Written by S.K.

One thing I learned about brass instruments is that there are common misconceptions on how to play a brass instrument. One is you don’t just blow in the mouthpiece and make noise you have to make specific sounds with your mouth to make different notes. This shows that there is a common misconception on how to play notes on a brass instrument.

Another misconception is about the slide on the trombone. People think that you randomly slide up and down with the slide but there are different positions you slide too. This shows that there is a misconception about how to play notes and where you slide the slide on the trombone.
These misconceptions connect to a soccer game. You don’t just run on the field and randomly kick the ball around until it lands in the net/goal. You have to choose your position, make passes, and more.

Written by R.S.

During the New England Brass Band performance, I learned many things, but one of them was that the four brass instruments pitches are just like an Oreo cookie. The bottom chocolate cookie is the tuba, a little bit of the bottom cookie and the filling is the trombone, the rest of the filling is the french horn, and the top cookie is the trumpet. I got this example because the french horn player, Jennifer. She described the brass instrument players exactly like that.

How do we know that all the instruments are in the correct spot?

Well, let’s start off with the tuba. The two lowest instruments are the trombone and tuba. I know this because they are the biggest instruments, and just like any other instrument, the bigger the instrument, the lower it can go. But which one is lower? Well, during the concert, the two brass people had a contest to see what was lower. Trombone vs. Tuba. Well, they went back and forth about three times, and eventually, since the tuba was bigger and it reached a pitch that was so low, even the trombone could not match it.

So that is how I know that most of the bottom cookie was filled up with tuba. Since the trombone is the next biggest instrument, and very close to reaching one of the tuba’s pitches, it’ll take up the rest of the cookie and a little bit of the filling.

The last two instruments are the french horn and trumpet. The french horn is a little bit bigger than the trumpet, so if my theory is correct, it should be able to go a little lower than the trumpet. But one piece of evidence that would prove the theory is correct is that when the trumpet player put on his “solo”, he showed us that since the trumpet was so high and little, you can move your fingers on the valves a lot quicker than a french horn player can move their fingers. Also, you can always hear the trumpet as the loudest instrument, since it is so small.

This proves that the french horn takes up the rest of the Oreo filling, and the trumpet falls highest at the top chocolate cookie.

So this evidence proves that the highest of the brass family instruments is the trumpet, then the french horn, the trombone, and last but not least, the lowest of the brass family, the tuba.

Written by A.I.

In the assembly I learned that you do not just blow into the brass instruments you have to keep your lips close and then blow to the mouthpiece and that makes a noise  that makes beautiful and the tuba is the one that makes the lowest sound out of all brass and the trumpet does the most highest sound of all brass and they have a trybone which is the one different form all other brass this have a slide and it can play a closago which no other brass can do so that on thing that special about the brass family.