Anyone who knows me knows me knows that Las Vegas isn’t my favorite place to go.  In fact, I actuallly find it a bit boring.  Gambling just isn’t my thing, so when I found myself being redirected to Las Vegas for the Society for Human Resource Management 2021 Annual Conference instead of Chicago (thanks, COVID!), I figured I would make the best of my non-conference time – so I brought my horn.

Actually, the rest of the story is I had a trombone lesson scheduled during the conference and was in a real bind when I was unable to find studio space or a hotel conference room to do the lesson.  I certainly did not want to risk getting evicted from my hotel for disturbing my neighbors with the sweet sound of scales, long tones, etudes, and excerpts ad nauseum.  I had to find a solution FAST, so I ran over to a local music store and picked up a Yamaha Silent Brass.

For the record, I have no relationship with Yamaha.

I went back to my hotel room, unboxed it, set everything up, and started blowing scales.  OH CRAP!!  I forgot to put the pickup mute!  Or did I?  Wait a second … the pickup mute is IN the horn.  I was truly stunned by how close the Silent Brass system gets to a natural, open horn sound.  The reverb setting is lovely addition if you want to enjoy some more depth to the sound.  Aside from the added backpressure from the mute, it really is the next best thing to playing open.  After a while, I started to forget about the backpressure because I was more focused on listening to my sound and practicing lit.

When it came time for my lesson, the best part was I could plug it in directly to my laptop without the need to use a high quality microphone setup.  I ended up being able to make the most of my down time by practicing an hour or two a day in my hotel room, and on the last day of the conference found a nice corner of the convention center and practiced for a couple of hours until it was time to head to the airport.  I’d say this was my best investment in equipment this year since buying my new S.E. Shires tenor trombone.

What my newfound experience with Silent Brass really taught me was that I should have spent the money on it years ago.  Yes, it costs upwards of $200 for the tenor trombone model, but it is one piece of equipment that is absolutely worth every single penny.  My advice for any student out there is to get one as soon as you can. My advice to band directors and music departments is to get some of these into your inventory for students to use when practicing at home (especially the tuba and euphonium versions) or give them out to students as awards or as part of a scholarship program.