Originally Posted by
CEBunker
My thinking behind trading to a yep is to support growth and enjoyment through positive achievement. I thought such achievement would come easier on a yep compared to the ks. Maybe I am wrong on that, we can give it a try.
I think your instincts about this are sound. Any thoughts about a 10-year old using a pro level horn and "growing into it" have to be regarded -- at best -- as highly speculative and based on a number of assumptions that may turn out to be false in a few months, or a year, or a couple of years. The concern in such cases seems to be to (in some sense) "preserve the horn" and its use in your family, and ensure that your young student will have a "quality" instrument in his hands when he gets to the point that he's capable of using it and appreciating the difference. This, I think (having raised three children and ensured their educations in instrumental music), is fanciful. It's an adult's view of things (and in fact an adult's view of the best case, and an adult's view of what he hopes the future will bring).
Sure ... if you want to give a kid a pro level horn, and if you have one around that otherwise isn't being used, and if there may be some convenience to that, then give the kid that horn. But then DON'T wring your hands about how well it's taken care of, how carefully it's treated, whether the kid truly appreciates what he has, etc. It's a kid. He's just learning to play. If you're not prepared to see it dented and subjected to some careless treatment -- and to not care about this -- then do both you and kid a favor and provide him with a less expenseive, perhaps more useable, and more robust instrument. He doesn't NEED a pro horn. What does he gain from it? Please recall (or be informed, if you don't recall) that when Doug Elliott auditioned for the Airmen of Note, he did so (and qualified) on a student Yamaha YSL 354 student trombone. There are a number of other stories similar to this.
I'll grant you that many years ago I handed a Fox bassoon to a 14-year old and said "take good care of it". He did. But there aren't really that many alternatives (certainly weren't at that point in time) in the realm of bassoons. And 14 is a LOT older in terms of maturity than 10. If your son was 14, or 15, or 16, I think the choice here might well be different. But I believe that your original thinking about this was on the right track.
Gary Merrill
Wessex EEb Bass tuba (DW 3XL or 2XL)
Mack Brass Compensating Euph (DE N106, Euph J, J9 euph)
Amati Oval Euph (DE 104, Euph J, J6 euph)
1924 Buescher 3-valve Eb tuba (with std US receiver), Kelly 25
Schiller American Heritage 7B clone bass trombone (DE LB K/K10/112/14 Lexan, Brass Ark MV50R)
1947 Olds "Standard" trombone (Olds #3)