The mouthpiece is stuck in the trumpet. How do we get it 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 a while-you-wait fix. What you must not do is twist it out with pliers. Put down the pliers. Please.

This happens to nearly every brass student eventually: the mouthpiece is held in the horn by friction alone, and it takes surprisingly little to wedge it tight.

What pliers do instead: they bend or tear the leadpipe, turning a sixty-second fix into a real repair, and they chew through the mouthpiece’s silver plating. That last one matters more than people realize, because a mouthpiece is the one part that lives on your child’s lips, and once plating starts flaking off brass, that mouthpiece is done. Do not twist with a rag, do not tap it on a table, do not improvise.

And here is how to make sure you never need this answer again: teach your child not to tap the mouthpiece in. Kids love giving it a little smack with the palm to seat it. Friction holds it perfectly well with a gentle push and a small twist. The tap is what wedges it, every time. Break that one habit and the stuck mouthpiece simply stops happening.