Interested in learning sackbutt

[8parktoollover]

Any advice?

[Doug Elliott]

Pretend it's an early version of a trombone.

[SwissTbone]

Buy a Sackbutt.

[Kbiggs]

1. Listen to a lot of recordings featuring good sacbut playing—Adam Wolff, Ercole Nisini, Charles Toet, Concerto Palatino, Dark Horse, Les Saqueboutiers de Toulouse, etc.
2. Buy good equipment with an historic mouthpiece.
3. Adam Wolff has a book out called Sacbut Solutions.
4. Subscribe to Historic Brass Society.
5. Contact [email protected]. He teaches at Boston University. A friend just finished his DMA there and is actively playing on the early music circuit.

[sterb225]

I've always wanted to learn the sackbut as well ... but the cost of entry always stops me. Instruments that those in the know call adequate are so far out of my budget it's ridiculous and the ones that are 'real' cost more than my entire collection of modern instruments. Certainly there has to be a way to start out without a second mortgage?

[LeTromboniste]

I've always wanted to learn the sackbut as well ... but the cost of entry always stops me. Instruments that those in the know call adequate are so far out of my budget it's ridiculous and the ones that are 'real' cost more than my entire collection of modern instruments. Certainly there has to be a way to start out without a second mortgage?

Unfortunately, you are right that there are no good cheap options, and it's a shame. Trust me, it's not that the specialists are snobs with an "emperor's new clothes" syndrome like I've read elsewhere in this forum. Really given how many different instruments we need, we'd be the first to be happy about cheaper alternative. I'll have to spend probably at least 15K in the next few years just to have the equipment I need(not even for anything particularly fancy), so I'd LOVE to have other options. It's just a market reality. Combine the fact that it's a pretty small market with the fact that good or even barely decent sackbuts are quasi impossible to build using mass-production industrial techniques that allow equivalent quality modern trombones to be cheaper and budget but decent instruments being made in China, and the fact that there is virtually no secon-hand market (people who have them keep them). The people that have the expertise to make good sackbuts understandably want to make some money doing it, and since that very niche market is essentially a duopoly between two makers that have a high cost of business, the prices stay high. That being said there are more affordable alternatives popping up on the market. Brad Close (who is a regular on this forum) has prices that are substantially lower than the two main makers, for instruments all handmade, and I would expect more small makers to start production in the next 5-10 years.

[LeTromboniste]

Any advice?

The list above by Kbiggs is a good starting point. Number 3 is a particularly good point. That book is extremely comprehensive and a very solid introduction to many aspects of sackbut playing. If you need advice on buying equipment, feel free to send me a PM.

I would add another point to that list: attend workshops.

I see you are based in Israel(?). Not a lot happening around there that I know of, but if you can afford or get funding to travel to Europe for a workshop on early music, there are many options throughout the year. The courses in Hof, Alpirsbach, Cambridge, San Sebastian and Mechelen come to mind. There are also several during the summer in the USA (Amherst, San Francisco, Madison and I'm sure many others. I highly recommend MEMF and the SFEMS Baroque workshop).

[Posaunus]

... there are more affordable alternatives popping up on the market. Brad Close (who is a regular on this forum) has prices that are substantially lower than the two main makers, for instruments all handmade ...

http://www.brassmedic.com/Sackbuts.htm