Trombone practicing during Covid lock down around the world

Important Trombone Chat information starts here.
Post Reply
AndersLarson
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Mar 02, 2022 3:16 am

Trombone practicing during Covid lock down around the world

Post by AndersLarson »

Dear trombone collegues,

Just curious how you have handled your practicing during corona.

Personally, I had a long period where I could not get my mind around practicing when I knew there were months before my trombone skills were actually needed again. So for a few months, it was just about being able to play for a few minutes for a bunch of weekly trombone lessons.

Needless to say, my chops did not improve in this period :-) If anything positive could be said, it is that I have been forced to find my way back to healthy chops again, and have made some personal revelations about embouchure, etc that are now helping me on a daily basis.

I am based in Denmark.

What were your experiences - good and/or bad?
Anders Larson
Jazz trombone player, conductor, arranger and educator
Founder of https://www.digitaltrombone.com - the largest collection of trombone exercises and sheet music online. 🎶 🎵
imsevimse
Posts: 1408
Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2018 10:43 am
Location: Sweden

Re: Trombone practicing during Covid lock down around the world

Post by imsevimse »

Hi

I practiced every day for a couple of months and put up some videos on facebook to entertain whoever showed intersest. Many did their own "corona-concerts". That kept me going for a while.
I started a project to take a walk for 10000 steps a day for one year and did fulfill that goal too. It took 1,5 hour/day. I walked in reign, snow, in darkness (at night) and when the weather was so awful I could not do it I walked indoors. During this time I also got the idea to pick up all brass instruments I always wanted to try but never had time to learn. I bought a trumpet, cornet, flugel and a french horn and played them every day. I did that for about a year until the bands started to rehearse. Now most are back to normal so I need the time on trombone and bass trombone. I did get some chops on all those side instruments and I do pick up them now and then but have no place to play them so it's hard to evolve furthermore. It had a side effect and that is it did improve my playing on trombone.

Here is my thread about my efforts to learn side instruments:
https://trombonechat.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16335

/Tom
Last edited by imsevimse on Wed Mar 02, 2022 9:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
GabrielRice
Posts: 979
Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2018 7:20 am
Location: Boston, MA, USA
Contact:

Re: Trombone practicing during Covid lock down around the world

Post by GabrielRice »

I was teaching online through most of the lockdown periods, so I never completely stopped playing, though I did not have much motivation to practice for pretty long stretches.

I did make a project for myself to play most of the Arban's book, both as is and down an octave, and I found some things in there I had never spent time with before, such as the Ornamentation studies and Arpeggio/Chord studies, which I now use in teaching and for my own maintenance.

I was also fortunate to be asked to play an unaccompanied recital over zoom for a local community orchestra, which gave me a reason to work on some new repertoire and revisit some pieces I have performed before.
User avatar
Burgerbob
Posts: 4526
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2018 8:10 pm
Location: LA
Contact:

Re: Trombone practicing during Covid lock down around the world

Post by Burgerbob »

I figured I would never get such an opportunity for uninterrupted practice again, so I played every day for as long as I could. There were some serious ups and downs (mostly related to playing in the same basement room for... 10 months) but I improved more than I ever have. Instead of treating it like a grind, I just approached practice like a job; I had to put in my hours every day, no matter what.


Without practice I would have had a much darker lockdown.
Aidan Ritchie, LA area player and teacher
User avatar
WilliamLang
Posts: 406
Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2019 6:12 pm

Re: Trombone practicing during Covid lock down around the world

Post by WilliamLang »

used this period as a chance to go on my first mouthpiece hunt, and ended up with a new to me horn to boot. also reached out to some players i admire and got some great feedback on how to improve, and became more active online with younger students and posting teaching materials.
William Lang
Interim Instructor, the University of Oklahoma
Stephens Horns Artist
Long Island Brass Artist
faculty, the Longy School of Music
founding member of loadbang
www.williamlang.org
User avatar
harrisonreed
Posts: 4487
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 12:18 pm
Location: Fort Riley, Kansas
Contact:

Re: Trombone practicing during Covid lock down around the world

Post by harrisonreed »

I practiced every day with the exception of one business trip, and learned how to record in Reaper. I learned a LOT about audio engineering, especially EQ, reverb, and mastering.

Now that we are back at work, I don't have time to use any of these skills.....
Post Reply

Return to “News & Announcements”