Yamaha Silent Brass – A Review Ed Dumas In a previous article, I suggested that the best instrument to play in quiet rooms was the trumpet. If you have not yet read it you can find it here. Unlike woodwind instruments, brass instruments can be muted which helps. Using just a straight mute for quiet practice only does half the job at best, because there are still open gaps between the mute and the bell of the trumpet to allow sound to escape. Therefore, a dedicated practice mute is the best choice as it contains a cork which encircles the top of the mute to better reduce sound levels in a common living area. Recently I purchased a Yamaha Silent Brass System SB7X to begin a routine of practicing once again now that I am retired. The idea of the Yamaha Silent Brass is that it has a pickup on the practice mute that sends the electronic sound signals to a processor that then directs the sound to earbuds which will improve the home practice experience. In this article, I will offer a review of the Yamaha Silent Brass System which contains a few findings that are a surprise even to me, a lifelong trumpet player. The Yamaha Silent Brass System comes in a box that measures only 11 cm X 9.5 cm x 15 centimetres. My first reaction upon seeing it was that it was a very small package for a mute that sticks out of the bell of the trumpet about 12 cm or so. I wondered how they got that mute in that box! I figured that the electronic processor was likely smaller these days, but had no idea that the mute was also substantially smaller as well. The physical mute part of the system (PM7X) has been redesigned at some point in the past so that the mute does not stick out past the bell of the trumpet at all. It is now less than the length of the box at 15 centimetres and is completely contained within the trumpet bell when in use. I am sure it is built so that the mute could be left inside the trumpet when the instrument is in the case. I appreciate the thought, but my trumpet already contains my K&M trumpet stand which is also built to be housed inside the trumpet bell. Note that the K&M stand is also the best trumpet stand and is a must for serious trumpet players! Also, inside the box of the Yamaha Silent Brass is the small STX-2 sound processor, a set of earbuds and a cable to connect the mute to the sound processor. The size of the sound processor is very small being about the size of a small smartphone, but a little shorter. The sound processor runs on two AA batteries instead of a transformer, and this is a good choice as it makes the unit more portable and the sound in the ears much clearer. On the top of the STX-2 is a “Mute In” input, an “Aux In” input, and a “Phones” output. Next to those is a sound level dial for adjusting the overall level in the earbuds which are plugged into the “Phones” output. On the side of the STX-2 are two small switches. The first switch is to turn the power on and off, but take note that the power will automatically shut off if the processor has not experienced any sound input for some time. This will help save battery life. The other switch toggles between reverb 1 and reverb 2. Finally on the back of the STX-2 unit is a clip which allows the user to clip the unit onto a belt or shirt pocket. I use it to clip the unit onto the underside lip of my music stand where it will not interfere with the music. When I began using the Yamaha Silent Brass System, I initially tried using my higher-quality headphones in the Phones output. The small unit certainly has enough power to drive those headphones, but I discovered an interesting problem. The higher quality headphones were more of a disadvantage because they were sensitive enough that they were able to play back all of the unwanted sounds that the pickup was hearing, such as valves being slammed up and down and trigger slides being moved. It turned out that the lesser-quality of earbuds was better for this task than the expensive headphones! The earbuds that are included are a loose fit inside the ear and do not use a rubber seal to get a complete fit. They look similar to Apple Airpods in the way that a small arm hangs down from the earbuds. These earbuds, though, are not wireless as there is a small wire connected to each small arm and then to the processor. In playing trumpet with the earbuds in place, I then tried both reverb settings on the side switch. Reverb 1 has less reverb and reverb 2 has more. I found I preferred the Reverb 2 setting as this helped me to hear my playing better. In fact, hearing my own playing turns out to be the biggest surprise in using the STX-2. Over the years, when necessary, I have often used a Harmon or JoRal Bubble mute to help quieten the sound during practice times. Without realizing it, I had been blowing harder to overcome the added backpressure of the mute to hear myself better. It is not that my hearing is damaged in any way, but that I was used to my trumpet sound being at a certain level when I played. I just seemed to naturally gravitate towards creating that sound level when I played with a mute in the bell. Practicing with a mute, then, was something that I resisted because I did not like the added pressure of the mute. I then seemed to “blow out” faster, and I could not get done what I wanted to get done in my regular practice session. Now, using the STX-2 with the earbuds attached, I found an interesting effect. At first, I started practicing with the sound level turned down a fair bit, and then slowly increased the volume to find the most comfortable place. As soon as I did this, I discovered that I naturally blew less hard to create that “normal” sound level. Quickly I learned to keep the sound level