FOUR costume changes?! 🕺
Yep, we might tell you that music is about communities, friendships, developing new skills, building confidence and resilience, having fun, and finding your passion. And that’s all true. But it’s also about getting to wear really cool outfits without judgement.
Andy Harris, Brass Music Leader for Sheffield Music Hub certainly knows this to be true. And although his gladrags caught the eye of our cameras, the 2026 Brass Extravaganza really was about everything that music can do to inspire young people. It can bring energy and enthusiasm to older, experienced musicians, too. Musicians from the Sheffield Music Hub Senior Brass Ensemble and Old Silkstone Band or just that singer-songwriter bloke wandering about with the camera - nights like this can really remind you of how lucky we are to have music in our lives.
Andy has performed on stages of all shapes and sizes, at pop concerts, with brass bands, and everything in between. And it’s exciting to see how many young musicians in Sheffield are getting bitten by the brass bug (disclaimer: not a real bug, but another good reason to buy a plastic trombone every now and again).
Our best days at work are the ones where we get to see inspirational educators working together with children and musicians to remind us what it’s all about. It’s chaotic. It can make you laugh and cry and whoop and holler all at once. And it brings people together.
Thank you to Andy and the hub for getting young people across the city as excited as we are about music.
pBone Music UK
Share
We don’t just deliver instruments: we help hubs deliver 🧡
Supplying musical instruments that help young people play, perform, and progress 🎶
16/06/2026
Countdown to Count Me In 🎶
We’re in beautiful Buxton today with Derby & Derbyshire Music Partnership for their Count Me In event at the Buxton Octagon.
Children from across Derbyshire who are engaging in a programme of Classroom Instrumental Learning will get the chance to perform alongside a professional orchestra packed with incredible musicians.
Created by the hub in partnership with Carrot Productions, the cinematic-themed pieces and resources mean we're in for a Buxton blockbuster.
We are proud to work closely with the hub, and you’ll probably spot some of the instruments and equipment we have supplied via the Capital Grant, including a snazzy new PA and mixing setup from Yamaha.
The fun doesn’t stop there - we’ll be back with the second Count Me In event at Derby Arena later this week. And, of course, we look forward to seeing some fabulous footage of children singing, signing (in Makaton!) and playing their instruments. We can’t wait.
Thank you to Alina Orchestra and CBC Inspiring Music for inviting us along to experience their Band in a Van project 🧡
11/06/2026
Music tech to supercharge your hub!
Check out a sample of our samplers in these five music technology products we reckon you’ll be surprised to find available from pBone Music. We work with the best and brightest innovators in the digital space, the movers and shakers, the brands that get that one person in your office - the one who reads Sound On Sound on their lunch break - all hot and bothered.
We’ve picked out five fun instruments, but this is just the tip of a very cool iceberg, with everything from high-end studio monitors to humble cables and accessories, all available from people who love these products just as much as your students will.
Let’s dive in headfirst with the wonderfully wacky EP-40 Riddim from teenage engineering. This tactile sampler, packed with dancehall beats and sounds, is a surefire hit with budding producers.
The Ableton Move packs all of the power and workflow of Ableton Live into a wireless, standalone unit. Ableton provide stacks and stacks of expert resources to support educators, and can also offer training to get even more out of their hardware and software.
The Fender Studio Audiobox Go is an incredibly compact and affordable audio interface, perfect for recording vocals and a guitar or other instrument. It is bundled with a free 6-month trial of Fender Studio Pro, too!
Speaking of bundles, check out this ROLI Create package featuring two of their portable Piano M controllers, paired with the Airwave to shape sounds with gestures. Accessible, out-of-this-world musical experimentation, with software that can track hand positions for developing piano skills. Techy.
Want to get to grips with music production? Control your DAW with the pad controller found in studios around the globe, the Novation Launchpad. The Mini Mk3 gives musicians a 64-pad grid to trigger beats, play samples, and find their sound.
Find these products and many more in our 2026 catalogues: email [email protected] and we’ll send them over!
10/06/2026
Band in a Van 🚐
We had the pleasure of seeing firsthand the amazing work that Alina Orchestra - in partnership with CBC Inspiring Music - are doing to deliver inclusive music lessons to visually and hearing-impaired learners.
Using pBuzz to introduce the core skills of buzzing and brass playing, and developing the fundamentals of pitch, duration, and pulse, the children showcased what they have learned, six weeks into the eight-week programme. Professional musicians demonstrated brass instruments and percussion, and Ruth from Inspiring Music showed the children the magical sounds of the flute.
The musicians also discussed song composition, and the session even included some children conducting the orchestra. Seeing and hearing professionals gave the children a real sense of where a lifelong love of making music and enjoying it together can lead.
The project has been supported by Youth Music UK and Inspiring Music Central Beds, and we’ve been delighted to donate additional pTrumpets, pTrumpet hyTechs and pBones to give the children a chance to try out the next stage of their brass-playing journey.
This project is such a fresh approach to ensemble music-making, and seeing the engagement and enjoyment from the children (and the staff at Parkfields Middle School!) was a real joy.
A huge thank you to the Alina Orchestra team, and everyone involved in Band in a Van, for making music accessible for all 🧡
WHAT A CARRY-ON! 🎹
The 49-key folding keyboard is one of our most popular products with schools and hubs, because it solves the biggest issue with keyboard lessons - space. Large 88-key digital pianos and workstations for production are great for more advanced learners, but what about students who are starting out?
