Jane: Trumpets

On Thursday, three packages arrived on our doorstep. They were trumpets! Bach Stradivariuses (Stradivarii?) for Robbie to try out--he's making the big step to getting a "good instrument."
His instructor, Bryan, had encouraged us to consider buying him a good instrument this year. Robbie's at that stage in his musical development where it'll make a difference. And he really enjoys playing.

The trumpet he has now is a Bach, but it's a student model. Bryan let Robbie try out two "professional" models--the Stradivarius and the Yamaha model. Apparently the Yamahas are more consistent--you get one and it'll be good. The Bachs vary more from instrument to instrument, but a good one is REALLY good.

Robbie liked the Bach the best, so we checked into getting one. I immediately thought about going to Brasswinds, a huge music store in South Bend, Indiana that we see every time we drive from CR to Cleveland. Turns out that's where brass folks get their instruments! We couldn't find a good weekend to travel over, but the Brasswinds folks have a good deal--they'll ship you 3 instruments to try out--no shipping charge--and you can try them. You just ship back the ones you don't want and buy the one you do.

(Turns out my sister's doing the same thing for her daughter, Gabi, who's a oboist. The instruments will come from a place in MN for her to try.)

Robbie's going to play these for a while and take them to his lesson. He's pretty excited about playing them--they do have a beautiful sound!

Meanwhile, I'm counting birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count. Message to chickadees out there: if you don't show up at my feeder today, you don't get counted!