December 30, 2009 • 12:00 pm
Holding a tuba for young students can be pretty tough. The tuba is heavy and unbalanced, plus in 7th grade you’re not all that strong. Most of the dents and dings on school instruments comes not from use while playing, but the time to and from the instrument storage room.
Our friends over at Randall May International have come up with a solution. The Airlift series of tuba stands, and we will be launching these in Janauary 2010. Some of the key features of the stands include:
- an airlift adjustment system which can be adjusted to fit a variety of student heights
- the ability to tilt the stand forwards or backwards to create proper playing technique
- a secure branch tube clamp which stabilizes the tuba in the playing position
Three different versions will be available. A model for the 3/4 size upright piston instrument (like the Yamaha YBB-105WC), a model for the 4/4 size upright piston instrument (like the Yamaha YBB-321WC) and a model for a 4/4 rotary valve instrument (like the Yamaha YBB-641). A similar style stand will be available for sousaphone around the same time.
Retail price on the tuba stands will be $499 and available beginning in March 2010.
Filed under: Tuba , New Models, Randall May
December 29, 2009 • 7:54 pm
One of the interesting new products we’re launching in 2010 is a version of the popular MAY Stadium Hardware stand specifically designed for sousaphone. Several very nice features about this stand including:
- height adjustable for use in the stadium bleachers or in the bandroom
- will fit just about any sousaphone on the market
- excellent stability and balance using a unique quad-pod leg design
There are a couple of problems that sousaphone players face during the course of a football game. Simply holding a 30-pound instrument is difficult enough, not to mention the distraction the large instrument can cause any fans sitting behind the band. If the player wants to put the instrument down, the only options are setting it flat on the bleachers or lying the horn in front of the stands. Both are a recipe for dents and dings on the body of the sousaphone.
The Stadium Hardware sousaphone stand can solve this problem by giving the player a secure place to rest the instrument, and be able to lift the sousaphone back to a playing position in seconds.
These stands will be available beginning in March 2010 and will have a retail price of $399.
Filed under: Uncategorized , Marching Brass, New Models, Randall May, Stadium Hardware
December 21, 2009 • 10:14 pm
Musical Merchandise Review is one of the magazines covering the music products industry. They publish plenty of valuable information throughout the year about trends within the music products industry. In the December 2009 issue, the main editorial focus was their annual 50-state review & forecast. One dealer from each state was interviewed and listed some of their high’s and low’s of the past year plus an outlook for the next year. The final piece of each interview is that dealer’s ‘product of the year’.
We are honored that several dealers noted Yamaha Wind Instruments are their products of the year.
ALASKA
The Music Man - Anchorage. Product of the year: Yamaha Band Instruments
RHODE ISLAND
Robert’s Musical Instruments -West Warwick. Product of the year: Yamaha 82Z saxophones
WYOMING
The Hill Music - Casper. Product of the year: Yamaha professional and step-up band instruments
Filed under: Marketing, Music Business , MMR
The podcast is edited and now live! Of course the contest associated with the video is closed, but the performance itself is truly amazing.
You can watch the video on the hub, or go directly to iTunes and download the video. While you’re at it, go ahead and subscribe to the Yamaha podcast feed so you don’t miss any future episodes!
Filed under: Jazz, Trumpet , Disneyland, Jens Lindeman
December 9, 2009 • 7:22 pm
The second in a series of four live webcasts from Disneyland took place last night (12/8/09). This event featured longtime Yamaha trumpet artist and all-around nice Canadian now living in LA guy, Jens Lindemann. When I first talked to Jens about the event, he had an idea to put together a quartet of jazz & pop players that could cover a wide range of styles and really show off the trumpet. Judging by the audience (and internet) response after the broadcast, I say mission accomplished.
His set consisted of jazz, classical, latin and traditional pieces and featured no less than 4 different trumpets. Backed by a quartet featuring pianist Peter Wolf, Alphonso Johnson on bass and Joel Taylor on drums, Jens was clearly in his element performing with some of the top LA players.
The live webcast was recorded also in HD, and will be posted as a Yamaha podcast sometime in the next few weeks – look for it on the YamahaHub website.
