Do not open with a sharp instrument!

That advice is seen on a few boxes at work, mainly with clothes in them. I always think of a flute when I see that. Anyway...
Well, it finally came today! My first tuner came in today and I am excited about this particular piece of equipment. My trombone teacher allowed me to use his one day and well, I loved it so much I had to get one for myself. It is a tuner that attaches right to the bell of my horn and gives me an accurate reading of my pitch. It not only tells me if I am in tune, but it also tells me what note I am playing. Even better, I don't have to change it in order to tune different notes. It automatically re-calibrates, so I can play a piece and see to it that ALL of the notes are in tune. If my wife ever wants to play her clarinet again, guess what! She can use this tuner too! How cool is that? I hope that when I become a teacher, I can find a way to get one of these to all the students for little or no cost. It's funny how we as musicians would tune to a concert B flat note and then try to play other notes and hope they were in tune. I know for my trombone sections, it was always a crap shoot. How much better would we have been if we all had tuners like this attached to our bells?