FINAL MAG

Recommendations

Info

SPRING 2017 THE TROMBONIST President’s Problems Dear President, I have recently been offered a show in London’s glittering West End playing mostly pop music in a small horn section. The trouble is my experience in playing light music only extends as far as Eric Coates. Will I be ‘found out’ in the first rehearsal and what steps can I take to befriend my colleagues? Yours legitimately Norma Butcher Dear Norma, As a fellow ‘pretender’, albeit musically vice versa, I offer this advice. 1) It is your responsibility to keep time, not the drummer’s and certainly not the MD’s. (they will almost definitely be as unqualified as you are) 2) What is written in the part will probably be wholly inaccurate and is to be treated as a guide. Do not play written rhythms and note lengths literally. You should have a comprehensive knowledge of the styles of Tower of Power, James Brown, Chicago, Earth Wind and Fire, Blood Sweat and Tears etc. It will also help if you have a few years’ experience of playing in a big band. It would help to familiarise yourself with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Terry Gibbs, Woody Herman, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Bob Mintzer, Harry Connick Jnr etc. 3) Take the correct equipment. All mutes should be white/red or made of metal. Certainly not wooden, worse still plastic or cardboard. Your trombone will not have mouthpieces made for it featuring a number smaller than a 7 and you will have to play low Cs in 6th (no plug) 4) Do not ask the trumpet player “...is that long or short?” LISTEN !!!! 5) Despite the MD (incorrectly) asking for accented crotchets to be longer than accented quavers.... smile politely but ignore them. NEVER follow the singer (you’ll note Andrew Lloyd Weber was not included in point 2) 6) There is no such thing as “Broadway” swing. It either does or it doesn’t. 7) It is sometimes acceptable to stop the note with the tongue. It is sometimes acceptable to stop the note with the tongue. It is sometimes acceptable to stop the note with the tongue! 8) If you deputise the show (and you should at every opportunity), pay up within 7 days. I hope this helps with getting you started and best of luck! When’s your first rehearsal? PS If you need a dep... Dear Plesident After a ten-year hiatus from trombone playing, I have returned to find in my local music shop that most instruments are in fact now made of gaudy coloured plastic. Despite my concerns about what image these novelties portray to serious concert goers, I also worry about the environment and so am working on a more ecologically friendly instrument constructed entirely from bamboo. Using an old Chinese method of weaving, I have the bell shape finished but am having trouble in lubricating the not-sostraight slide branches. Any advice? P. Bon Chung Dear Mr Chung I too have worried, what with all the latest trends for “whole class learning” schemes, what will become of all these instruments. It sounds like you’ve really hit on something with your bamboo trombone design though. I’m all up for new organic solutions to problems that don’t really exist. My young son came home from school professing to have made an iPod in class. It turns out the “device” was made from Balsa wood and so the operating system had some flaws but it did float…something Apple can’t claim to have achieved. Perhaps if you stick with natural ingredients and try using sesame oil or a blend of rice vinegar, minced garlic, soy sauce and cilantro you could do the gig and then feast on the instrument afterwards…… I think it just might float, too. Dear President, We are five female trombonists studying “The positions women held in 19th Century popular music” at Kings College Cambridge. We have started a quintet specialising in the repertoire of the Parisian Music hall trombonist Marguerite Dufay. We are struggling to come up with a name for our ensemble as it seems most of the “Bone……” references have already been used. Do you or your readership have any ideas? Tabitha, Arabella, Rowena, Talulah, Sabrina Dear Ladies, Yes, I do believe the “Bone…..” tag has been slightly overdone of late. With the “French connection” (has that been used by anybody?) might I suggest referring to the word “sacqueboute”. Perhaps you could call yourselves “Push me, Pull me”, does that work for you? Well, it’s a tricky one but if all else fails you could resort to using your initials… 28
TROMBONE SCALING UP & DOWN I love to play the alto trombone. I love the colour it lends to the orchestra. I love the solo repertoire, however small. I love the elegance of the alto trombone sound. When it’s done correctly, the sound of the alto trombone is captivating like a mother’s voice of encouragement. But this article is not just a case for the alto trombone. Rather, I hope these words encourage all trombonists to consider at least a two mouthpiece, if not a two-trombone solution for their professional career. We, modern trombonists, are required to play such a variety of music and many pros from tenor to bass have a variety of equipment solutions. It could be more than one mouthpiece for a single trombone or several trombones and multiple mouthpieces. For any professional trombonist that performs Baroque to Modern music, practical consideration must be given to balance and dynamics at all times… but we all do this anyway, don’t we? Consider that dynamics are timbre colours chosen by great composers. Of course, volume is the literal meaning of dynamics in music, but because the trombone bell is conical like a trumpet rather than cylindrical like a tuba, our tone colour changes quite radically as we play throughout the dynamic spectrum. From dark and warm, to bright and cold, we traverse the dynamic range from pianissimo to fortissimo and offer quite a range of colour to the ensemble. Continues on following page... 29
Page 1: SPRING 2017 £5.00 THE TROMBONIST B
Page 5 and 6: WELCOME TO THE SPRING ISSUE OF THE
Page 7 and 8: REVIEWS PREVIEWS EVENT NEWS REVIEWS
Page 9 and 10: was hard, although the panel of Dav
Page 11 and 12: BLACK DYKE JUNIOR & YOUTH TROMBONES
Page 13 and 14: 13
Page 16 and 17: WINTER 2016 THE TROMBONIST BY JANE
Page 18 and 19: SPRING 2017 THE TROMBONIST BY JANE
Page 20 and 21: SPRING 2017 THE TROMBONIST BY LIAM
Page 22 and 23: BONE THOUGHTS FROM ABROAD CONTINUED
Page 24 and 25: SPRING 2017 THE TROMBONIST EXTRA! E
Page 26 and 27: SPRING 2017 THE TROMBONIST BASS BON
Page 30 and 31: SPRING 2017 THE TROMBONIST Large mo
Page 32 and 33: SPRING 2017 THE TROMBONIST REVIEWS
Page 34 and 35: Photography courtesy of Betina Skov
Page 36: THE BRITISH TROMOBONE SOCIETY MEMBE

FINAL MAG

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?