Middle School Region Band (rehearsal) Story

[euphony]

In 8th grade I made region band for the first time. At the time I was playing a school-provided Yamaha YEP-642. I had made it through sectionals great and was moving on to the first (and only full-band) rehearsal. About halfway through my fourth valve starts acting weird. None of the pitches were playing correctly besides a few notes such as Concert F. The other notes must have started using wrong tubing or something. Valve oil didn't help at all and I was basically stuck fingering along with all the music for the rest of rehearsal. I checked the inside of the valves a few times but the guides were aligned and it looked completely normal.
That night I got to look a little more in-depth and clean out and realign the valves and valve casing and then the horn started working normally.

I'll never know exactly what happened there but I'm very glad I got it fixed.

[graeme]

In 8th grade I made region band for the first time. At the time I was playing a school-provided Yamaha YEP-642. I had made it through sectionals great and was moving on to the first (and only full-band) rehearsal. About halfway through my fourth valve starts acting weird. None of the pitches were playing correctly besides a few notes such as Concert F. The other notes must have started using wrong tubing or something. Valve oil didn't help at all and I was basically stuck fingering along with all the music for the rest of rehearsal. I checked the inside of the valves a few times but the guides were aligned and it looked completely normal.
That night I got to look a little more in-depth and clean out and realign the valves and valve casing and then the horn started working normally.

I'll never know exactly what happened there but I'm very glad I got it fixed.

Sounds like valve guides to me, I have just replaced guides on a YEP-642 it is easy to do and they do not cost very much.