and ruin the quality of the sound. There needs to be distance between the latex reed s of the call and the roof of your mouth. If the frame is bent too much, and the reeds are touching the roof of your mouth, you won't be able to make any sounds. After you're over the gag reflex and the call is adjusted and comfortable in the roof of your mouth, you're ready to make your first sounds.
As you know, practice makes perfect. I always start practicing a month or two before the season opens. I take my mouth call and practice calling while driving. YouTube has a ton of instructional videos you can learn from at no cost.
