I really can't say how many times I have been asked what brand of instrument I play, or what kind of mouthpiece I use, and so many questions about the gear and wait... I really love this one: How many trombones do I own and which do I use depending on the genre of music I am playing?

Well let's start with a little story some years ago:

As some of you know and if you are new here first of all, thanks for taking the time to visit my site, I hope you learn something new or at least read something interesting, well back to my story, I am from a really small island called Cuba, we all know is a beautiful place, with white sandy beaches and their people, they are one of the happiest people on earth but also is one the poorest countries on earth as well.

Music education in Cuba is really different compared with some of the music schools or music universities around the world, we have or we use to have the "Soviet Music System" meaning classic music was the main focus and it was more important than even cuban music which we all know was really important for the development of Jazz in America back in the 40's as well as the Latin Rhythms we all play now days.

Back in the years when I was in school, I started studying music full time at the age of 9, and the first day of school the trombone teacher took me to the storage where they have all of the school instruments and handed me my first trombone mouthpiece, I don't even remember the size or the brand but I do remember that the same mouthpiece was used for all the students the came before me for at least one generation, that mouthpiece was beaten up, it had no lacker, just raw metal and to make it a bit worse it was huge in size, and that was my first mouthpiece for the first 6 months of that year, I had to master lip buzzing and go up and down in scales through all twelve keys including all the intervals 2nds, 3rds etc you get the point.

We spent about 3 months learning how to breathe correctly, how to control the air flow and doing exercises to develop all the muscles in your body that later will become vital for your playing, basically we spent a lot of time learning the "boring stuff".

By my 2nd year in the school ( 10 years old ) I got my first instrument, and what.... Yes you guessed it, a REALLY OLD TROMBONE, the brand: RAZNO, for some of you that are not familiar with this brand lets just say that the bore size was 562", that's the equivalent of the standard Bass Trombone bore size and I was 10 years old at that time, but hey.. that was my instrument and had to practice like crazy and go to competitions and all the fun stuff we do in school. Three years later we got a donation from one of the great trombone players of all times Steve Turre, he donated some Yamaha trombones to the school and I got really lucky to get one of those, WOW that was one the happiest moments in my life, I can't explain how excited I was to have that instrument, I used to put it in my bed with me every night, it was something really special and I can't explain with words, but one more year and I was moving to the superior school to continue my education and I had to leave my trombone back at the school where another lucky student would get it and would feel something really special just the same way I did.

About 14 years ago I got my first professional trombone ( which I payed a lot for ) and finally I felt like: " Ok now this is it, I got the horn of my dreams, and it sounded and looked amazing." I played with a lot of artists here and in Canada ( were I used to leave before moving to Houston ), I did countless recording sessions, played in different set ups from Latin to Jazz, to lead trombone to classical concerts, all with the same trombone and the same mouthpiece, after all I am a freelance musician like any other, just trying to make a living in the music business and trying to support my family and I don't have the money to spend on the last instrument on the market, I had what I had and that was it. Three years ago I was on tour with Alberto Barros All Stars and 2 years later my beloved instrument got damaged on a plane, now what?

A friend of mine Ramon Benitez ( magnificent Trombone and Euphonium player ) let me borrow his trombone for a couple of weeks, it was a John Packer 231 made by Michael Rath, it was a student model with F Attachment, and to my surprise not only the same musicians I played and worked with at the studio all the time, they did not notice I had a different trombone but when I asked them, they seemed to like that one better, or they were confused because some of them never noticed the difference, ohh but wait I didn't tell you, that one cost $800 whereas the other one damaged while on tour was almost $6000 and none of the other musicians seemed to notice a difference.

Ok, the whole point here is, I never had the luxury to have my own instrument or mouthpiece, I had to make the most of my situation and those struggles made me the musician I am today, I learned that technical knowledge of your instrument, learning the fundamentals of music plus a LOT of practice time, all of that is the key to become better instrumentalists, musical instruments are just tools for you to be able to make your work easier, your sound is yours and only yours like your voice, it does not matter what instrument you have or how expensive it is, if you spend the time practicing and have the knowledge you will sound good in any instrument whereas if you don't spend the time learning and working on expanding your knowledge you will not sound good in the $5000 instrument, if you want or have the money to buy 5 different instruments by all means go and buy it, but if you are a professional musician like me trying to make the best of your work with what you have then INVEST in the best instrument you can afford that allows you to do your job the best way possible and as professional as possible, but you only need one instrument and a back up just in case ( emergencies happen, believe me ) the audience listening to you or the people listening to the albums you have recorded, will not notice what instrument you are using, it's all about your voice and what you make them feel with your music, not about the tool you use to make the music.

If you are a student, you don't need to get a $5000 professional instrument, that is for professionals who work and make $$$$$ in this business. Invest in a good teacher, in lessons, in books, in master classes and get the right instrument for your level. Invest in what will make you a greater and rounder musician. The time for expensive instruments will come when you are ready.

The best part of all, is that YOU will know when is the right time for you to upgrade to a much more specific and more expensive instrument, there are countless of possibilities, and don't get me wrong, I am not saying expensive instruments are not necessary, I do believe is imperative to have the right tool and that you should invest in the best you can afford once you know how you want to sound like, and once you know wish direction you want to go as a professional, but be aware that there is time for everything and the more advance you get the better the tool you will need.

By the way these are the finest trombone makers in the world, check them out:

Shires, Edwards, Michael Rath, for custom instruments. You also have Conn-Selmer, Yamaha and many more i’m sure you have heard off.

Thank You for taking the time and visit my site, Please let me know what you guys think about this subject, I would love to hear your opinions.

Does Gear matter?