Trombone and brass playing schools/methods around the world

[MStarke]

The number of informative and helpful discussions on this forum may have declined in the last months, but that means it's up to us to change this.

I would like to initiate a series of talks on the characteristics, pros and cons of different schools or methods of playing the trombone and other brass instruments.

First of all, I would like to use this specific thread to simply collect what different schools/methods exist, while it would be great to start individual threads to detail and discuss specifics, provide examples, experiences, advantages and disadvantages.

Please note that I would want to identify leading methods that have a relevant footprint and distinct characteristics. These can be directly linked to individual players, but not every prominent player qualifies as representing an individual trombone method.
Please also note that I am currently thinking mostly about technical methods, not schools on specific musical styles.
Lastly please note that I absolutely do not claim 100% correctness here. So be kind

I will try to make a start by listing those that come to my mind. I am structuring them by instrument that I mostly connect them with.

Go ahead and add to this list, initiate threads on specific schools etc!

(This idea is partially grown from coming across the trumpetherald forum which even has individual sub forums dedicated to specific schools)

[MStarke]

General brass:
- Chicago school/song and wind... Connected to Jacobs, Kleinhammer, Vernon and others
- Donald Reinhardt school - well represented already on the forum
- Carmine Caruso - many prominent people using and teaching it

Trombone:
- Remington School
- Branimir Slokar method (pretty prominent still today in middle Europe)
- Jiggs Whigham - I don't know much about it, but his footprint in Europe his huge
- Bart van Lier Coordination Training
- Denis Wick/British school - what makes it special?
- Urbie Green - especially his one hour training/approach
- Phil Teele: Long tones, long tones and more long tones
- Charlie Vernon: Singing approach to the bass trombone
- Ben van Dijk: Broad impact through his book(s?) and students
- German school. Difficult to describe, but the (older) German school is something distinct

Trumpet:
- Malte Burba Method with a strong focus on basic body functions
- Maynard Ferguson (also Lynn Nicholson)
- James Stamp - good information available from e.g. Malcolm McNab
- Vince Cichowicz flow studies
- Arban, focus on technical studies, clear articulation
- Jerome Callet - tongue controlled embouchure (special...)

Tuba:
- The breathing gym (Pilafian/Sheridan)

[MStarke]

What else is out there?

[MStarke]

Is there something like a New York school?
French?
Russian?
Enough material to identify an LA-specific school?

[Wilco]

Jef Reynolds - bass trombone. Orchestral excerpts and tips dvd/ youtube

[EriKon]

Some thoughts that come to my mind:

There are some Michael Davis things out there that would definitely qualify as schools to me.

There's also lots of resource out there that is not really written down but still very impactful. Talking about Bobby Shew for example who had a lot of impact on many players but there's not really a book or sth that captures that I think.

Although Malte Burba is a trumpet player the method is definitely not a trumpet school but for brass in general. There's nothing in there that is trumpet specific. It's about the general playing mechanics for brass instruments with all those exercises that you have to do without the instrument.

And for sure there is many more. You could qualify the Brad Edwards stuff as it's own school too, I think. And basically all of those etude literature is a school too (Bordogni/Rochut, Blazhevich and and...)

[robcat2075]

Russian?

From the few biographical snippets one can glimpse online, Vladimir Blazhevich was a substantial teaching figure in 1930s USSR with a number of successful students and acres of pedagogical material written..

(tantalizing thing... a smattering of his "etudes" can be found in arrangements as a "concert sketch" with a full, serious piano accompaniment. Did they all have that? Is there a mountain of Blazhevich concert sketches for trombone sitting around somewhere?)

Did Blazhevich constitute a "school"? Did his former students carry on his ideas and priorities such that he remains an influence somewhere today? I don't know.

[Wilco]

https://trombone.net/newsitem/viktor-sumerkin-passes/

[sf105]

Although Wick was hugely influential, he was part of a community and a longer term tradition.

I once met a French student studying in London and asked her why she was here. She said that the French conservatoires still teach soloists, whereas the Brits teach ensemble. I think we can still hear that in the orchestra traditions.

Also, the Brits have a tradition of never quite having enough money to rehearse, which is why the sight reading is so strong here. Berlioz mentioned it in his writings.

[VJOFan]

Isn’t the biggest school right now You Tube? (And here to take the temperature of a cross section of trombonists about any specific concept, exercise or tool.) I can’t imagine a student these days not sampling from a wide range of opinions on every aspect of playing. A teacher’s job would be to help them weed through the garbage and understand the good stuff better.