from the processor turned up a fair bit to push less air and last longer. In effect, the STX-2 has broken my association between the volume of air and the volume of sound, and this has improved my soft-level playing. Now when playing without the Silent Brass unit, I find that I am more capable of playing at an ultra-quiet level, as in effect I have been practicing this through this unit without realizing it. As an aside, as soon as I turned the volume on the STX-2 up and learned to practice without pushing, my wife in another part of the house noticed that the muted trumpet sound disappeared from the house, so the unit was doing its job. The next surprise came when I tried the Auxiliary input in conjunction with the mute input. For this, I used my laptop with audio output. While practicing some jazz band parts, I used some online publisher recordings of the jazz charts so that I could play along with the recordings. This first required adjusting the volume settings of both the laptop and the STX-2. The laptop volume will adjust the volume of the jazz band recording vs my trumpet sound, while the STX-2 unit will adjust both volumes combined in my ears. Once these volumes were set, I was very pleased with the effect of practicing the jazz band charts with a recording. I have often told my students to listen to the studio examples, but this takes that strategy one step further by allowing the musician to practice with the demo recording. The pleasant surprise here is that using the Silent Brass System for this function is better than practicing with a stereo through open speakers. The simple reason for this is that it is easier to balance the sound levels in your ears between your own trumpet sounds and the recording in the stereo. If your trumpet sound is unmuted, few stereos can keep up with the sheer volume of sound created by a trumpet, even at a trumpet player’s modest level. Muting the trumpet next to an open stereo has now become less effective than using the STX-2 system because muting also changes the tone quality. The changed tone then makes practicing with an amplified recording harder. The answer was a pleasant surprise from the Silent Brass System which could balance the sound levels well in your ears and provide some similar reverb and tone to the recording. Now using the Silent Brass System, practicing trumpet parts with a recording was a very enjoyable experience as compared to practicing third trumpet parts alone! For this fact alone, I highly recommend the Yamaha Silent Brass system as it can dramatically improve the practice session of lower harmony parts. This use could have a substantial impact on the development of brass sections in all sorts of groups. Unfortunately, though, the Yamaha Silent Brass System is limited to just brass because of the nature of woodwind instruments which have open holes between the mouthpiece and bell. Another very positive benefit that I have noticed with practicing using the Yamaha Silent Brass System is that my practice routines have now become disconnected from other events happening in the house. For example, in the past, if my wife was watching television or doing some activity that required quiet, I would naturally delay my practice session to another time to not be intrusive. Now with the Silent Brass System, I can move ahead with practicing without impact on others in the house. I can decide when I want to practice without worrying about impacting other events also happening in the house. This has completely opened up my schedule to suit me better. As well as some very positive benefits to the Yamaha Silent Brass System, there are a few drawbacks that users should be aware of. The first one that most folks will discover is the cost of the system. The SB7X system that I purchased for trumpet cost me $249.99 plus tax. At that, I did have a slight hesitation about spending that amount of money to practice my trumpet more. Looking back, it was one of the best purchases I have ever made, as I am now impacting my house nearly not at all, and feel that I can practice almost any time I choose. I find myself looking forward to practicing far more than I used to, and I especially look forward to practicing with recordings of all kinds and finding new recordings to play along with. I haven’t yet tried practicing late at night or early in the morning when I am unable to sleep, but I am certainly tempted to try! The Yamaha Silent Brass System is available for most brass instruments. The substantial upside of this system is that once you own the sound processor unit, you can just change the mute to adapt to the different instruments without having to purchase an additional processor. For example, as a trumpet player, I can easily practice my flugelhorn in the same manner by purchasing just the flugelhorn mute and continuing to use the same sound processor. Not having to purchase a second sound processor helps save on the cost of using this equipment on multiple instruments. The downside of the above statement, though, is that the larger mutes do become notably more expensive as the size increases. Mutes about the size of a euphonium or larger can be quite burdensome for students and parents, though I can see that music programs might want to consider purchasing some of these to encourage their players on the instrument. If I could go back in time to my last secondary school before retirement, I would invest in some tuba and euphonium systems to loan to students to help encourage their home practice time. Since the school was already investing in the larger instruments, it seems reasonable to invest in the Silent Brass System to help them practice those instruments. This