Working with the Disneyland staff has been an absolute blast for everybody involved. These live Yamaha webcasts make sense for them as a way to help bring the Disneyland experience to people all over the world who might not have a chance to visit the park during this time of the year. And for Yamaha – the webcasts are a great way to help showcase the amazing amount of music that happens every day at Disneyland. We’re extremely proud to be the “Official Musical Instrument Supplier” to the Disneyland Resort.
Next live webcast from Disneyland is Friday December 18th at 5pm Pacific Time featuring the Gordon Goodwin Big Phat Band. That will be an event not to miss! Tune into the yamahahub.com website for more details as the event gets closer. As part of each live webcast, we have a ‘text to win’ promotion for a Yamaha Pocketrak 2G, plus the chance to win the grand prize of a Disneyland vacation! Check out the promotion website for more details.
The complete photo library is on the Yamaha Flickr page, but here are a few more great shots.
Filed under: Jazz, Marketing, Trumpet , Disneyland, Jens Lindeman
November 30, 2009 • 7:04 pm
We completed a shoot the other week with Yamaha flute artist Mimi Stillman. Got a chance to work (again) with our favorite LA area photographer Steve Anderson. A few of the behind the scenes photos are on the YamahaWinds Flickr page – including a couple of short videos from the day (with more to come).
During the shoot, Mimi had a chance to play while we were setting up and moving gear around, sort of ‘music to move lights by’ kind of thing. She sounded so amazing in the studio – and served as a reminder to what a wonderful talent and kind person she is.
Filed under: Flute, Marketing, Music Business , Mimi Stillman, Steve Anderson Photography
November 20, 2009 • 7:40 pm
Here’s our new 60-second video spot for marching band competitions during the fall of 2009. Special thanks to Makana Sylva who created this spot for us along with our trusty PR guy Vlad who wrote the copy.
Filed under: Marketing, Music Business, Social Media, Technology , Marching Brass
The latest podcast just launched featuring a video interview with Yamaha saxophone artist (and all around good bloke) Paul “Shilts” Weimar. It was very interesting to get his perspective on a number of different topics. He’s made a great name for himself in the United States after moving to Los Angeles several years ago.
Watch the video on the YamahaHub. Visit the “Shilts Music” website as well for more cool music and info.
ps. If you look closely, Jeff is indeed wearing his shop apron backwards in the video – but we’re not sure if he did that on purpose….
Filed under: Gear, Jazz, Saxophone, podcasts , Paul "Shilts" Weimar, podcasts
November 6, 2009 • 11:33 pm
If you’re a Yamaha Wind Instrument fan, along with an iPhone user, then there are 2 new great apps available for free download on iTunes.
The official app of Yamaha Saxophone Artist Mindi Abair gives fans access to photos, videos, her blog, twitter feed and concert listing all in one convenient place. Same is pretty much true for the Canadian Brass app, with plenty of their music available for preview and purchase.
Both Mindi and the CB have a bunch of videos available, all in excellent video and audio quality. Can’t wait to see which other artists find creative ways to interact with their fans via the iPhone platform.
Filed under: Marketing, Music Business, Saxophone , Canadian Brass, iPhone, Mindi Abair
November 4, 2009 • 11:48 pm
Yamaha string/wind artist Dana Leong was featured in the latest issue of International Musician. If you’re not familiar with Dana’s music, his YouTube page is a great place to start. We had some trouble deciding what to call him in the Yamaha ad. Most artists can have a title like: Trumpet – Chicago Symphony Orchestra. But what Dana does musically is a little bit different from most people. So he suggested the title of “Hybrid Sonic Artist”, and it seems to work just fine. The trombone he uses on stage is the YSL-350C ‘compact’ trombone – a great fit for what he does musically.
The photographer for the project was Mat Szwajkos, who was absolutely awesome to work with!
Read the entire article on the American Federation of Musician website.
View photos from Dana’s Flickr page.
Listen to the 2007 podcast we recorded with Dana.
Filed under: Jazz, Marketing, Music Business, Trombone , Compact Trombone, Dana Leong
