2026, Family, home, Kids, Music, Uncategorized

Instrumental

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Daughter recently purchased a condo, and she has been busy nesting and settling in. We still have quite a bit of her stuff, including a collection of Russian nesting dolls and her baby china. I hope we can get it to her in Tacoma and get it out of our basement.

We have her French Horn in our basement as well. It is a lovely Conn French Horn we got for her in Middle School. She was a really good French Horn player, and even made it into Junior High All-State Band. Then disaster hit and she needed braces on her teeth. She never could play all that well again, but she played all through High School.

I asked her the other day if I could donate her horn to the local high school. It is truly a lovely instrument, and would be greatly appreciated. She surprised me by saying she wants to start playing it again. She said many of her middle school therapy clients talk about their band and orchestra experiences and she realized how much she missed playing her horn.

The horn hasn’t been touched for more than 12 years. Husband and I took it to a music store in Sioux Falls on Tuesday and upon examination they said it was in great shape. The valves all worked and everything was movable. They are going to clean it all up, though, and lubricate it. We will ship it to her after that. Now that she hasn’t braces on her teeth, perhaps she really will play again. I also hope this means she will start playing her violin again.

Did you have braces? Did you play in band or orchestra in school? If you have kids, still have their stuff in your home?

27 thoughts on “Instrumental”

  2. I had no fun with dental stuff when I was a preteen and teen. Anatomically I have a small mouth. I also had extra teeth so I had to have teeth pulled and wear a retainer while the second set grew in then those were pulled and then I had braces for 2 1/2 years. And I don’t know if it was other people‘s experience but getting the braces tightened/adjusted was just excruciating so every few weeks there would be a day or two where I couldn’t eat solid food after the adjustment. Then more retainers after the braces came off. It was about 4 1/2 years from beginning to end and it was just awful.

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  3. This is your chance to splurge a bit. Pack all of that tightly into boxes and book yourselves a round trip from the Cities to Tacoma on the Empire Builder train. Get a sleeper and enjoy the ride both ways. The boxes will go as your checked bags, and your other luggage will be a generous suitcase that rides in the luggage rack on the sleeper car. The added space in the basement will be your compensation for the added expense of the sleeper.

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    4. We have taken the Empire Builder to Portland via Seattle before. We got on the train in Williston, ND, about 100 miles from our town. We had a sleeper car since we had both kids with us. A delightful ride.

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    5. I think we would get on the Empire Builder in Fargo. That is 240 miles ftom us. I also think we could pick up another passenger train in Omaha, which is 215 miles from us.

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      1. You could likely pick up the Empire Builder, which goes to the Northwest, in Fargo. If you go down to Omaha, the train you’ll get there goes to Denver, Salt Lake, Reno and San Francisco. That’s a LONG way from Tacoma.

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        1. We would take it to Denver. I just hate driving in Denver. Husband has family there, and we are seriously considering taking the train in lieu of flying or driving thete.

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  4. my daughter played piano for a number of years and then took up Trumpet just before middle school and then had her braces installed, but her Trumpet teacher was tremendous and had a system where you put a piece of foam feet like a stick of gum over the top of your braces and that keeps you from cutting up your lips. It worked beautifully, but she decided she didn’t like the band teacher so she switched to choir has a keyboard and a guitar and a microphone for recording her TikTok and YouTube videos she’s pretty good. I hope to pick up that Trumpet someday I just love Trumpet.

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  5. No braces but my kids both had them and my granddaughters are both suffering with them right now.

    I’ve talked on the Trail previously about my school band experiences. I started in grade school with the cornet. I was usually second chair, the first chair occupied by a kid whose dad was a music teacher. Some time in middle school the band teacher asked me if I would be willing to switch to French horn. The horn belonged to the school. Later, I was transitioned again to a baritone horn and, again, the horn was borrowed from the school. I don’t know what became of my cornet. Likely my parents sold it.
    I played baritone into high school but the band became a marching band in service to performance at football game halftimes. I hated marching and marching practice, so much so that I left the band. That left me without an instrument.

    In much later years I bought a baritone horn on eBay and had it reconditioned and also picked up a decent trumpet at an estate sale. I fiddled around with the baritone for a couple of years but discovered that most of the music for baritone or euphonium was in bass clef and I, as a former trumpet player, was accustomed to treble clef. The muscle memory for fingerings in treble clef was strong but I couldn’t reprogram them (at my advanced age) to respond to bass clef so I gave up and sold it.

    At the music store where my baritone was cleaned and reconditioned, I asked if they knew of any bands that were seeking donations and in fact they had one for which they collected instruments. I donated the trumpet, along with enough money to have the instrument cleaned and serviced.

    For many years we still had boxes of our kids’ stuff in the basement but that has all been dispersed now. The flow has shifted and now we are trying to offload stuff on our kids, though there isn’t much they want. Robin also had/has a casual collection of matryoshka dolls as well but she has given a couple to the granddaughters.

