You may wonder what social, economic and political influences have to do with the selection of our children’s instruments but you must realize that our surroundings have a great impact on many decisions in our lives. This posting addresses all three influences from an historic standpoint and it was written to share information relating to our changing views of the most popular instruments at the time. 1900 During this period in our history, our musical taste leaned heavily toward a new music called Ragtime. The well known composer Scott Joplin led the way to this early example of jazz and…

Whether you have played an instrument before or you are a first timer, learning or relearning an instrument can be exciting and fun. There are many advantages to being in the twilight years of your life. One advantage is that no one expects much out of you. I celebrated my sixty-ninth birthday while playing a seven day a week show in Branson. The trombone player asked me how old I was and when I told him, he stared intensely at me and said, “That’s amazing”. I’m not sure what he really meant but I took it as a compliment to…

A student is most often faced with the dilemma of instrument selection around the fourth grade and this experience is usually more of a trauma for the parents than it is for the student. Parents are faced with the pressures of guiding their child into an area that will affect their lives (both child and parent) for some time and the thought of the added expense of the instrument, the lessons and the travel to and from the lessons can be intimidating. Fortunately most of us have lived through the experience and are on hand to give the less experienced…

When my wife first suggested this topic, I was very excited for I realized how important this subject could be. Then, after thinking about the mass of information and the myriad of directions one could approach this post, I realized that an entire book would be needed to touch on all the important issues. After careful consideration I have decided to tackle the topic anyway. I have never been accused of shying away from the imposable so please realize that I will try to structure this topic from several views and in doing so, the number of post will be…

Many times those of us who have been behind a mouthpiece for many years forget that young players are just starting out on the trumpet and what seems obvious to us, may be new information to the younger player. For that reason I thought it would be helpful to the beginners in our audience to get a working knowledge of the parts of the trumpet. Mouthpiece- This is the removable section which you place to your lips to create a sound. Throughout your career as a trumpet player, you will collect many of these, each one being purchased in order…