would increase the “bang for the buck” of the initial instrument purchase. I might even consider investing in some of the smaller Silent Brass Systems for trumpets, French horns and trombones as loaners to encourage students to purchase a system for themselves. Finally, I would like to discuss tuning a mute once again, as this problem is very noticeable with this system. Anytime you place anything inside the bell of a brass instrument, you will affect its tuning. Effectively you have changed the length of the instrument by using a mute, and this will change the pitch. This tuning issue needs to be accounted for every time you use a mute, whether it be the Silent Brass System or your favourite straight mute! Here is a very old story that illustrates the problem very clearly. Years ago when I was still a youngish teacher, I had just revived the Maple Ridge Concert Band and was working away at developing their skill once again. During one rehearsal one of our trumpet players, John, was finding that his trumpet was playing VERY weirdly. It was an Old’s Recording trumpet, which was considered a fine trumpet of its day, and the same model that I started on as a student. Even I found that some pitches on John’s trumpet were WILDLY out of tune, while others seemed normal-ish. I took the horn apart, looked at everything, and could find nothing wrong. Knowing that I had basically worn out my own Olds Recording horn, I thought maybe John’s trumpet had finally bought the farm, too. John was prepared to write a cheque right there to get him something better. “Now just hold on,” I said. “Let’s just take this into Bob MacDonald and let him have a go at it first.” Bob MacDonald was the great repairman at that time, and he was the man to see if you had a problem. Well, I took the trumpet away with me and drove it in to see Bob who took a flashlight and briefly looked up the bell. Then without saying a thing, Bob took a long flexible claw and reached into the bell to pull out a clothes peg that had been jammed up at the top crook!! The clothes peg was floating in John’s case since the last outdoor gig we had played and managed to find its way up into the bell to become lodged in that crook. The funniest part of this story is that Bob’s sense of humour led him to write up the invoice as “Remove Non-Standard Tuning Device” which is just another confirmation that “Anything that is put into the bell of a brass instrument will affect its tuning.” I have written before about the need to re-tune for every mute that you use on your instrument. In the article “Digital Tuners In Concert Band,” I have written a detailed explanation of how to correctly use a digital tuner to check your tuning on each mute ahead of time. I encourage you to read that article once again, as tuners are taking a lot of blame for tuning problems created by people that are not using them well. The important aspect of a digital tuner is to NOT LOOK AT THE TUNER until after your note has been stabilized. If you stare at the tuner while setting the pitch, you will simply “embouchure correct” for out-of-tune-ness, and this does not solve the problem of a mute that is affecting the pitch. Now back to the Yamaha Silent Brass System and tuning. Just like every mute that I have ever found, the Yamaha Silent Brass System affects the tuning of various pitches across the range of my trumpet. Some pitch ranges are substantially sharp, while others are still sharp, but less so. I compensate for this sharpness by pulling out approximately double what I would pull out if I was using my trusty straight mute which is also fairly sharp. Now I am not criticizing Yamaha for this, as I believe that building an in-tune mute is an exercise in frustration. But I can well imagine that the problem is more severe when you consider that the Silent Mute is more extreme with problems because the objective is to remove all external sound, instead of just changing the tone. The seal against the bell is 100% instead of three pieces of cork around the neck of the mute, and the neck of the Silent Mute slides farther up the bell than most performance mutes. With also more resistance than a standard mute, it is bound to have substantially more effect on the pitches. The answer for anyone choosing to use a Silent Brass System is to get to know your tuner well. Find out how much you need to pull out to play in tune with the most common range of whatever piece you are practicing. Know that pitches which then are placed outside that range, either higher or lower, may be affected differently and expect to embouchure adjust for those. Finally, I mentioned earlier that the Yamaha Silent Brass System is fantastic for practicing with a recording. Know now that this creates another tuning issue that also needs to be considered. That is, few commercial recordings are 100% faithful to the original pitch placement of the work being recorded. Just the physical act of recording on tape and transferring to digital can affect the pitch, and this becomes substantially worse if the publisher decides to adjust the recording speed to fix a tempo which then changes the pitch as well. The demo recordings from publishers attempt to stay close to the original pitch shown on the page of the chart, but even for those, the trumpet pitch will need to be adjusted. Again, when playing with Yamaha Silent Brass, keep your tuner close by to put your instrument somewhere back into range of A=440, but then use the two tuners on the side of your head when it comes to playing along with any publisher recordings and adjust again! The good news is that with volume levels adjustable between the recording and the player, this tuning function becomes easier to find than playing along with a recording through a set of speakers. All in all, I have to say that I am very pleasantly surprised at how effective the Yamaha Silent Brass System is to work with. While there are some problems, it is unrealistic to think that this kind of adaptation to a brass instrument can be done completely issue-free. Being aware of those challenges will help you and your students find solutions to get the most benefit from the system. It might be useful for music teachers to keep one or two of these systems on hand to loan to students as a trial to encourage them to work at getting their own. There is nothing like students trying a good product to help them discover what it can do if they had their own!   