Many people find themselves in the world of musical instruments that they don’t know anything about when their kids first started music in school. It is very important to know the basics of building tools and good materials and to choose a good store to rent or buy these tools. So what process should parents follow to make the best choices for their children?
Obviously, the first step is to choose a tool. Let your child choose. Kids don’t make many big decisions about their lives, and this is a big decision that can be a source of empowerment. I can also say from personal experience that children have a natural intuition about what is good for them. In the end, my strongest advice is to put a child in a room to try no more than 3-5 different options, and let him choose based on the sound he prefers.
This information is intended to broaden your horizons, not to create a preference, or to put you in a position to choose in the store! Most gadgets are very well made these days, and choosing a reputable retailer will allow you to be confident in the recommendations. Ask your school and/or private music teacher where to shop.
Brass tools are manufactured all over the world, but mainly in the USA, Germany, France and China. When we talk about brass instruments, we are referring to members of the trumpet, horn, trombone, and tuba families.
Materials
There are two basic types of materials used in the construction of brass instruments. The first is clearly brass, the second is nickel-silver.
The brass used in machinery is available in three types:
Brass (70% copper, 30% zinc)
Copper gold (85% copper, 15% zinc)
Red copper (90% copper, 10% zinc)
All of these types of brass are used to make tools. Each also carries a certain tendency toward a particular sound quality – but this is a very subtle distinction, and should not be used as an exclusive measure of choosing your instrument.
Brass is more common and can be used for most parts of your instrument. It has a very pure sound quality, exhibits the best of the three alloys, and holds up very well at high volume levels.
(Gold brass is also very popular, mainly due to the more complex sound quality and personal feedback. The player themselves usually hear a little better with brass, but the trade-off is a very slight loss in width. This more ‘complex quality’ is very appealing to the ear, but can Getting rough at high volumes if the player isn’t in control of all of their technique.It’s like going screaming from singing – there’s a point you can easily reach very far in. Copper gold isn’t used for the whole instrument school (in North America, but a lot in Europe). We mainly use it for the bell (where the sound comes out) and the main tube (the first extension of the tubes in the lead tube has become popular for student instruments, as it resists abrasion well, a concern of teens whose body chemistry is fickle, and for students who rarely clean their instruments.
The same goes for red copper. This is a very complex sound, and is usually not used in student instruments. Red copper appears almost exclusively in the instrument’s timbre. This is due to its less stable nature in producing sound at high volumes. Having said that, it can produce great sound when it’s well balanced with the rest of a well-designed device. A good example of this is the popular 88H Symphonic Trombone, which has been a staple in the North American market for over 60 years.
Other materials used to make brassware are silver and nickel. Interestingly enough, there is no actual silver in this material. It is often an alloy of copper, nickel, and zinc, in various combinations. I like to think of it as copper with nickel added. Its name derives from its physical resemblance to silver, making it ideal for things like brass instruments, and coins you might have in your pocket.
This is a very important part of your instrument. Unlike copper, it tends to be very hard. This makes it ideal for use on tools for:
Protection of moving parts
Join two tubes with a ring (called a ferrule)
Wear the parts of the device that frequently come into contact with your hands to protect against contact abrasion.
Companies use nickel silver in different ways and in different parts of the tool. These construction details are few, but here are some suggestions to look for that can help with the stability and strength of student tools:
o The outer sides to adjust the slides. This is good, as it protects the parts that need to be moved regularly from damage.
o The inner tubes of the tuning slides. Ideal for student tools (common on European machines), this protects against wear.
o Joint between tubes.