The latest wacky gadget from Hammacher Schlemmer is the Digital Trumpet, which has been designed for beginning trumpet players.
According to the product page, this device “allows musicians to perfect valve fingering, tempo, notes, and key changes before learning to master breath control and mouthpiece placement of an actual brass trumpet.”
As a former brass-player myself, I’m not so sure if this method is such a great one (as learning how to ‘buzz’ your lips to create sound is pretty important), but hey, what do I know.
This gadget does offer some things a normal trumpet doesn’t: the ability to generate a variety of sounds (a la synthesizer), a training mode that uses illuminated LEDs (allowing you to follow lighted valve cues), and — best of all — a headphone jack.
Costs a cool $400.