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I don’t teach any more, yet my interest in motivation towards brass and elementary brass pedagogy has not diminished. The following text is part of my writing elsewhere in the web:

Norwegian Eb-tubist/dentist friend Sondre lives in Denmark, where his wife Lene studies at the university in Odense on my neighbour island. Lene also plays euphonium. They have twin sons Marius and Vetle from March 2007. I wanted to apply my ideas of early brass pedagogy on them by giving them lurs/hosaphones made of real trumpet bells, hoses for pitches of alto Eb or tenor Bb, and Kelly 12C trombone mouthpieces.

Sondre sent me this video link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80O0PBDbSdY

I like what I see and hear. And the guys use the instruments as conches and stethoscopes, which was not in my original imagination.

Klaus

They are really cute. I have had a similar experience with my 4 year old grandaughter. She has the pick of a variety of brass intruments sitting around in my studio and has been buzzing pitches for a couple of years. She can sustain a G on trumpet and play higher or lower at will. However, she announced a few months ago that she wanted to play the violin. Since she has remained firm on the issue, she will be getting a violin and lessons for Christmas.

I would be sad if a small kid chose the accordion, but violin is all fine with me. Part of my idea was to equip the boys with something sounding real (I had great fun playing these lurs myself) and which would not leave the parents in constant fear for either the kids or the instruments being damaged. I think I succeeded so far, as another video shows the trumpets lying among other toys in each boy’s cupboard free to be selected for playing.

The catch I see from this video is that they can play into their own ears, which may be hazardous to their hearing.

Apparently the low notes are no problem for young embouchures.

Klaus