Brisbane Trip (Part One): Keeping it Local

I’ve just arrived home from a four day holiday in Brisbane with my wife. To be more precise, I’ve just arrived home from the physiotherapist this morning to have my back and shoulder looked at but that might be story in itself for another time. I thought I might discuss a couple of issues associated with my trip away, and I will do this in two parts. One of those issues had intentions with travelling away, and the other was a bit of a surprise tour on my sister-in-law and her husband’s part.

Keeping it Local

The main purpose of the trip away was to give my wife some holiday time. While she had the opportunity to go shopping, relax, and catch up with family, I was able to duck into the brass and woodwind store located in Brisbane. The intentions were to try out and maybe pick up some crystal mouthpieces for my clarinet and alto sax. They are a nice little feature to have with an instrument, and from reviews I had read apparently they do allow for a very nice sound. When I arrived at the store I was quite surprised to learn that there were none in stock and that they would have to be ordered in. I was determined to purchase some new mouthpieces, especially for the alto sax, so for the next two hours I was testing and comparing clarinet mouthpieces, alto sax mouthpieces, and alto sax ligatures. I eventually made my choice picking out a Van Doren B45 Lyre mouthpiece for the clarinet, the Selmer C** (no, that is not an expletive) mouthpiece for the alto sax, and the BG L10 gold lacquer ligature to go with the alto sax mouthpiece. I was a bit surprised at the ligature choice, since these days it would normally be the Van Doren Optimum as first option, but I personally found the two I picked out worked really well together.

Afterwards, the choice had me thinking about a common issue with musicians on the local scene. For quite some time there has been the unwritten code of trying to keep any music business around the local area as much as possible. And for good reason too since keeping the business within the community can earn yourself, and the company you go through, a good rapport with people on a friendly and business basis. The old “you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours”. These days it is becoming increasingly more difficult for teachers and local music businesses to do this. But this isn’t necessarily true for all instruments or families of instruments. I could safely say in the case for woodwind, and most likely for brass too, that resources and equipment is a little more difficult to come by at a local level but so much easier from outside of the town. The internet, for starters, is a massive promoter for businesses within NSW and companies outside of Australia. Online stores and access to music stores in capital cities could never be easier. Music or items ordered from these stores will arrive on our doorstep a lot quicker than that of ordering through a local business. I have had proof of this after ordering items from a Sydney store, and ordering items from local businesses on the North Coast. I have for over two weeks from local businesses for music to arrive, yet if I order at the beginning of the week from Sydney it will arrive on my doorstep in 2-3 days. The price difference varies little, except maybe paying a little more for postage.
        Then I have had the issue of a lack of quality items, instruments and accessories arise. Obviously at a more professional level it is accepted that you will need to visit a specialist store to test various models of instruments and accessories to find what combinations suit you best. At a student level, I try to encourage students to use more “quality” items straight away. For example, I try to steer students away from using lower quality reeds and having families purchase better quality reeds. Not only do the quality reeds last longer, but students get a much better sound and have the feeling of greater responsibility placed on them. A much improved attitude from students is evident in terms of playing their instrument and taking care of it, compared to others that have either ignored or forgotten the advice given. I’ve made suggestions to some music stores of stocking some of these items and some better tutorial and fun music books for students to play from, but the fear of spending money and not successfully selling the product always comes up.

For the teacher it’s a bit of a stifling situation; do we still order through the local business despite the cons, or do we take it upon ourselves to get the resources from alternate businesses outside of the local scene that can be more efficient and reliable? I would be very interested to hear some other thoughts on this issue. Part two will come later this week.