![the buescher elkhart ind trumpet the buescher elkhart ind trumpet](https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--ZwJalD_g--/t_card-square/v1604010382/tuwt0vyuu1t9fkedcgue.jpg)
The first night, Hap looked over the horn, showed me how to put it together, showed me where to put my fingers, and taught me to blow a few notes.Īt the next band class, it was clear that I was still behind. So when the saxophone came, Dad called "Hap" Ashenfelter and asked if he could help me get started. One of my aunt Shirley's in-laws was a woodwind teacher. By the time my horn arrived, even my parents realized that I would need some sort of "jump start" to catch up with the class. Allan was showing the other kids how to blow their horns.
![the buescher elkhart ind trumpet the buescher elkhart ind trumpet](https://brasshero.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/trumpet-brass-band.jpg)
So for two weeks, I had been promising my teachers that a horn really was on its way, and sitting through "band class" holding only my music book, while Mr. The first "problem" with my saxophone was that it arrived two weeks after "band class" had started. The horn - an Elkhart - probably came from General Merchandise, Dad's mail order catalog of choice in those days.Ī fellow on Flickr has posed several photos of the same model I started on (I think). On a factory-worker’s budget, that was the appropriate choice. Dad ordered a tenor saxophone through a mail order catalog, probably getting it for half of what the store model cost. Unlike my friends who took horns home that night, we went home with empty hands. But he asked, "So, he wouldn't be fighting for first chair or such?" Hardly anyone starts on tenor."ĭad looked at the alto and blanched at the price tag. "Well, the kids usually start with alto, because that's the 'main' instrument of the family. "What about tenor?" Dad asked the sales guy. Or - after we moved - Miamisburg, Ohio, in 1964. But after all, there weren't really many places to learn jazz in Donnelsville, Ohio in 1962. Or perhaps he imagined that I would one day be a great jazz saxophone player on the order of Sil Austin, John Coltrane, or Sonny Rollins, etc. Perhaps he wanted to play one as a kid and was hoping to give me the chance to do what he never got to do. In addition - I realize it now - he loved the sound of a tenor sax, especially in jazz. In other words, my father, who didn’t think I was committed to learning an instrument, was nevertheless willing to spend more money if it meant improving my chances. (Drum kits are usually a little cheaper, but other factors often steer families away from drums.) That way, kids can choose from any of the "core" wind instrument groups without having to decide whether preferring, say, flute over clarinet, is worth spending another $50. The first-tier instruments (flute, clarinet, trumpet, cornet, and trombone) all cost about the same (although trombone is sometimes a little cheaper). Price-wise it's a "second-tier instrument," along with “double” French horn, baritone horn, and a few others. Today I know that a saxophone has always cost at least twice as much as a trumpet. Somewhere over my head, literally as well as figuratively, the guy answered, "Saxophone, definitely." "What about French horn?" "Nobody starts on that it's too hard to play." "What do people who want to play French horn start on?" "Trumpet." "Is that easier than French horn?" "Yes, much." "Is it easier than saxophone?" "No." But while I was drooling over the French horn, my father (who had little confidence that I would stick with band) was asking the sales guy which instrument was easiest to learn.
![the buescher elkhart ind trumpet the buescher elkhart ind trumpet](https://www.prysou.com/image/cache/images/2020-02-03/c876c2/4e2218f825dc77e34f8a8ae7ab9597f9c12b929b_3-728x800.jpg)
When the music store people came to the school auditorium in 1962 to demonstrate band instruments and take orders, I went expecting to come home with a French horn. I loved the sound of a French horn from an early age. Actually saxophone wasn't my first choice.
![the buescher elkhart ind trumpet the buescher elkhart ind trumpet](https://pic2-d.avaluer.org/imgspic/d/k/h/o/m/-buescher_elkhart_true_tone_trumpet_rare_and_old-2_49.jpg)
My first saxophone came from a mail-order catalog.