Our newer technician at work has been there about a year and a half. She's still more of an apprentice, but she has picked up a lot and can do most brass repairs, most flute repairs, and some sax repairs. She's still learning about clarinets but at least can repad them. She's a brass player so she can play-test those instruments. She can sort of ( Read more... )

This story starts last year and involves an acquaintance of mine. I've known her for years but not all that well, and frankly my opinion of her goes down the longer I know her, for various reasons ( Read more... )

An acquaintance of mine, a clarinet player, wanted to learn to play the sax. He got a sax from someplace and had it looked at, and tried to play on his own, but he was having some issues. He brought it to our store and had our tech take a look at it; the tech found the other place had missed a number of problems and that was causing the issues; it ( Read more... )

A mom brought in her son's trumpet because the mouthpiece got stuck. She wondered, is it because he was using an old mouthpiece in a new trumpet ( Read more... )

There is a school district we work with that has their students do a summer program. We deal mostly with beginner students, who get a jump on playing prior to the start of the following school year, but there are programs available for students who have played for a year or longer ( Read more... )

As the school year ended, a few districts had their students sign up for summer band. This was a big deal thanks to the pandemic; one particular district did not start beginners the previous fall. They were therefore signing up kids from two grades in order to still let the older students start playing instruments ( Read more... )

And now for a break from music-related posts; this was an advice column that caught my eye. I really wonder about some people.

From Sunday, February 14, 2021; link is from the Denver Post.  This was the second letter in the column.

Dear Amy: I believe my husband is having an affair. I know this from watching his behaviors. His phone is constantly ( Read more... )

We have one school district where we strictly do orchestral rentals. Unlike band instruments, these are a pure rental; the families have no chance to purchase them outright, because when they start, the players are on fractional-size instruments.  They'll grow out of them.  At the same time, this also means they can rent in perpetuity.  In this ( Read more... )

Every so often, there comes a customer that you kind of just wish they'd go somewhere else.  This is one of those customers ( Read more... )

We have a gentleman who has been taking lessons from our store off and on since I've been there.  He's a veteran, and I believe he suffered an injury during a tour of duty that has caused some cognitive issues.  He still has his love for music and he still wants to learn, so he's taken lessons as he's had the time and inclination.  I'm not even ( Read more... )