Merton College

Full time City & Guilds: A course covering both Brass and Woodwind repair and manufacture.

Part time day : A two year course in Woodwind repair, one day per week. If you wish to study Brass instrument repair please enquire.

Evening: We are able to run evening courses in these areas of work. Please enquire for details.

Part time and evening course content

Some of the tools made by a Brass student

On completion of this course students will have acquired the skills and diagnostic ability for employment in this field in one of the many specialised companies in the UK or overseas. Self-employment is an option that many students take. Throughout the course students develop their knowledge of the instruments belonging to the Woodwind and Brass instrument families, both in their design and in their tonal qualities. A study of the history and development of these instruments is also undertaken.

The first year of the course is devoted mainly to the acquisition of the skills necessary for the diagnosis of faults, the planning and carrying out of a range of servicing and repair procedures.

A selection from the practical content of the first year syllabus is listed below.

Brass: -dent removal from all parts of the instrument -soft and silver soldering techniques -overhaul and repair of valves -freeing jammed tuning slides -repair and alignment of trombone slides -making and fitting of water key corks and springs -French horns and rotary valves

Woodwind: Most of the work is carried out on modern flutes, clarinets and saxophones. Topics include -pad replacement -renewal of corks and felts -setting up and regulation Fault diagnosis is addressed on a continuous basis throughout the course. You will also attend theoretical and practical classes in metals technology. These will equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills to enable you to design and make specialist instrument repair tools such as screwdrivers, dent removal tools and dent hammers.

Practical classes will be held in the College’s new spacious and well-equipped workshops.

During the second year of the course students will be introduced to more demanding and advanced repair techniques. They will also be required to undertake and complete a varied selection of repairs to an acceptable commercial standard. The emphasis during this year is on the building of skills, autonomy and confidence. Further, more advanced toolmaking projects will also be undertaken.

Woodwind work will include stripping down and rebuilding of instruments. By the end of the year students should be able to overhaul at least two types of woodwind instrument with confidence.

Learning to turn wood

Students will continue to develop repair and diagnostic skills to improve their experience on a wide range of instruments. Some very specialised repair and restoration work is undertaken, including bushing toneholes and tenon joints.

Modules on Acoustics and Business Planning are included this year.

We make use of our proximity to Central London to visit collections, auctions and repair and manufacturing workshops.

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