Warwick Music Group has been creating a plastic set of “brass” instruments for the education market in the UK and globally since 2007. The company have always been involved in music and music education since 1994 when they were sheet music publishers.
They have several products now and are creating new ones periodically. The instruments are designed and manufactured for children and designed to be light and durable whilst giving children the whole learning experience.
Brass instruments are often too heavy for young children to handle and the valves can be too difficult for them to press down if they haven’t got strong enough fingers.
The range comes in different coloured plastics and are “fun”for children and relatively in-expensive for parents to purchase, or schools to get a set for class teaching.
All the instruments come with a detachable mouthpiece, just like a regular brass instrument, and a gig bag to enable the instrument to be transported easily. Being plastic, they are easy to keep clean, and don’t need the same level of care as a brass instrument.
The range of instruments are;
pBone, PBone mini, pTrumpet, pCornet, pBuzz and a new product the pTrumpet hyTech.
The pBone and pBone mini are trombones (the mini being a smaller version). These are used in the same way as a normal trombone and can be taught in the same way. This enables young children to start learning years before they would normally be able to do so on a regular trombone.
The pTrumpet and pCornet likewise are the same as a brass trumpet or cornet but being plastic, they are considerably lighter and easier to manage for younger or smaller children. Children will be able to learn on these instruments and then transfer to a regular brass instrument as soon as they are big and strong enough.
The pBuzz is recorder size and gives children the experience of “buzzing” a brass instrument which is a great introduction to playing brass and is “fun” for children. It is a very useful tool for a brass teacher to help children practice how to get a sound from a brass instrument without holding a heavy instrument.
The new pTrumpet hyTech is still plastic but slightly more than the pTrumpet. It looks more like a regular trumpet as it is a gold plastic rather than a primary colour, and it has more of the traditional aspects of a brass trumpet in its manufacture.
All the instruments come with a choice of mouthpiece which are more geared towards the shape and size of a child’s mouth.