Ed Dumas is a retired band director who taught his entire career in the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District. Ed is now retired and living with his lifelong partner Laurie, and their little dog Sprocket in Parksville, BC. Ed & Laurie also work as Mid-Island reps for Tapestry Music while enjoying music in retirement. You can find Ed’s other writings for the MusicED Blog at: https://www.tapestrymusic.com/news.aspx

Competition is Hurting Our Band Programs Ed Dumas When I was a student way back when dirt was a new thing, there used to be competitive band festivals that we participated in. Each group would come in and get their chance to play, and sometimes there would even be a sight-reading component to the festival. At the end of the competition, a list would be created that ranked the bands from the best down to the worst. Oftentimes the list did not include just the winners but included all the bands and where those bands were ranked among the group. In a system like this, there truly was a loser, none more so than the band at the bottom of the list. This is NOT the kind of competition that worries me today. Most of these kinds of festivals have been done away with and are now replaced with festivals that rank the performances against a fixed standard rather than against each other. In the new system, any category could have every group achieving gold if they all meet the gold level. The new system creates a challenge for the adjudicators who need to know what the standards for these levels should be. Thankfully those difficult questions are now left to adjudicators and not students. No, the kind of competition that worries me today is what I often see between the students in the same group. If you are thinking that I am talking about what too often goes on between musicians regarding musical part placement, that is part of it. For example, it is almost cliché that trumpet players would say, “Well, I am the best so I should be playing first trumpet!” That is very hurtful, but there is something far more insidious among our students that starts to tear at the fabric of a good band. That something is the Competition for Attention. The students that we see today have been raised in the Attention Economy. Most adults still have their heads stuck in the idea that our world is a data-driven world, because that is how these adults were raised. While data collection online is still relevant, if you look around for a bit you will see that the Attention Economy gets the most press, and is the most fashionable trend in the economy right now. An examination of who is achieving the most wealth these days shows it is the people who gain the most attention on the internet. We call them The Influencers. These could be people that post videos of the latest clothes, makeup, technology, electric vehicles or just about any other goods they are willing to hawk for a sale or sponsorship. They have hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of followers who then all run out to purchase whatever the Influencer now says is the latest and greatest in exchange for getting some kind of royalty from the producer of that consumer good. If you doubt the strength of the Attention Economy, just take a look at how it has captured politicians who now put out extremely irresponsible ads using military assault weapons for props! No matter how extreme the statement, the mantra has often been, “The politician who captures the most attention gets the most votes!” As an aside, I have said for years that instead, we should be looking for the most boring, unexciting, and intellectual person to lead us, because, in politicians, excitement is not a benefit! Now consider the attention economy from the perspective of our students. Today’s children have been raised on the idea that “the person who gets the most attention gets the most benefits” and they have applied this philosophy to the classroom. For them, popularity comes to those who shout across the room or down the hallway the most. They also have the most amount of time of other students looking at them, for negative attention is still better than NO attention. These are the students that are often the most intentionally disruptive in class even though it is damaging to others. They have now come to believe that it is their right to be this way because this is what the world says is successful. Raised on their phones, which are primarily used for attention-getting, these students find few consequences for not getting their work done. Instead, they gather great benefits by doing the most asinine things possible in class just to draw attention to themselves. Heaven knows that as a deeply introverted student I would have had trouble surviving today in an attention economy classroom. Is it as bad as I am making it out to be? No, probably not, but you will all likely recognize something of the trend that I have described for