Given his longtime involvement with the band program at Bedford Road Collegiate in Saskatoon, Brown pretty much recognized the tone and style of all those students who were the usual participants. He referred to it as their fingerprint.

But this day he heard a sound coming from the adjacent room that he was unfamiliar with and so he went to investigate to find grade 11 student Angela Sawatzky.

Upon closer inspection it wasn't just her playing that became the paramount issue, but more so the difficulty which Sawatzky had because of severe arthritis in her hands.

Quite aside form his passion for music and the band program, Brown is also a tinkerer who is equally at home in his workshop as in the band room.

"Here was Angela still able to get this quite beautiful tone out of an instrument, even though it was very laboured for her. But just to see that, and the determination she had, there was no way as a teacher that I couldn't respond. To see this kind of tenacity, it changed me forever as well, and I just knew that I would do whatever it took."

Countless hours later, and with considerable ingenuity, Brown, with eager help from a group of band students at Bedford, came up with an electric trumpet and special stand that allowed Sawatzky to become a full-fledged member of the school band.

The effort was recognized recently as the winner of the Saskatchewan Access Awareness Week Innovation Award (which is sponsored by the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation).

According to Brown, this represented an opportunity that maybe you've been looking for and by investing yourself you are helping someone else.

"When you're then as highly motivated to solve problems, the process sort of takes care of itself."

He conceded that the project was made considerably more difficult by the fact that much to his surprise he found no similar prototype anywhere in the world to use as a blueprint of sorts. So there was no shortage of trial and error as improvisations had to be made en route.

"But by investing in losses means you take away the fear of failure and each loss is a starting point of a success," he reasoned.

Brown was effusive in his praise of the students--Cory Baker, Arthur Cradock, Carlos Castillo, Edward Thai, Elyse Jansen, Mark Prebble, James Mason, David Lanctot, Brett Burt and Stephen Elliot as well as Bedford alumni James Booth, Julius Saccucci, Steve Cole and Brad Derksen.

"The students worked so hard and showed tremendous dedication in doing the work after I would come up with the designs. I would never have been able to complete the project without their help. They would come in before or after school hours and together it became a real problem solving exercise," Brown said.

Sawatzkky, who has had artritis since age two, said that prior to Brown's intervention she had been forced to all but give up on her lifelong love of music (she had already had to forsake the piano).

"Mr. Brown started out just wanting to make a stand for me but later decided that I could use an even better aid," Sawatzky said. "He built something that looks really strange but works really well."

"If I hadn't met Mr. Brown, I would probably still be missing my music today. Mr. Brown's invention has helped me keep music in my life, and that helps me cope with stress in my life, and contributes to my personal confidence and sense of accomplishment."

As the finished project the trumpet operates with touch sensitive buttons that activate the valves and it allows for quick and easy finger switching. There's also a hand mould as part of the apparatus, which was constructed by injecting silicone. As well, there are two small fans to cool the solenoids.

"The kids kept coming and I kept building," Brown said. "Sometimes it seemed like we were swimming upstream, but I viewed it as a series of equations to be solved. One of the criteria I had was that I didn't want to do anything to actually change the trumpet."

Another criteria was to use parts so that others in the future could duplicate this pioneering venture, because he figures that is key if this is to be shared with others. Brown said he's already had interest from a professional trumpet player in the USA.

He reckons that after 350 hours of work the hybrid instrument is maybe 60 per cent done at a cost of about $700 in terms of material, and that includes a case on wheels that allows Sawatzky to take the instrument home and on band trips.

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