Baritone horn questions, answered by our band repair team. Nobody chooses baritone — a director assigns it, usually because the low brass section needs bodies, and often to a trumpet player, since the valve fingerings are the same. Parents arrive unsure what the instrument even is. It’s a small brass tuba played in the lap, and the real practical question is usually whether a middle schooler can carry it, not whether they can play it.
Yes, two ways. Yamaha is one of the manufacturers in our B Line, along with Jupiter, Selmer, Buffet and Gemeinhardt. We also rent a Premium Yamaha Line on five instruments, in the specific models school programs most often specify: the…
It depends on the line. A Line instruments are brand new, and they arrive with everything new, mouthpiece included. B Line and C Line instruments have been played before. Each of those is stripped down and restored on our bench,…
That is a reasonable instinct, and we would rather a teacher raised it than said nothing. Instruments do turn up in school music rooms that arrived from an online seller and cannot be played properly, and a teacher who has…
Sticking valves are nearly always dry, not broken. A trumpet’s pistons need oil a few times a week, not once a term, and most sticking valves are simply overdue. The fix: unscrew the top cap, lift the valve partway out…
Bring it to us or to the band director. A purpose-made tool called a mouthpiece puller removes a stuck mouthpiece in under a minute without leaving a mark, most band rooms and every competent shop have one, and it is…
Usually yes, but the honest answer is that it depends on the child, because every mouth is different and so are the braces. Most students play straight through, with orthodontic wax on the brackets and a few weeks of patience,…