Bach_37

Hi everyone.
I’m new to this forum. From Norway. Forced to get a new job, but far too old to get one. I’ve been playing the trumpet all my life, but I’m no trumpet-player. I’m a better mechanist than musician I think. I’ve always been dreaming of the possibility of making a living out of repairing wind-instruments, and now I have a great opportunity. The only problem is to get the proper training and education. As far as I know, it isn’t plenty of instrument-mending-schools in Scandinavia. And the German education is more in the direction of “instrument making”. I’ve been talking with several workshops and they all say that the key is a wide range of skills. On all kind of wind-instruments. And you have to be creative and find good solutions. This brings me to the point – at last. Is there anybody out there knowing anything about CIOMIT? It looks and sounds great. I’ve cleaned the desk in my shed, and polished the pc-screen and I’m ready to haul the card. But it’s nearly half around the globe from here to there…….

Regards
Ketil

ComeBackKid

Hello, Ketil - Welcome to TrumpetMaster. We're glad to have you among us.

I'm very sorry to hear about your loss of employment. It is a very tough time (I assume also in Norway) to try and find a new job. Hopefully your interest in repairing instruments can become a business for you.

I went to the CIOMIT website and it appears that they offer "distance" learning which means that you could take their courses over the internet instead of traveling to the U.S. (although maybe that is a good excuse to come here - Colorado is very pretty, like Norway in some places). But, if you are a good mechanist, you may be able to figure out a lot of it if you have the right tools. Here are three links that I found to sources for purchasing tools. There are probably others as well.

http://www.ferreestools.com/
http://www.classichandtools.com/acat...nt-Makers.html
http://www.votawtool.com/

I have played with doing some repairs on trumpets and most are pretty straight-forward. When you move into woodwinds, that is probably a completely different area.

There are some real repair techs on this forum that may be able to offer more help than I can - unless one is in Norway and thinks you are going to be a competitor.

Good luck on your venture. And, let us know how it goes.

P.S. I re-read your post and realized that you may have meant that "half way around the globe" did not refer to traveling but to taking the classes online at midnight?

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rowuk

The best thing to do is to find a first class repairman in Norway and become his apprentice for a while and then open a branch of his shop where you are. You would then have a master to fall back on!

A good repairman IS an instrument builder. They understand how things work and did not have to make all of the beginners mistakes to learn their trade. The school in Ludwigsburg, Germany is about the best there is.

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dparker@ciomit.com

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dparker@ciomit.com

Hello Ketil and all on the greatest brass forum on the net!

CIOMIT is the only distance learning program for musical instrument repair in the world. We have succesfully trained over 40 students online and on campus in Colorado since we began in 2007. All of our students are currently repairing in one capacity or another. Our Europe students take classes between 4 and 6pm their time.

The beauty of CIOMIT and the internet is you have a 36 year Master Craftsman at your disposal as we offer "after care" once your classes have been completed. Have a repair issue you have not encountered? As an alumni of CIOMIT you can schedule a quick online meeting and we will help you solve your problem. You are never alone! I am the instructor for the classes and as some of you may know I make the "Cashel Crystal Bell Trumpet."

You can visit our website and review my bio for more information Your Principle Instructor | CIOMIT.

Feel free to call or write if you have any questions!

Ciao,
Daniel Parker

Brekelefuw

I don't get how you can learn something as hand-on as repair over the internet. You really need the stuff shown to you in person, especially since brass repair involves many expensive tools that a normal person wouldn't own unless they invested heavily prior to taking the course.
I am a professional repair tech and still don't personally own a lot of the tools required for brass repair.

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dparker@ciomit.com

It is great that you repair, and after 36 years I am still buying new tools; that never ends! But here are a few comments to help with the understanding of what CIOMIT does and how we do it.

As with any trade we start out learning and acquire more knowledge and tooling as we progress. Our BIR 1010 class teaches the "fundamentals" of brass repair. We do not say you will be a Journeyman after one class. It requires years of practice and honing the "fundamentals".

Repair techs seem to have the most difficulty in understanding online education because most of them learned it shoulder to shoulder with a journeyman in a formal apprenticeship. My student in Iceland and others across the USA do not have that option. If you read how it is done on our website you might have a better picture of what and how we do it; and then you might understand that we are virtually "shoulder to shoulder".
We also supply the tools for the class. With the HD cameras and VOIP we do it everyday with resounding success!

To quote our Icelandic student:
"I am the one who is learning brasswind in Iceland.
Now I am doing the fundamental brass course at CIOMIT.
This course is far beyond what I thought was possible. I get to see every detail, there are no problems at all, the teaching is excellent and I really have the feeling that Daniel is taking care of his students.It is also a great benefit to be able to watch the recording from previous teachings again and to have a time to learn and practice between the classes.I think the online course is brilliant, and I highly recommend it."

After all, if doctors can perform surgery over the internet with robots...

Visit our site and request an online tour. You will see how possible it is.

Cheers,

Daniel

Bach_37

Thanks for usefull tips and hints. I'll just have to remind the rest of the world that we Norwegians live in a narrow corner. It's only just over 4millons of us, and you can walk across the downtown in our capitol Oslo in less than five minutes. Just like a litle village in other parts of the world. But on the other hand: if you want a “scenic” drive from south to north, you’ll probably spend some 50 hours behind the wheel. The problem is: I live in a small community with long traveling distances. And even worse: Instrumentmaker is not a licensed craft in Norway. Everyone repairing windinstruments know each other by names, and I don’t want to steal customers from anyone. I’ll have to slide slowly into the market.
I’ll think the way is a complete set of courses from Ciomit, and a vintage-trumpet-building-course in Germany. I've pointed out this one Workshop Any other suggestion anyone?

Ketil

fuzzyhaze

Hei Ketil,
There is a good brass repair guy in Bergen/Norway. I lived there for a while and visited his shop on several occasions. A very nice man (if I remember correctly his name is Per? but I may be wrong), I was shown around his workshop a couple of times, saw some great work being done, he was kind enough to show me the tools of his trade and explain how they are used. The shop was called Teema/Tema music? I think years ago they had a factory and used to manafacture their own instruments-lots of brass bands in Bergen. Hopefully the shop still exists, perhaps you could contact them, it's a long shot but still worth a try.
Also, I know Leeds school of music (the best jazz and popular music school in the UK), also have a brass repair course. This would be another place to try.
Hope that helps you, good luck with your search.
Best wishes, Nick.