you. I was reluctant to write about this issue until I found another band class with a few students deeply ensconced in the Attention Economy that the result was very damaging for everyone else. I have always seen this Attention Economy problem as one of competition. That is, the students that are trying to gain attention believe that attention is something that must be competed for, and only the mightiest will win. Honestly, I can see why they believe this since that is the message from all corners of our world right now. The only trouble is, I can also see that it is a very false and troubling message. I have read all sorts of articles over the last few years of corporations now realizing that they need “soft skills” displayed by prospective employees on a resume. Oftentimes these soft skills translate into “Teamwork and Cooperation.” Employers are finding that employees who are constantly viewing the world using Attention Economy lenses are not pleasant to work with and are not successful in group settings. Attention seekers might succeed in a lone setting, but have trouble working with others. They are incapable of accepting any other ideas not credited as their own or even just brainstorming for problem-solving in a team. As well, they are also incapable of any level of competent management which is in seriously short supply these days. For decades now, the education system has touted using sports teams for developing team-building skills in our students. The theory is that those students that play on a basketball team, for example, have learned to play together in such a way that they are able then to change their game (adapt to changing circumstances) in such a way that they can defeat the opposing team and win the game (prize). While some team development skills are happening, I would rate sports at a “C” level for success in developing teamwork. Here is a good illustration that I am paraphrasing from Dr. Tim Lautzenheizer, who was a guest Keynote Speaker at BC Music Educator’s Association Convention some years back. A beginning-level basketball program would start with dozens of players, all striving to develop skills good enough to play on the winning team in their senior years. Over the years of skill development, though, these big numbers become whittled down to 5 core players plus a few extras at the top level. When one of our basketball players is not performing up to an adequate level in one particular game, he might suddenly find that the coach has opted to remove him from the game and play another in his place. This program is now encouraging competition between the players and is defeating teamwork and cooperation. The players must compete with each other to win the right to then cooperate with others in playing against another team. If you doubt that this competition between players on the same team does not happen, consider this scenario. My younger brother is a retired pro hockey player. When he was in his late teens playing on a major junior hockey team, he found himself having to separate fighting players who were in a raucous brawl throwing punches and knocking each other senseless. My younger brother was the designated person to do the task of breaking up these fights as he was the only one big enough, including the coaching staff, to get in the middle and stop the bloodshed. Oh, did I fail to mention that those players he was separating were in the dressing room on his own team?! While we hope this never happens in secondary school sports, this is a sad story illustrating the dynamic of competition within a team and how it can be so destructive to that group. Imagine the following scenario in a band. During a concert, the conductor begins to give the clarinet section the eagle eye wondering why there are some truly weird sounds emanating from within the band. Finally, the conductor decides that little Johnny sitting in the third row of the clarinet section is the culprit so he points to him and says, “You out!” He then points to another clarinet player sitting waiting in the stands and says, “You in!” This would be a ludicrous situation but immediately highlights the strengths of any music program. In the world of music, this comic scene illustrated by Dr. Lautzenheizer would never really be created in earnest. In our musical world, ALL musicians must play up to the standard required for the performance and not just the select few students who are chosen to perform. In our musical world, the best students would get even more recognition for the entire group if they chose to HELP those that need some extra instruction or practice to play acceptably in the performance. This is a vision of cooperation, not competition. Now, Let’s go back to the scenario that is commonly seen in some beginning-level band classes. Most of these students would be working in earnest to learn some skills on their new musical instruments. But a small few are working earnestly trying to gain attention from everyone else in the room because they are ensconced deeply in the Attention Economy. They could be talking out at every possible moment, chatting on their phones, playing alone at the wrong times, or just doing silly things to gain attention which means social rewards later from others in the room. Most of our students understand that the Attention Economy has its time and place. These students will also understand that using the Attention Economy philosophy as a driver in music class simply does not work because music is built upon cooperation, not competition. The few that are striving hard for Social Attention need to be taught directly, though, that those behaviours must change for the good of everyone