Trumpet questions, answered by our band repair team. Two dominate. Sticking valves, which are almost always dry rather than broken and need oiling a few times a week. And stuck mouthpieces, which happen to nearly every brass student eventually — don’t pull or twist, there’s a proper tool for it and we’ll remove it while you wait. Braces come up a lot too, and the honest answer is that the first few weeks are uncomfortable and then it passes.
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…
Five habits would prevent most of it: use a sturdy case and treat carrying the cello as part of playing it, run a humidifier in winter, oil brass valves and grease the slides, grease clarinet corks before assembly, and swab…
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…
The main tuning slide, the large U-shaped one nearest the mouthpiece end, sets the overall pitch: out to flatten, in to sharpen. Warm the horn up first, because a cold trumpet plays flat and you will chase your tail adjusting…
The short version: empty the water key and wipe the horn down after playing, oil the valves a few times a week, work the tuning slides with fresh grease monthly, and give it a full bath about once a year,…
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,…