[Trombone-l] Mouthpiece buzzing and children

[Dan Seager]

Funny that this subject has come up.  For the past 6 months or so, my now 21
month old son has made practicing when I get home from work very difficult
to do.  When I get home, he'll immediately go to my trombone case, try
opening it, while at the same time saying "toot toot".  When I try playing
some long tones, he reaches up attempting to grab the slide and wants to
play.  When I let him play, he more often than not will just "sing" through
the mouthpiece, then will quickly run to the bell section to see if he can
hear it (he sometimes will talk into the bell as well, which is quite
humorous).  He has managed to play a low Bb and an F a few times, so I think
that his buzzing is really coming along quite nicely.  His latest thing his
placing the bell section on his head (like a hat) while holding the slide
out in front of him (don't worry - I'm careful about how he's holding the
slide).

As fun as all of that is, it is hard to find the right time to practice.
When he goes to sleep at night, I can practice about an hour with a practice
mute, but that's not my favorite way.  Last week, I bought a slide whistle
at Toys R Us thinking that might appease him.  He was playing on that all
the way home, much to my chagrin, but also to my joy at the thought of
actually being to practice!!  When I got home, I took him into the music
room with his slide whistle still in his hands.  As soon as I got out the
trombone, he threw down the whistle, pointed up to the trombone and yelled
"toot toot".  Oh well...If my choice is between practicing or being a dad,
I'll choose dad.

Dan Seager