What brass instrument did you start on?

[Christian K. Peters]

Hello all,
I wanted to play trombone or drums. My folks had just bought me a new accordion, so they told me I could play dads' trumpet that he bought in college. It is an Olds Special from, the late 40's with the Olds 3 mouthpiece.
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Christian K. Peters
Schilke Loyalist since 1976

[bnsd]

[quote="BobD"]Can’t believe that no one started on an Olds Ambassador. I started on an Ambassador with a Bach 7C. Then got braces a few months after then after 3 years got braces off , couldnt play and switched to tenor sax for the remainder of my school years.[/quote]

I started on an Olds Ambassador with a 7c... mine was a cornet. I had been sneaking into my brothers room when he wasn't there and playing his trumpet. He would've been pissed if he knew. When I was in 3rd grade they offered band, so I asked my mom. She was SURE the trumpet would be too big and hard to play, so she got me the cornet.

I still have that horn, although it needs a lot of work. Valves still work well, although it's a bit stuffy compared to even my Capri, and it feels like it has a sock in it compared to my Yamaha 9335V.

[dershem]

Olds Ambassador trumpet, with an Olds 3 mouthpiece. The horn worked fine, but I hated the mouthpiece - that ultra-flat rim was very uncomfortable, so I started to monkey with it. Used machine tools to change the rim profile and hen the cup shape until it was a complete shambles. But it was comfortable. I used that until a band teacher saw it and demanded I change to a Bach 7C (which I detested then and still do).
I changed to being a singer until Mic Gillette gave me a Jet-Tone a couple of years later.

[hose]

Olds "Special" cornet ($35 used. Its best days had passed). Bought it in college to play only in marching band. Bach 7C mpc because that was what we started on in 1958. No exceptions.

At age 8 and thereafter I had wanted to play the cornet, but wasn't allowed to because there were too many cornets ...(everywhere)! I was relegated to clarinet and became pretty good. As a music major, a "brass techniques" class in college was my start on cornet. My favorite class. Ten years after college, and not in music education, I took up trumpet in earnest. Not everyone in my advanced music peer group was enthusiastic about that decision. And there are still too many cornets/trumpets, but I don't care. I'm getting all the gigs I can handle and having a great time.
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Dave Wisner

Picketts
Yamaha 6335RC
Yamaha 8335RS
Lawler Flugel
Kanstul cornet

[Bflatman]

Boosey and Hawkes Regent cornet with an unknown mouthpiece

nothing has affected me I am gear agnostic

[JeffSharp]

Tried trumpet for a while (can't remember what type of mouthpiece), then my parents bought me an Olds Ambassador cornet. I used a Bach 1.5c, later switched to a Blessing 7c, got back into trumpet with a megatone 3c, then finally to the Asymmetric mouthpieces.
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Schilke player
Pensacola performer/composer
www.jeffsharpmusic.com

[JimFrye]

Phil smith encourages students to begin on Cornet- so their first BLAT is a BLOT

[king leopardi]

The first brass instrument I started on was an Olds Ambassador trombone. I recall that it had an Olds mouthpiece, but I can't remember the size (it's been over 40 years ago).

Dave Brewer

[mm55]

Early 1960's Conn Director trumpet, Conn 4 mouthpiece.
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'75 Bach Strad 180ML/37
'79 King Silver Flair
'07 Flip Oakes Wild Thing
'42 Selmer US
'90 Yamaha YTR6450S(C)
'12 Eastman ETR-540S (D/Eb)
'10 Carol CPT-300LR pkt
'89 Yamaha YCR2330S crnt
'13 CarolBrass CFL-6200-GSS-BG flg

[razeontherock]

[Brassnose]

Started on an unknown cornet w/ unknown mp in 1980; likely was an Amati. Switched to a Blessing Scholastic w/ JK 5C, which I played until ca. 1992 even though it had a bent bell (original, must have been poor quality control at Blessing's and no one noticed until years later). Still have it as a back-back up.
Switched to a Bach 43GH w/ the same mp, experimented a little, then settled on a Yamaha 14a4a (yes, I know) for the next 10 years. Had the Bach redone w/ a 43 leadpipe and custom tuning slide in 2015 and switched to a Monette B4L at the same time. Ideal for big band, rock, soul settings. A little less so for church - too dense & straight when playing with rotaries and flugels.
Looking into buying a high end rotary now
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2019 Martin Schmidt eXcellence
1992 Bach 43GH/43
1989 Kühnl & Hoyer Model 15 flugel
1980/2023 Custom Blessing Scholastic C 😎
1977 Conn 6B
1951 Buescher 400 Lightweight
AR Resonance, Frate, Klier

[Brassnose]

Oh yeah, forgot to add that mouthpiece size looks to be quite important to me, too. I really like sizes around the JK5C I started on. Deviating too much from this diameter never really lasted long. Looking up the sizes of mps I like, they are all in the 16.7ish mm diameter range. I also seem to prefer shallow(er) mps.
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2019 Martin Schmidt eXcellence
1992 Bach 43GH/43
1989 Kühnl & Hoyer Model 15 flugel
1980/2023 Custom Blessing Scholastic C 😎
1977 Conn 6B
1951 Buescher 400 Lightweight
AR Resonance, Frate, Klier

[CartersPop]