in the room. A line will need to be drawn for them with an explanation that constant attention-seeking in music class is antithetical to creating music. To move the class forward, I have had some success talking to the entire class about what is wrong with constant attention-seeking. Students seem to recognize that attention is based on competition as if attention was something that is doled out in tiny amounts. I have found that if I explain the roots of their attention competition, these students will often come to agree that this does not need to happen at every moment in every class. They can agree to call a truce on that competition during the band class for the good of everyone in the room. By bringing their constant personal attention-seeking behaviour to the attention of the class to be analyzed, it seems to take away the students’ desire and power to act in this way. When students understand that their learning and even fun in the music room has been held hostage by a worldwide focus based on individual attention, they seem more able to personally negate its effect on them. This kind of group self-analysis seems to work to help students overcome some insidious programming for self-indulgent attention-seeking. It is important to note, though, that the analysis of this competitive attention-seeking in class needs to come from a logical point of view, and not from an emotional one. Yelling at the students to “settle down” does not help them settle down. But a “looking back on what were you trying to achieve there” discussion followed by an explanation of classroom musical attention needs does seem to get some traction. Here are some statements I have used that have helped clarify these dynamics for students. “It is amazing what one group can achieve if no one is worried about who gets the credit for the results.” “All musicians support all other musicians at all times, including outside of the music class.” “Did that behaviour help you DESPITE the class needs, or did it help the class as well as your needs?” “In music, competition for attention does not help our group become better. We all need to focus on cooperation to improve.” I am sure that you will come up with your own summing statements to help students develop a more cooperative and sharing attitude in your music class. Feel free to use any of the above. This open discussion with your students regarding competition vs cooperation in band classes should now be illustrating to you another strong reason why the education system needs music classes now more than ever. I have heard statements such as “Music Makes You Smarter” for years and always kind of cringed a little bit on the inside at hearing those thoughts. What if, for example, it is found that music does NOT make you smarter, but rather that smarter people naturally gravitate towards participation in music? I have usually found the latter to be more truthful. But, an open and frank discussion with parents, students and educators about the value of using music studies to help encourage cooperation among our students is likely long overdue. Most music teachers understand this concept, and so have good, aware administrators. Bringing it out into the open on a large scale for everyone to see and recognize would give our music programs new life in an education system looking for direction. At this moment in our cultural development, few would not recognize the benefits of valuing more cooperation in our world. Music education can do this better than any other studies in public education and should be openly sought out for the benefit of, well, everyone.     Ed Dumas is a retired band director who taught his entire career in the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District. Ed is now retired and living with his lifelong partner Laurie, and their little dog Sprocket in Parksville, BC. Ed & Laurie also work as Mid-Island reps for Tapestry Music while enjoying music in retirement.   You can find Ed’s other writings for the MusicED Blog at: https://www.tapestrymusic.com/news.aspx

Beginning Tuning Slide Positions Ed Dumas The things that I have learned from the thousands of beginning band students I have taught have exceeded what I have taught them. Except the things that I have learned are not the same as the ones that I have taught. Usually, what I have learned from the students is more along the lines of figuring out what happens when unintended outcomes are not considered when presenting material to students. An unintended outcome is something that the students learned that you did not actively teach and did not intend to have happen. Those unintended outcomes could be a positive thing if it is helpful, or a negative thing if harmful. Too often, though, not considering unintended outcomes results in a harmful change for student learning. The beginning position for tuning slides is just one of those things that can easily end up in an unintended outcome for students and needs to be watched carefully. I know that is just another one of the far too many things that beginning band teachers have to deal with that can just lead to band teacher overload. Still, I think once you understand some of the initial problems of starting beginning band students, you will find a few minutes very early in their progress to instruct students where they should be placing their tuning slides. I know that later on, the students will learn how to adjust their tuning, but in the beginning, they should be shown where the normal placement is. Let’s consider the flute players first since they are at the top of the band score. When beginning flute players are taught how to put the instrument together, quite