Newsletters/Articles
July 2010 Newsletter

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your interest and support over the last financial year.

I'm sorry I missed the (ITG ) Trumpet conference in Sydney, but we will be at the International Horn Symposium in Brisbane this week.  Be sure that you come and visit our stand to say HI.

Oh yes, thanks for your patience with me. You have probably been visiting our site and waiting for new things to read.  

Last week I had the opportunity  and a great time lecturing to a group of young students at the Sunnybank Brass Band Hall.

We went over several points about care and maintenance of Brass musical instruments.  Also looking at what makes a quality instrument and how to identify problems.

1. Why do valves stick?
2. How often should I clean and lubricate my instrument?
3. How do dents affect my instrument?
4. Why do some instruments sound better than others?
5. Exactly how should I clean and lubricate.

These are some of the subjects covered.

Here is my formula for the workings of a brass instrument:

You (the performer) have a serious part to play in all the aspects of the overall performance.  If you're at a loss, read my earlier letters. But I can assure you that these 3 things are major factors that determine the performance of the instrument:

1. energy = engineering ( this will determine the ease or effort needed to produce sound.)
2. tone    = taper ( this will determine clarity and mellow, warmth of the sound.)
3. metal   = personality ( this will determine the darkness, brillance or brightness projected)

That is:-
1. Fine tolerances, no leaks.good lubrication, bore sizes.
2. Tubing shapes and degrees, blockages, dents, clean internal surfaces.
3. Metal thicknesses and quality of brass and surface finishes.

Every instrument becomes like a human voice able to play the same notes in tune of course yet distinctively different in it own way.

Hope this has been food for thought helping you to understand your instrument.

If you would like to take more care of your instrument, purchase some maintenance kits or products for Brass instruments just visit our new online store and scroll through some of out new great clean and lube products and we'll get them posted to you ASAP.

We are still developing this site so more items will be added each week.

Hope to hear from you soon.
Morrie
 
What Am I?

What am I?


Hope you enjoyed seeing us on Channel 10, and meeting us at the 2010 State Band Competitions at the Gold Coast.

Here are my thoughts for this letter.

After discussions with many of our customers over the years, the subject of being a musician often comes up.  The big question going on inside is:

  • Why am I a musician?
  • Why am I doing this?
  • All the effort and time and money for what?


I would have to say that even I myself have asked these questions.  So I am going to try and answer them to inspire you to play on.  Here are two old sayings that I am sure you have read at one time:  “Music makes the world go round”, and as Shakespeare wrote: “If music be the food of love play on”.

In the pursuit of playing music you will encounter both an experience of self discipline and a journey of imagination.  It will affect inwardly and outwardly.  It can become a source of comfort and joy to the player and the listener or in this performance orientated world can be a source of disappointment, heartache and pain.

I have known players who literally dry up, throw up and shake at the knees before a performance. So many negative thoughts of fear going on in the head, churning the liver to excrete toxic acidity into the musicians intestines. Sound awful doesn’t it.

Then what’s the point?

My point is go back to the question above and find the answer.

Here it is:

The round cycle of music.

It is human nature to love to be appreciated. True.  But to be appreciated we have to make someone happy.  For some of us it is not human nature to make others happy.  No, here is the real personal question for all musicians.  Although we love to be appreciated, do I love to make people happy?

I have heard on numerous occasions that musicians play their best when they are happy and the audience is being really entertained. They see it, they feel it, and they love it.

Too often in life we perform for the wrong reasons, for judgement rather than for enjoyment.

There will always be a healthy place for constructive criticism, but we can make two choices either accept and enjoy our limitations or be prepared to change, learn and grow to become the best that we can be.

We can make internal choices that will change or feelings and improve our performance ability.

Plan to change your life with our performance music club starting soon at Better Sounds. Phone for bookings and be prepared to move your musical abilities to a whole new level.

From the desk of Morrie
 
Update from Hobart

Wow, nearly ¼ for the year has passed.

We have all taken a few weeks off to recover from our end of year school repairs and now starting to re organize for this years’ restorations and projects.

The brass and concert band world is all fired up and perhaps a little stressed this year at the Band Nationals being held in the beautiful city of Hobart.

If you’re here, hope you are enjoying the great music, and I would like to say thanks for visiting our display.

In this years events we will definitely be starting our seminar teachers and band aid days along with our performance music club.

Watch for available seminar dates and lessons mid this year.  Although in April we will have a full day with 42 music teachers from the Gold Coast area.

Subjects covered will be:
Basic care and maintenance
Quick fixes, we’re about to play,
What does the word service involve or even mean?
Understanding repair concepts and procedures.
Knowing the cause, fault finding, verses adjusting the symptom dilema.

Performance club will be the tough decision to move from being a player to a performer.  These tutorials will be a combination of group and one on one.  Experience gained and subjects covered will equip a player to perform their own Video single and move forward into a public performance career.
Bookings have started,   Commencement dates will be after June this year.   Seminar days are minimum 12 people $100 per person.

Performance club will be a one year commitment fee.

Materials will be supplied.

Futher information about details, deposits and bookings please call Morrie on 07-55463711.
 

Buying Old, Cheap or Second Hand instruments

This will be one of the most important articles that I have written that will help give you a clearer understanding of how to negotiate with the idea of purchasing a brass or woodwind instrument.

This is a must-read for novice buyers.

This type of info is what many sellers don’t want you to know.  They probably are unaware themselves, selling items in good faith as value for money.

For now I’m giving these articles for free.   Coming soon will be a membership club that will give more detailed care and maintenance info.  Also a questions answered section and a forum contact base with other musicians around the world.