Being the third born son of a music teacher/high school band director/supervisor of music for our public schools/lifelong trumpet player and teacher, I naturally "followed" my two older brothers into music by picking up the trumpet like my pop in third grade, a barely used student Bundy he picked up from the rental pile at the music store where he gave lessons. Needless to say my lessons were only "free" from a monetary standpoint, as I paid in every other way to the perfectionist (oh he also played first chair trumpet in the community orchestra). Virtually certain it was a 7c Bach that came with the horn, and other than maybe a nylon MP for cold weather that is what I stuck with. At least til I got to add first chair french horn in 8th grade (a used Conn 8d double) with a generic MP size unknown, simply because they had too many trumpet players and no french horn players and it was correctly assumed I could pick it up quickly. Then added a King baritone (marching band) and Yamaha euphonium (orchestra) as a high school freshman for similar reasons (again whatever MP was in the horn case or a nylon equivalent in cold weather), getting into first chair as a sophomore. Unfortunately trumpet and FH took back seat to the bigger horns, except for a little during jazz band during basketball season. I can still play (if that is what you call the mating-moose-like offerings emitted by my horns nowadays) all of them, although I need to put more time into each. I now "rock" (LOL my 10 year old's word) a recent vintage silver Olds NA5M cornet with a Bach 5c, just sold my Conn 8d double FH (lamenting that now) and now desiring a decent replacement, and on the hunt for a nice 4 valve euphonium.
My 10 year old third born son started playing a King 603 cornet less than a year ago with a fresh Bach-clone 7c, and pushing my Olds's buttons now and again, and started on my pop's old 1922 Conn Victor 80A we just got when my he passed a couple months ago.
I am in a 5c Bach-clone with my recently acquired King Liberty 1918 vintage silver trumpet that I am just getting to know. I originally got it thinking my boy could play it for concerts, but I think the Conn Victor from my dad will fit that bill, at least till he needs to be on a trumpet instead of a cornet for some particular purpose. Then I will probably pick up something nice and vintage for him too, and keep the Liberty for myself (I did not even tell him about it).
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Olds NA5MS Cor
Conn '22 80A New Wonder Cor w/m
White '15 King Liberty Silver Trum
Conn '27 22B New York Symphony Trum
White '25 King Liberty Silver Trum
JinYin '15 Marching Bb Fr Horn
Conn '35 New Wonder 80A Corn w/m
Pan-Am '23 40I Bari

[khedger]

It was 1968 and the 'rents rented (no pun intended) a Conn Director cornet which we eventually bought and I played for six years until I bought my first trumpet, a 1974 Holton MF Horn.

Beginning mouthpiece was a Bach 7c. Later moved to a 10 1/2c for a while, then migrated to a 3c which I still play.

[blbaumgarn]

A new Conn director in 1960, with their 7c mpc. Three years later a Conn 36b but with a Bach 7c mpc. Later to a Bach 1c and that was the choice for years.
Bought a Benge 5 in about '73 or '74 and used a number of different mpc. combos with that a couple Jettones, a bach 10 1/2 EW that I liked. Since restarting I have a bach 3c and just ordered a 5b to try with the horn I have. I have always been a trumpet guy. Was always fascinated by french horn but they never had all the solos trumpets did so.................

[GordonH]

[zaferis]

I started with a Blessing Cornet, bought in the 50's for my older brother. Cornet! I wish more students started on cornets, for sound concept. I still have the cornet - it looks like hell, but does play and sound pretty good.

This had a larger impact on me than the mouthpiece - my "ear" gravitates toward a "round", "mellow" concept.

Mouthpiece, I'm pretty sure I started on a Bach 10.5 C, but I know a 7C was in that mix as well - during my undergraduate work, like many, moved to a large wide open setup, then (while in the USAF Bands) realized I was working way too hard downsized a bit. Curry 3's now.
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Freelance Performer/Educator
Adjunct Professor
Bach Trumpet Endorsing Artist
Retired Air Force Bandsman

[BillyM]

I started on a late forties silver King Master Model cornet with a Rudy Muck mouthpiece. My great aunt who was a band teacher came to visit and she immediately took the Rudy Muck piece and replaced it with a Bach 7c.

Sixties year later I play a early fifties Selmer K-Modified trumpet w/ a Bob Reeves 43.5V mouthpiece and a Kanstul 1525 flugelhorn w/ GR 65.6 mouthpiece.

[Harry Hilgers]

My first horns are pretty vague in my mind, but here is what I remember.

I was born and raised in the Netherlands, in Limburg, Coalmine Country.

My dad worked at the Coalmine Emma. They had community band(s).

"They" started me on French Horn. Than followed up by hobo. Somehow an Alto Eb (Tenor Horn) got thrown in the mix, followed by flugelhorn, cornet and trumpet.

The sequence is very vague. I was in two bands: Concert and Brass Band. I seemed to go to rehearsals all the time.

All horns where community horns and I have zero memory as to what mouthpieces I played. I played whatever came with the horn, except I think the Trumpet piece was a Bach 7.

I immigrated to the USA in 1968, Seattle Wash. Then to Colorado in 1970, where I bought my first trumpet, Bach 37 I think, with a Bach 7 piece.

Both my sons showed music interest real early in life. So I kept playing my own horn to encourage them.

And the rest as they say is history.

[cheiden]

First instrument was a Magnus Chord Organ that my dad brought home from a garage sale before I was in elementary school. I used it along with the elementary books that came with it to teach myself how to read music and how to make chords.

A short while later tried an older neighbor kid's trumpet and found on first effort that I could get a better tone than him. When 5th grade came around and I got to choose an instrument I asked to play trumpet. My dad found one at a garage sale. I think it was a Renato horn. Don't recall the mouthpiece.

In junior high my mom rented-to-own a Bundy with a 7C which I played until high school when I conned her into buying me a Holton ST-302 MF horn and JetTone MF2 mouthpiece.
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"I'm an engineer, which means I think I know a whole bunch of stuff I really don't."
Charles J Heiden/So Cal
Bach Strad 180ML43*/43 Bb/Yamaha 731 Flugel/Benge 1X C/Kanstul 920 Picc/Conn 80A Cornet
Bach 3C rim on 1.5C underpart