The Carry-on 49 key folding keyboard packs all of the features you’d need for a beginner keyboard - plenty of sounds, built-in speakers, metronome and more - into an ingenious folding, space-saving design, that means whole-class keyboard lessons are a whole lot easier. These crafty keyboards are also rechargeable, so no more clutter AND no more cables.
Way back in 2023, we visited Chad Vale Primary School in Harborne, Birmingham. Piano and keyboard teacher William Cheung at has reaped the benefits of getting the whole class playing together.
There are plenty more classroom favourites from the Carry-on range, including their excellent guitars and basses for portable rock and pop setups, more keyboards and controllers, mics, stands and accessories, and genius speakers (their portable party speakers are another popular choice with hubs).
Everyone starts somewhere
Our instruments are designed to get more children playing music. We’re musicians, we want more people to join in the fun and reap the benefits that playing an instrument - particularly when we do it together with others - can bring.
It started with pBone, and most people got the idea. It’s not a replacement for traditional brass trombones - it’s designed to remove the barriers preventing people from learning to play the instrument. That’s why it’s the world’s bestselling trombone, trusted by teachers across the globe. Cue round of applause for us.
That’s also why videos like this, taken from a pBone workshop hosted in the Netherlands by Mr.pBone are so popular.
Now, this might be surprising to those who think the comments sections online are warm, fuzzy places full of optimism and support and general positivity, but we get lots of negative words, often directed at the young musicians playing our instruments.
The sad end result is that musical snobbery will turn away the next generation of musicians. And we reckon that back in the golden days before smartphones, the first notes of those keyboard warriors wouldn’t have sounded too clever. Certainly, their spelling skills often leave a lot to be desired.
Music is about having fun, and beginner instruments - recorders, ukuleles, xylophones, basic percussion, pBuzzes and pBones - are the first step into that big, wide, joyous world. So, if you are questioning the skills of a mini musician picking up an instrument for the first time, ask yourself where you’d be without music in your life.
Or write the daft comment: it’s good for my engagement stats and gives me something to do on a Thursday.
03/06/2026
We don’t just do fantastic plastic instruments - we know how to rock 🤘
It doesn’t mean we’re completely swapping brass for bass, trombones for telecasters, pCorders for…power chords. You can still find plenty of primary products for starting your musical journey, traditional band and orchestra products, and all sorts of other instruments. But take a look at these five fantastic amps for turning up the volume with your students…
We have the JBL BandBox Trio, the speaker everyone was talking about at this year’s NAMM Show. Rechargeable, with four channels of audio for connecting guitars, mics, or keys, the big talking point here is the AI stem separation. Sounds cool, but what does it mean? Rockstars can extract the vocals, drums, or guitars from their favourite tunes and play along…all straight out of the box. Woah.
If AI stem separation sounds like the opening five minutes of a straight-to-Netflix film you’d watch on a Sunday afternoon, you might fancy a classic amp, and the Orange Amplifiers Crush range sounds as good as it looks. We supply their entire range of amps, including this small but mighty model.
Looking for a feature-packed speaker, loaded with effects and amp models? Something that can help students fully explore the potential of the guitar? Line 6 are renowned for their amp modelling systems, and the Spider V 20 MkII gives mini rockers everything they need to take to the stage.
We BET you didn’t know that the pBone Music team can help your hub access the best instruments that Fender and PreSonus have to offer. That includes this portable Frontman® 10G amp, available to educators bundled with a Squier Sonic® Stratocaster® and all the accessories you could ever ask for.
Blackstar Amplification amps are old pBone Music pals, and we think their products are perfect for educational settings. Their Carry-on range is already a staple in classrooms, but they are best known for brilliantly built amps, like this Blackstar Unity 30 bass amp.
Fancy seeing these products and lots, lots more? Drop our Director of Brand Partnerships and amp-aficionado Dan an email on [email protected] and we’ll send over our catalogues!
MUSIC TECH RESOURCES FOR BUDDING BEAT-MAKERS 🎧
Think about delivering music tech and find yourself drumming your fingers on the desk, wondering where to start? Help is at hand, from pBone Music and Brad Smith, aka Music Tech Hub 🎶
In partnership with pBone Music, Brad has developed a whole-class scheme of work for Y4 students, giving educators everything they need to deliver digital percussion. The resources focus on the Yamaha FGDP-30 digital finger drum pads. The instruments are super simple and accessible, and paired with Brad’s expert resources, give you and schools in your hub network a new way to teach tech.
The resources contain sheet music, backing tracks, video guides, helpful hints - you name it. Brad is the authority on all things tech, and works with a number of other brilliant brands like Digit Music and Cosmo by Filisia to make music technology accessible and fun.
Our Director of Brand Partnerships and music tech sales guru Dan Thomas got a preview of what the FGDP-30 can do. What a natural.
Drop us a message to find out more about the resources and other CPD and training opportunities from Music Tech Hub and pBone Music 🤝
28/05/2026
Great to see Lancashire musicians flying the flag with rock and pop products delivered by the UK team 🎸 and there’s no better tour bus than the Lancashire Mobile Music Vehicle 🚌
Click here to claim your Sponsored Listing.
Location
Category
Address
Sheffield