Little boy, blow your horn
As the school year ended, a few districts had their students sign up for summer band. This was a big deal thanks to the pandemic; one particular district did not start beginners the previous fall. They were therefore signing up kids from two grades in order to still let the older students start playing instruments.
However, again due to the pandemic and this being a band, i.e., wind instrument situation, the students weren't allowed to try out instruments to determine what they wanted to play or what their aptitude was. Some families were fine with that; those that wanted a more tactile experience came to our store.
One of the later families to try out instruments was a mom and her son. He wanted to try brass, in part because that's what his father played. Some kids can't buzz to save their lives, but when I handed the mouthpiece tester to him, he buzzed right away on both the trumpet one and the trombone/baritone one. One shot, done. So I handed him the regular mouthpieces; same. And then he got the horns themselves and spent the next 45 minutes going to town. Holy cow.
This child is a brass natural. There was no point in adding in any woodwinds; that would just confuse the issue. Though he did try to blow on the woodwind parts of the tester, which is one piece; without a reed, he didn't get very far with the clarinet part, and I didn't bother explaining the flute part. He's good with brass. Very good. He could play anything he wanted to--but he couldn't really narrow it down. He liked the baritone, and he liked the trumpet, and the trombone was okay but he still played on it a few times to give it a good go.
I did my best to give the mom some advice--hard to do because the kid has brass lungs and made it hard to talk over him--and at one point I pulled out a couple lesson books. He was hitting high Cs and Es on the trumpet like they were nothing. At one point, he hit a G. I showed the mom, this is where people start on trumpet (anywhere between low C and G above that); this is where your son is naturally hitting the notes--it takes the class getting halfway through the book before they officially learn C. It would take to the beginning of book 2 to officially learn E, and the page where G is introduced is smack in the middle of book 2, right where the staples are. So, I mean, he'll be fine on any of these instruments, but if he needs a nudge in one direction, start with trumpet. I also let her know it's a gateway brass, so that if he started on trumpet, he could easily transition to other brass, like baritone or French horn, later.
There are things I would normally do with the kids who come to try out the horns that I couldn't do with him. The other kids I'd seen recently were more reserved, tentative, maybe a bit shy. This one, honestly, was all boy and active and curious, trying the mouthpieces in different configurations, putting them in the opposite horns to see what would happen, quickly figured out how to fit the horns back in their cases and would put them--at least the trumpet and baritone--away and take them back out, and remembered how to hold them. At one point I asked, does he like science? He seems like a kid who'd be into experimenting with things. He was cracking me up, honestly, just his pure joy at getting to play everything. But back to what I'd normally do, I'd try to have the players take big breaths and let them out slowly, try to hold out the notes, that sort of thing; I kind of couldn't get a word in edgewise with him. Hand him the trumpet or baritone, and he'd immediately wiggle his fingers all over the place. Trombone, he moved the slide all over, including about as far as he could make it go, then a little farther, but never so far that it came off completely, at least. (I did that to show the mom some of the possible repairs a trombone might need.) There was no trepidation with this child regarding anything involving the instruments. Yeah, I'd say he's a trumpet player.
Note: I wrote this up shortly after the child came into the store. In the meantime, the band director reached out to the family and convinced the child to play baritone, and sweetened the deal by getting them a school rental, which is less expensive than renting from us. This was not a surprise to me at all. The band director plays baritone herself, the district has had more trumpet rentals than anything but maybe half a dozen baritone rentals, and truthfully that seemed to be the child's preference by the slimmest of margins, owing to what his father played (the largest of the brass family). He'll be fine on anything, truthfully.
However, again due to the pandemic and this being a band, i.e., wind instrument situation, the students weren't allowed to try out instruments to determine what they wanted to play or what their aptitude was. Some families were fine with that; those that wanted a more tactile experience came to our store.
One of the later families to try out instruments was a mom and her son. He wanted to try brass, in part because that's what his father played. Some kids can't buzz to save their lives, but when I handed the mouthpiece tester to him, he buzzed right away on both the trumpet one and the trombone/baritone one. One shot, done. So I handed him the regular mouthpieces; same. And then he got the horns themselves and spent the next 45 minutes going to town. Holy cow.
This child is a brass natural. There was no point in adding in any woodwinds; that would just confuse the issue. Though he did try to blow on the woodwind parts of the tester, which is one piece; without a reed, he didn't get very far with the clarinet part, and I didn't bother explaining the flute part. He's good with brass. Very good. He could play anything he wanted to--but he couldn't really narrow it down. He liked the baritone, and he liked the trumpet, and the trombone was okay but he still played on it a few times to give it a good go.
I did my best to give the mom some advice--hard to do because the kid has brass lungs and made it hard to talk over him--and at one point I pulled out a couple lesson books. He was hitting high Cs and Es on the trumpet like they were nothing. At one point, he hit a G. I showed the mom, this is where people start on trumpet (anywhere between low C and G above that); this is where your son is naturally hitting the notes--it takes the class getting halfway through the book before they officially learn C. It would take to the beginning of book 2 to officially learn E, and the page where G is introduced is smack in the middle of book 2, right where the staples are. So, I mean, he'll be fine on any of these instruments, but if he needs a nudge in one direction, start with trumpet. I also let her know it's a gateway brass, so that if he started on trumpet, he could easily transition to other brass, like baritone or French horn, later.
There are things I would normally do with the kids who come to try out the horns that I couldn't do with him. The other kids I'd seen recently were more reserved, tentative, maybe a bit shy. This one, honestly, was all boy and active and curious, trying the mouthpieces in different configurations, putting them in the opposite horns to see what would happen, quickly figured out how to fit the horns back in their cases and would put them--at least the trumpet and baritone--away and take them back out, and remembered how to hold them. At one point I asked, does he like science? He seems like a kid who'd be into experimenting with things. He was cracking me up, honestly, just his pure joy at getting to play everything. But back to what I'd normally do, I'd try to have the players take big breaths and let them out slowly, try to hold out the notes, that sort of thing; I kind of couldn't get a word in edgewise with him. Hand him the trumpet or baritone, and he'd immediately wiggle his fingers all over the place. Trombone, he moved the slide all over, including about as far as he could make it go, then a little farther, but never so far that it came off completely, at least. (I did that to show the mom some of the possible repairs a trombone might need.) There was no trepidation with this child regarding anything involving the instruments. Yeah, I'd say he's a trumpet player.
Note: I wrote this up shortly after the child came into the store. In the meantime, the band director reached out to the family and convinced the child to play baritone, and sweetened the deal by getting them a school rental, which is less expensive than renting from us. This was not a surprise to me at all. The band director plays baritone herself, the district has had more trumpet rentals than anything but maybe half a dozen baritone rentals, and truthfully that seemed to be the child's preference by the slimmest of margins, owing to what his father played (the largest of the brass family). He'll be fine on anything, truthfully.