often it is missed that the flute head should be pulled out from the end about 1 centimetre or so. There is not a marking on the flute head what the position is for “all the way in,” which means they may not know where 1 cm out is. This is in contrast to say the brass players where the metal parts are created in such a way that it is visible to the brass players what “all the way in” looks like. Flute players do not have that visual cue, so must then have to feel it all the way in. Once pushed all the way in, you could add a pencil mark on the flute head to give the students a visual cue. From there, they need to back off the flute head about 1 cm. Failure to do this procedure means that the flute will always be playing very sharp, and this has the unintended outcome of teaching the flute players of learning to play flute with their ears “shut off.” Few people would disagree that a flute played consistently very sharp is a very unpleasant sound, especially so if the section is not matching in their sharpness to the band. But even if the section is matching and they are together playing very sharp in comparison to the band, this can be a very subtle yet powerful force to teach the flute players to not listen while they play. “Since the sound hurts so much, just try to ignore it,” becomes the mantra. Now no beginning flute player has ever told me that directly. But I have noticed that in the years where I failed to teach them about flute head placement early on, they just seemed to be less aware of sounds around them and therefore struggled with tuning later, even after I told them about flute head placement. They seemed to have become tuned out to the issue, and that was my fault. So, I have learned from the students that very early I should teach the flute section to push the flute head all the way in, and then back it out approximately 1 cm. Then, I would have them take their trusty pencil that I know is on their stand, and use it to draw a line on the flute head where it should be placed from now on. This line helped them start with a better position from then on, and therefore more attention to the sounds that were coming out. If we found later that we needed to adjust the flute head not just for this one day but for every day as a starting place, we could just wipe off the line and draw a fresh one to be used to start each new day. The line is not intended to be a permanent “for all time” kind of marking, but just a reminder that the flute head needs to be started from the pulled-out position before doing any other adjustments from there. First-year clarinet players have a similar challenge of possibly learning to play with their ears shut off. This comes from starting on a reed that is too soft. Unlike flute players, clarinet players need to start with the barrel and mouthpiece pushed all the way together as much as possible, as clarinet players are often quite under pitch in the beginning. Still, all the way together is often not enough to get the clarinet players up to pitch, so sometimes the result for them is that they have also learned to play without listening to the exact pitch. Since they have no control over the pitch yet, they then must choose to ignore the too-low sounds to keep learning the clarinet. There’s that unintended outcome again. The solution for clarinet players is to not start on such a soft reed. In the article “What Reed Strength Should Beginners Start On,” I have gone into more detail about the pitfalls of starting on a soft reed. Another one is that some clarinet players tend to shut off their ears when they feel they cannot adjust their sound to get it more in tune. Again, the fault for that was mine. Starting on a 1.5 student level reed, such as a Rico or Juno, is so soft that the pitch will be wildly flat. Starting on a 2 is better, but I have always found a 2.5 for beginners to be about right. Remember this is a student model reed, not something like a VanDoren which would be massively too hard for beginners. But starting on a 2 or 2.5 on a student level reed gives the students a chance to put the pitch in place and start to learn to play with one common sound, instead of shutting off their ears. You would think that the problem of reed strength is similar for saxes, but there is another level of problem that messes it all up. That is, I have seen plenty of first-year saxes put the mouthpiece on the cork just enough to stop the mouthpiece from crashing to the floor. It is so close to the end of the neck and cork that it is massively flat, far more than the clarinets would do with a too-soft reed. Again, this was my fault because I did not give them enough instruction on how to apply cork grease so that the mouthpiece moves better on the cork. The solution for saxes is two-fold. First, they need to start on a decent strength reed, such as a 2.5 like the clarinets, assuming of course that they are using a student-level brand such as Juno or Rico Royal. Then they need to be shown how to apply the cork grease to get the mouthpiece on much closer to the top end of the cork. Then, like the flute players, they need to be shown how to draw a line on the cork so they know where to put the mouthpiece next time as a place to start. Doing this helps them slowly learn to listen while playing, rather than intentionally not listening as an unintended outcome. If you have been paying attention so far, the woodwinds alone have three separate problem tendencies. The flutes play massively sharp if not corrected, the clarinets play a fair bit flat, and the saxes can play massively flat. It is no wonder the students are learning to not listen while they play! Just wait till we get to the brass! Now