Should you let your child learn to play the trumpet? (Trumpets)

Member Name: HonestBob

Product:	Trumpets
Date:	13/09/08 (329 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Playing any musical instrument is a skill to be encouraged

Disadvantages: The early days are painful and frustrating

Trumpets are members of the brass instrument family and stand among the oldest instruments. Constructed from brass tubing bent to form a series of rectangles with a cylindrical bore, the trumpet is played by blowing (more like buzzing) down the mouth piece and pressing down on the three valves in various combinations to form notes.

One of the benefits of this instrument are that it requires very little putting together in order to begin playing it. Unlike instruments such as clarinets which come apart into several segments and require lubrication to ease together, the only part which detaches from the trumpet when stored is the mouthpiece. The trumpet is stored safely in a hard case and takes up a lot less room than I had initially feared. Most schools hire trumpets free of charge initially but it is usually anticipated that the child will purchase their own trumpet once this is established as their instrument of choice and they have made significant progress getting to grips with playing it.

Initially the first few days of learning to play the trumpet are nothing short of painful, on the ears and on the heart strings. My daughter (Aged 10), when she could actually manage to produce any sound at all, produced a variety of painful squeaks, squawks and hisses. She had to learn the first three bars of the Wallace and Gromit theme tune and at first there was no tune whatsoever. She had the fingering right, just could not get the puff going to produce a clear sound. There was lots of frustration and tears and although learning the trumpet had been purely her own idea (I'd have been crazy to suggest it!), she rapidly wanted to give up. But, I'm not breeding quitters, if you want something you have to try for more than five minutes to achieve it before I'll say give up, so we persevered. I had a go myself and had to agree, it's a tough cookie to crack. Your lungs feel as if they're going to explode and all the air you're trying to expel into the mouthpiece is going nowhere. Then something amazing happens, and a note blasts out from the trumpet. It isn't followed by another for a while, but it's a note just the same!

We have progress! I limited practice to several short 6 minutes blasts at a time and always had a try myself. Soon the hissing, squawking and squeaking were becoming more musical, not quite the notes we wanted, but getting there. Our lungs stopped crying out for air, our posture improved and Wallace and Gromit (all three bars of it!) started to take shape.

We still have a long way to go before the Last Night of the Proms, but we now produce a recognisable theme tune! Give the trumpet a go, you just might like it.

Prices start at around £90 for a budget model, but don't expect a good quality sound, to £1000's for a prestige professional model. Expect to pay in the region of £300 for a child's trumpet of reasonable standard.

Summary: A great skill, plus your child will learn the importance of patience and perseverance.