Everything about the Trova™—texture, shape, color, sound, and how the instrument is held—is designed to lead children into the joy of experiencing a musical instrument, making it a new stepping-stone into playing music.
Revolutionary
The shape of this instrument fits perfectly in small hands, making it something you can’t help but want to pick up. The branched pipes are placed parallel to the main tube so that sound can be made in just the same way as with a trumpet. A circular finger hook is provided so that the player can hold the trumpet without blocking the branched pipes, while avoiding injury.
Minimal
The bell shape and the length and width of the tube winding, along with adjustments to the position of the branched pipes all combine to give a design that gives the same impression as a trumpet. Trova™ has a stately appearance, with the beauty and character of a trumpet embodied in even the smallest details.
Well-Made
The gloss of the anodized aluminum pipes combines with the sheen of the resin parts in a beautiful balance. The lines of light and shadow flowing from the pipe to the bell evoke the image of sound being released with great power.
Toshihide Suzuki
Designer
Yamaha Design Laboratory
Designing joy in playing the trumpet for the first time.
The Trova™ is Yamaha’s answer to the question of what a trumpet that’s lightweight, small, and playable by children should be like. Rather than simply crafting a smaller instrument, we came up with a variety of innovative approaches such as optimizing the shapes for the bell opening and the tube winding, and we made the mouthpiece the same shape as that of a standard trumpet. By rebuilding the original elements and beauty of the instrument to match the needs of children, we gave this new instrument trumpet-like proportions in a size that fits in small hands.
Brass instruments are designed with tubes that widen progressively. To achieve an instrument with the size and durability that would make it easy for children to begin playing, Trova™ replicates this characteristic using cylindrical tubes and two branched pipes. Although the tube length was already set when I joined the project, there were infinite possibilities as to how we could curve the tubes. For this reason, I used parametric design methods and tested the product repeatedly. The branched pipes are placed parallel to the main tubing to avoid injury and to prevent fingers from blocking the holes at the tips, in a simple design that is packed with precision and ingenuity.
Although the Trova™ appears to be made of a single tube, it consists of several tubes that are precisely joined with resin parts. The aluminum tubes are anodized to give them a nuanced shade of blue that differs from that created by paint and possesses a metallic luster and texture. Made of pure white resin, the connecting parts serve a functional purpose in connecting the branching pipes with the main tubing while offering a contrasting color that stands out from blue. Resin tends to produce rough edges during molding, but Yamaha has taken advantage of the resin molding technologies it has accumulated in crafting musical instruments to design a product that is beautifully finished, both as a complete instrument and in its detail.
A child’s interests and experiences profoundly influence their sensibilities later in life. We want the Trova™ to be an instrument close at hand that is able to serve as a stepping-stone in a child’s journey to taking up a full-blown instrument. We hope that children will pick up Trova™ and revel in the joy of making sound, a desire that inspired us to design it the way we did.
