Someone talk to me about brass tuition please

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DD (6 ) has decided most forthrightly that she wants to play the tuba. Given that she will fit inside a tuba at the moment this is obviously not the instrument to start with.

Is a cornet best? DH is a strings tutor and I play the clarinet badly and we both dabble with the piano but neither of us have a clue about brass.

DS (8) has been learning piano but is not wildly keen and is quite keen to try cornet too. However, I really don't want to fork out on brass instruments if they're not going to keep it up.

I am aware they are both quite young at the moment.

Any suggestions?
thanks

Tbh 6 is probably too young, they normally recommend waiting until permanent teeth are in. I think trumpet and tuba share fingering. Can you hire instruments from your county music service, a shop or via school?

OK that's worth knowing about teeth - thanks!

yes I was wondering about hiring. I'll look into it.

My DD started with cornet (easier to manage than trumpet for a little one). Something to consider is that many senior schools will have a "school tuba". They encourage brass players to take it up as a second instrument (and it can get left at school!!)

sam - what age did your DD start playing? Did she have adult teeth?

Yes, that definitely is worth knowing about "school tubas". Being married to a cello player I was kind of hoping for something a bit more portable than a tuba. But still, she is very young - she may yet opt for the piccolo.

i think she was about 8yrs. I don't remember too many problems with the teeth initially. She needed a brace during teenage years which made it harder to play........ on the positive side, when her brace was removed, she found it so much easier that she "flew" through her higher grades.
The cornet is a great first instrument - DD was able to play simple tunes quite quickly (much easier on the ear than her sister's violin!). She now plays her trumpet in an orchestra and loves her cornet playing with a brass band.

My DD began learning the cornet at age 4 teeth were never mentioned as an issue. Unfortunately she lost interest after a few years

DS1 began trumpet at 8, switching to tuba later. He's a trombone and tuba player now.

However there were some small tuba players in our junior School Orchestra.

Ds started on cornet aged 8 and picked it up really quickly he now mostly plays trumpet as he likes playing in orchestras and jazz bands but there's lots of crossover between different brass instruments as others have said. Ds is still really small so the cornet was great when he was younger. Our county lend instruments to beginners if their school have music service lessons and we also bought ds's trumpet through them and this saved us a lot of money I think 8 is probably a good age to start I don't think the country music service will give lessons to children below year 4 on brass because of issues with their teeth

Our local band offers very cheap tuition and instrument loans, do you live in brass band country?

Dd2 started the trumpet at 8yo. She's practicing in my earhole at present.

We were told once her adult teeth were in, but dh (who also plays) was told that they had to be in and settled and they needed to wait until about 12yo. He asked what he could do while he was waiting to learn to play and they said the best thing was the piano. As it happened, he found he preferred the piano anyway, but he does play both to a high standard.

Thanks all. We've spoken to the teacher who is happy to do lessons until her teeth come out and then see what happens. We've managed to borrow cornets from the city council music hub so all good. We'll see how they get on!

Both my DDs have started brass instruments aged 7; DD1 on the trumpet and DD2 on tenor horn (although she really wanted to play the sousaphone but she's small for her age). DD1 had her eight, front adult teeth when she started but her embouchure changed when she lost the upper canines and molars in rapid succession.

DS started tuba at 7 on a junior tuba about the size of a euphonium.

I come from a brass playing family & wasn't allowed to consider it until my 'adult teeth' came through.

That certainly used to be the advice given for brass, but not currently.

When ds stuck his hand up to learn cornet / trumpet in yr3 (so older than your dd) they got all the dc to have a blow and they were cnosen after that - some information about if teeth were 'ready' she says vaguely - it was a long time ago!

Re insturments (I see you have one now, but for others) - my dd recently decided out of the blue she wants to learn another instrument (trumpet funnily enough) and i just asked on my facebook account if anyone had one she might borrow for a few months to decide if it really was for her. I was overwhelmed at the offers - couldn't believe how many people I knew with a 'spare trumpet' in the house. None of them people that I was aware had a musical bone in their body, so if you ever want to 'try out' an instrument and aren't sure if your dc will take to it, it might be a good way to try before you buy.

DS started on euphonium in Y3 and he's still playing one in Y12. Along the way he's played trombone, baritone and tenor horn which we've borrowed from the band cupboard. If you have a local brass band it will provide playing opportunities and instruments usually at low cost, possibly tuition as well.

In the long term (when she's big enough to carry it herself) I would have thought that bass was a better option than cornet because fewer people take it up so there are more opportunities for those who do play.

Thanks everyone - much appreciated. I think we're going to go with it and see how it works out. My only concern is that she is so young that she'll get bored but I see that others haven't had that problem so we'll hope for the best.

Start on Tenor Horn at that age. Then easy to transfer to tuba, or french horn, or even trumpet as the dc wants later on.

My daughters best friend started playing the tuba at either 6 or 7, she's now 9 and quite good !! I definitely heard her play in year two and she could play a few tunes :-)