Most of the points in this article will specifically be related to brass instruments.  My next article will deal more with woodwind instruments.

OK here we go...

So a friend has a used quality brand instrument to sell you, it may look good and not even be that old and the price appears to be quite reasonable.

Or I just clicked on ebay and found an old treasured beauty a bit more than I wanted to pay but hey it’s a rare piece.

Wow I just went to a supermarket or my local music shop and they have some really cheap price new instruments and they look great!

I will clarify that once you read this article and understand the principles involved it is entirely up to you to decide whether to buy or not to buy.  Many people make decisions without correct knowledge. But when you do make a decision, it is important  to believe that you made the best decision at that time and to go with it.   

The instrument may even seem to play well.

I’m sure by now you want me to stop rambling.

A major false understanding about musical instruments is that “the material the instrument is made from makes the sound”.  Not entirely correct, like one of those half truths.  The brass, wood or plastic will only give the instrument its unique tonal quality or personalities and enhance the performance.

But the real energy of the instrument comes from how well it is engineered.  

This is where the rubber meets the road.  We're talking about sound waves bouncing around inside tubing.

And what is it doing?  It’s trying to get out.

A professional player may put the instrument to a test by playing a variety of sounds from very soft, loud, low and extremely high notes.

But that won’t help you a parent who can’t even read music let alone play it.

So let’s use some practical common sense and enjoy being a little bit wiser.  

I will also give you a point by point check list to help you determine the performance ability of any musical instrument.   If you’re a teacher you really need to know this stuff.  In future articles we will talk about materials, such as metal, wood, plastic, lacquer electroplating, performance and durability etc, etc.

Ok what about this engineering??????  What do you mean the sound waves are trying to get out??

Air columns such as the tubing in an instrument carry invisible sound waves vibrating at various tonal frequencies.  In the manufacturing process the instrument maker must consider many factors to produce the desired tonal sound.

But the simple truth is: once the instrument is made, if it is poorlyl engineered, similar to showing signs of worn or sloppy parts, then sound waves will escape and limit the performance of the instrument.

If you considering to buy a vertical piston type valve instrument, such as a typical trumpet:

Here’s what to do.

Undo the valve cap and pull the valve up out of the casing about 25mm.

Now see if the valve rocks from side to side.  Not twists, but rocks from left to right. If there is about a 1mm movement wow that’s like buying a car with a worn out engine.  It may still seem to work OK but it won’t have the energy and performance ability it should have.



If you're not sure about this, just find a more expensive new instrument that is well engineered and check it the same way.  Any music shop should let you try this on a new high quality instrument.

The valve tolerance (the gap between the cylinder wall and the piston) should be about 1 to 2 thousandths of an inch (that is 1/3 of the thickness of an average piece of hair).

It is from years of experience that we at Better Sounds are one of the few companies who are able to rebore and rebuild valve pistons to bring life and energy back to the instrument.  This is a time consuming process. Usually  we perform this type of repair only to professional models and customizing jobs, but if you have an old classic with value in your eyes, it can be done.

The following image shows three valves at different stages of restoration.  From left to right:

  • Piston and valve casing are worn and unrestored.  Piston goes up and down, but plenty of side play.
  • Valve casing has been rebored and the piston itself re-plated oversize.
  • Piston has been honed, valves cut to size, then fine hand lapped to fit with a very close tolerance of 1 thou. Extremely little or no side play.

Here is a close-up of the same three valves:


Hope that this point has been of help, Other factors will be discussed in further articles.
 
Determining the Value of your Musical Instrument

Should I Repair or Replace?

This article does not deal with the owners personal need to upgrade or change the instrument with an inferior brand. See additional articles for information on that topic.

Many of us can often fall into the belief, that the price we pay to purchase a product or service is the value of that experience.

I would beg to differ.

True value is a personal connection between the owner and the importance of the product or service received.

In the case of musical instruments, the value for the seller may be more than what the buyer is prepared to pay.  Which does not necessarily mean that the value is less in the buyers’ eyes?  Obviously the value is worth more than their buying price for both the buyer and seller. The seller wants to make money and the buyer in the similar way wants to save money.

The point is that value is always more than the actual price.

So the economics of what I am saying is: what personal connection do I have or want with this musical instrument?

In our throw-away society, decisions such as “out with old in with the new” may be necessary.  Is the replacement value justifiable?  If I repair this instrument how long will it last?  Which decision will best save money? Short term long term? How will I get the best value for money spent?    

It is hard to find quality repairers that leave damaged areas or your instrument looking just as good as when you first bought it.

If you took a car to the panel shop and it was less than perfect would you be happy?

The problem lies with two things:  Is it worth getting repaired properly, or do we just keep limping along with “just get it working” type repairs.

Here at Better sounds we pride ourselves to give you a higher quality repair that will not devalue the function or aesthetic appearance of your instrument.  It has been said that 75% of product value is appearance.

Quite often we experience more difficult repairs sent to us, due to severity of damage or previous repair attempts.

At this point I will never say that I have never made a mistake but we want to assure our customers with confidence that we will rectify any functional problem that may be caused by our workmanship.  That is our guarantee.

Our procedures are simple and straight forward.

We thoroughly clean [internal hygienic and descaling], straighten up [we take the dents out of your instrument] and improve the function, playability and appearence of the instrument.

Secondly we repair, replace and restore damages where necessary or as requested. [Pads, corks, felts, missing parts, structural soldering, lacquer and plating work.]

Schools and bands who have used our past services all testify that our repairs out-perform, out-last their expectations, look outstanding and in the long term save money.

Contact us any time to help you decide to repair or replace your band musical instruments.


Morrie
 
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