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  6. Yes and yes. Braces from grades 8-11. Cornet to start in 5th grade. Switched to french horn in 8th grade but took up trumpet again as well to play in the jazz ensemble. Did both through HS, then stuck w/ trumpet in college. Ended up being a band director, not the great jazz trumpeter I wanted to be. Main reasons? Late start, minimal practicing while young (I timed my 30 minutes required daily practice to the second!), and the wrong embouchure for trumpet.

    I wish someone had told me early that I’d never have great range or endurance, but back in 1965, the science and physiology of playing a brass instrument wasn’t evolved or geared toward matching students with the “perfect instrument” for them. It was basically, “I wanna play cornet.” Then the band director would give my chops a cursory look, have me buzz into a mouthpiece, and say, “Okay. Cornet it is.”

    Chris in Owatonna

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  7. I played cello in mostly junior high, and it was owned by the school. I think I even chose it over violin so my folks wouldn’t have to buy an instrument, although I see now they wouldn’t have had a problem doing that; and a violin would have served me better in the long run. I was probably proficient, but never enamored with the instrument.

    I became mildly interested again after seeing a young woman cellist in the San Francisco city orchestra, but never acquired one of my own.

    I didn’t have braces, but younger my sister did, so I know some of the pains involved with that…

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    1. Husband loves his cello and is playing a lot more now that he is fully retired. He also plays his guitar and mountain dulcimer.

      I started out in Grade 5 on the clarinet. I was only a so-so player. In Grade 7 the band director asked if I was interested in playing the bass clarinet. I was and I was quite good at it. I played it all through college in the Concordia Concert Band. I was always able to use instruments provided by the school and the college. Bass clarinets are quite expensive. I am going to start playing the piano soon. I took lessons through Grade 12.

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  8. I skipped out on braces. I had such bad dental experiences that I in no way wanted anything more to do with someone messing with my teeth. Mom asked if I wanted them. Nope. And they didn’t push it.

    I played trumpet from 6th grade – 12th, and a couple other things after that. I can still buzz my lips and I do that every now and then. All that brass playing gave me good breath control, and strong lips. The ol’ embouchure.

    It’s interesting Kelly doesn’t have a very ‘strong’ voice, and she can’t get very loud, without getting high pitched. She wore a back brace for several years in middle and high school, and had to breath shallow, and in her upper chest. I think that’s explains a lot; she never developed that gut breathing / diaphragm using big voice. For which I am grateful. 🙂

    She plays piano and drums and has terrific teeth.

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  9. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I played clarinet skillfully. I loved band and the entire experience of high school music. No braces here. Although my son had them. That was an experience similar to what VS describes above, complete with the “head spreader,” a bar I had to widen weekly to widen his mouth so his teeth would fit. Ugh.

    Recently I found my son’s little car (Hot Wheels) collection, when I cleaned out the disgusting closet under the stairs, desparately seeking a lost power cord. That is about all that he has left here. Husband does have son’s former trombone, as well as his own trombone. He used the second trombone in AZ during our winters there.

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  10. Sadly, we couldn’t afford much dental care and little encouragement to floss and brush from dad and mom.
    Lots of cavities. Now suffering aging fillings and root canals with caps. I’ve gotten a bunch of online advertising for implants. Not cheap. At 72, do I really need a Hollywood smile without a Hollywood belly?!

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    1. At 83, and missing three bottom teeth, I can tell you that your oral health isn’t just a matter of vanity. It greatly impacts your physical and mental well being as well. Do whatever you can to keep your teeth as long as possible.

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  11. Like YA, our son lives with us, along with all of his stuff. Daughter, who used to regularly threaten to run away from home as a toddler, left home as soon as possible (for college), returned briefly, then left again. So by now we have very few of her belongings—just her collection of American Girl dolls, some treasured stuffed animals, and a bin full of Beanie Babies. I also have her art portfolio with some unfinished artwork.

    I didn’t play instruments besides the piano, but I did have braces. I don’t know why my mom waited so long, but by the time I got my braces, many of my friends were having them removed. I had them for my senior photo (possibly the worst photo ever taken of me) and into the first few months of my freshman year at college.

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  12. I had perfect teeth as a child, and I had no idea what a gift that was. Annual dental check-ups were routine, but there were no professional cleanings between dental visits. Back then, flossing wasn’t a thing, and daily brushing was a pretty perfunctory ritual in my household. As a result, I’ve struggled with gum disease since my middle teens.

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  13. My principal-wage-earner mother couldn’t pay for orthodontia for me when it came up in my teens. I had a dentist who recommended pulling two teeth, one upper and one lower, to help uncrowd my very crowded teeth. For a short time I had a partial brace which attempted to move a tooth backwards into the gap from an extracted tooth, and then I had bonding done on a misaligned tooth in my 20’s. It was a “good enough” solution.

    I was never in band. No talent!

    I retrieved all my stuff from my mother’s place maybe 40 years ago.

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