I have seen trumpet players play well into their development with the tuning slide pushed all the way in. I have seen second and even third-year players still playing with it pushed all the way in because they were not instructed where the normal starting place should be, which is again about 1 cm out. Don’t forget to use that pencil to make a mark on the slide to help! What I have seen from trumpet players who do this, though, has helped me understand unintended outcomes. I have noticed that beginning trumpet students who have had trouble getting up to the second harmonic (G) on trumpet are also often the same ones that are playing with the slide pushed all the way in. As soon as I correct the position of the slide, they seem better able to get up to the open G correctly now. Speculating on why that is, I would suggest that the students can hear that the pitch is very much too high when they are playing with the tuning slide pushed fully in. To correct that they try to push the note downwards using their air and embouchure, which often means they drop the harmonic down to a low C. If I try to get them to push back upwards to the G harmonic, it often does not seem successful until I pull that tuning slide out where it should be. It is as if there is a fight going on inside their ears about where that note should be placed because the students have not been shown where to place the slide to fix the problem. The problem is not harmonics but rather a bad tuning slide placement. Not correcting it can be completely defeating for the trumpet player. As a result, I tell the students to never play trumpet with the slide pushed all the way in, as this can mess up their harmonics. This is true of all valved brass instruments. If that was not bad enough for the valved brass, what happens to trombone players can be even worse. Trombone players who play with the tuning slide pushed fully in begin to affect where they place the main slide on the trombone. Since all the pitches are created too sharp, they will learn that each slide position should now be pushed out a little farther to compensate. Once the slide is now returned to where it should be, the students have learned the unintended outcome of playing the positions all too low. This can take a great deal of time and effort to correct, and it just seems so much easier to fix that slide position correctly before that problem ever arises. Now a warning about some trombones. Some manufacturers with very snug trombone cases have also added a feature of the case that forces the student to push the main tuning slide all the way in before it will fit into the case. They have done this as a way of quietly encouraging students to move their tuning slides to avoid them getting seized into place. Hopefully, then, the instrument goes into the repair shop less frequently due to a stuck tuning slide. While it is true that tuning slides should be moved to avoid them becoming seized and then greased again when they do not move well. But the unintended outcome from the manufacturers is that they are encouraging trombone players to play with the slide pushed fully in, especially in the early formative months. This has the effect of messing up beginning players’ slide position placements. If you find a trombone case like this, make sure you remind your trombone players to pull that tuning slide back out and use a pencil mark for correct placement. Now here is a topic that is not part of this article, but I feel is important to mention here. I have seen way too many beginning trombone players so frustrated that they are ready to quit forever after only a few months in. When I did some investigation to find out why it all boiled down to their slide was just a mess and impossible to move in time with the band. Under these circumstances, nothing but frustration is achieved, and I am not surprised that they want to quit. Take a moment to review how to lubricate a trombone slide well, and check regularly that your new players are doing this every day. You will find this discussion in the article “Slide Lubrication.” Now if you are starting to think that I am nitpicking over little details and missing the big picture, I would somewhat agree. I think I am nitpicking over little details because that IS the big picture. All those little details when ignored, add up to a mess of troubles for students. When they are just starting on a wind instrument, it is much easier to cover all the bits than to have to correct all the troubles later on. So, how to cover all the details in the beginning week or two and still keep your sanity is a big thing for teachers. I would suggest that the best place for help from a clinician is on the very first day of putting that instrument together. Making sure all the little details are done correctly on day one will give you a better payoff than getting clinicians to work with your students later to fix all the “bad habits” that are now part of their playing. Plus, clinicians on day one will give you the bonus of helping you keep your sanity! I encourage you to find a way to use some local adult musicians in your area to help teach your beginning band students all the really important details of playing their wind instrument. Added together, all of these little details from many differing wind instruments can easily overwhelm even the most experienced band teachers. But using local adult help for a session or two can make your life so much better while also helping your students to steer clear of negative unintended learning outcomes. Please feel free to contact your Tapestry rep for help with this suggestion, as we want your students to succeed as much as you do.