The Joykey

11/06/2026

04/06/2026

04/06/2026

Most brass players accept water management as an unavoidable part of playing.

I did too — for decades.

But water buildup isn’t just an inconvenience. It actively distorts the carefully calculated tapers inside your instrument, negatively affecting response, accuracy and sound quality soon after you start playing, and for endless cycles day in, day out, month in, month out, and year in and year out.

Traditional water keys require you to constantly monitor water buildup, calculate when to empty, and interrupt your focus on your playing and the music.

You drain when you remember, when you can, when you have to. I even used to write reminders into my music when performing as a Soloist. Meanwhile the water keeps repeatedly building up.

In 2009 I serendipitously discovered a different approach. Automatic water drainage. At first with a primitive prototype on the lead-pipe of my Dieter Otto triple horn.

No levers, no springs, no cork. No moving parts. No user intervention.

Then came the tip from my wife’s cousin that led to the JoyKey WaterWick sinter filter that works continuously and automatically from the moment it’s installed — gravity does the work, delivering water outside your instrument while you focus entirely on your playing and the music.

Now, June of 2026, thousands of JoyKeys have been installed worldwide on all types of brass instruments from piccolo trumpet to tuba and Sousaphone, as well as on contra bassoons, bass clarinets and Baritone Saxophones.

With the JoyKey automatic water drainage system, your instrument remains acoustically intact 100% of the time — and predictably and reliably delivers the response and intonation the instrument maker intended.

Discover more at www.thejoykey.com or schedule a call: [email protected]

*~ Andrew Joy*


and

01/06/2026

01/06/2026

Some lessons I learned from 50 years of professional horn playing.

The longer I played, the more I understood that productive practice isn’t about doing more — it’s about doing less, while striving for EXCELLENCE.

Developing efficient practice habits and rituals is a lifelong project.

Mine evolved with accumulated experience, and they evolved again as my body aged and changed.

What worked at 30 didn’t work at 60.

One tool was my practice journal — planning ahead, recording progress, celebrating small wins.

Another was integrating everything I could find from the world of sports psychology: self-hypnosis tracks I made myself, EFT, mental toughness training. I applied all of it to my horn practice and performance.

Then in 2009, I serendipitously discovered the final piece: eliminating the mental overhead of monitoring water buildup and the endless interruptions of water management entirely.

The JoyKey automatic water drainage system removes water buildup — and with it, the stress, the distractions, AND the missed notes.

Silent, invisible — and completely freeing.

Discover more at www.thejoykey.com or schedule a call: [email protected]

"… Your JoyKey is absolutely the most brilliant and significant invention for all brass players - maybe for over 100 years …“.
~ Tony Halstead

02/05/2026

My instruments were not just tools.

They became an extension of me - my psyche, my self-image, my breath, my nervous system.

After years of playing, the boundary between we brass players and our instruments quietly dissolves - becomes an extension of who we are.

Every time water builds up and our attention divides - part of us playing, part of us in water management mode - that intimate connection fractures and puts us in split-mind mode.

The JoyKey protects that connection. Automatically. Silently. No interruptions

Today, we can choose between constantly managing water buildup or ELIMINATING it.

What’s yours?

www.thejoykey.com

28/04/2026

27/04/2026