I’m sure teachers still have their favourite exercises and print resources, but how would a “school” exist when everyone can hear everyone? “Everyone” is playing and pedagogical discussions inclusive. Historically there may be schools, but I don’t know that such a concept exists anymore.

[MStarke]

Did Blazhevich constitute a "school"? Did his former students carry on his ideas and priorities such that he remains an influence somewhere today? I don't know.

I think in the trumpet area there have also been quite some more influential players from the former Sovyet Union surrounding countries, including Timofei Dokschizer or of course Serei Nakarjakow. But I don't know much about specific methods and approaches.

[MStarke]

Some thoughts that come to my mind:

There are some Michael Davis things out there that would definitely qualify as schools to me.

There's also lots of resource out there that is not really written down but still very impactful. Talking about Bobby Shew for example who had a lot of impact on many players but there's not really a book or sth that captures that I think.

Although Malte Burba is a trumpet player the method is definitely not a trumpet school but for brass in general. There's nothing in there that is trumpet specific. It's about the general playing mechanics for brass instruments with all those exercises that you have to do without the instrument.

And for sure there is many more. You could qualify the Brad Edwards stuff as it's own school too, I think. And basically all of those etude literature is a school too (Bordogni/Rochut, Blazhevich and and...)

Absolutely, Michael Davis has so much material that it could kind of constitute its own "school".
I think I kind of forgot Bobby Shew as I also don't know about much material that really explains his approach.
And yes, of course Malte Burba is absolutely not "trumpet-only". BTW I am quite interested to get more insights in that direction, do you know someone in Hamburg?

[MStarke]

Although Wick was hugely influential, he was part of a community and a longer term tradition.

I once met a French student studying in London and asked her why she was here. She said that the French conservatoires still teach soloists, whereas the Brits teach ensemble. I think we can still hear that in the orchestra traditions.

Also, the Brits have a tradition of never quite having enough money to rehearse, which is why the sight reading is so strong here. Berlioz mentioned it in his writings.

Thank you! I know there is quite some trombone books etc. coming from Britain and certainly the overall brass scene there has an impact. I just don't really know how to name or describe it?

[MStarke]

Isn’t the biggest school right now You Tube? (And here to take the temperature of a cross section of trombonists about any specific concept, exercise or tool.) I can’t imagine a student these days not sampling from a wide range of opinions on every aspect of playing. A teacher’s job would be to help them weed through the garbage and understand the good stuff better.

I’m sure teachers still have their favourite exercises and print resources, but how would a “school” exist when everyone can hear everyone? “Everyone” is playing and pedagogical discussions inclusive. Historically there may be schools, but I don’t know that such a concept exists anymore.

And I think that is exactly the interesting part and part of my motivation for this thread: What directions are there, what are the best parts from each one, how can they work together?
BTW: I finished my university studies in trombone in 2011 and "back then" it was still very very clearly separated in different approaches, even within Germany. Probably/hopefully that changed in the last decade.

[LeTromboniste]

There definitely is a distinct French school. The culture and methods of their Conservatoire system are quite different from anywhere else.

For that matter, it might have become apparent to some ITF attendees that there's even a Canadian school (or schools), that is somewhat distinct from the American schools. In Montreal, a lot of people studied with Joe Zuskin, who was principal of the OSM and taught at the Conservatoire. Pierre Beaudry, Alain Trudel and Patrice Richer (principal at the Orchestre Métropolitain and teacher at both the Conservatoire and the Université de Montréal) are some of the more illustrious examples of his former students, who then had and have tremendous influence in Montreal later on. Then many studied with Albert Devito, a brass pedagogy legend in Montreal. Many studied with Ted Griffith at McGill. And many come over from Ottawa, who first studied with Doug Burden (who studied with Remington). I believe Pete Sullivan studied with both Doug Burden and Ted Griffith(?), and then himself taught at McGill.

Looking at my own "lineage" of teachers, I studied first with Bob Ellis (who studied with Joe Zuskin), and then with Dave Martin (who studied with Albert Devito, but also in the Chicago school, at Northwestern). I had a lot of orchestral section coachings from Pat Richer (who studied with Joe Zuskin). And then on sackbut I studied with Catherine Motuz, who herself had also studied modern trombone with Dave Martin and with Pete Sullivan (and if I remember well, also Doug Burden before that) and sackbut with Dominique Lortie (who had studied with Joe Zuskin). And we both studied with Charles Toet, a sackbut pioneer originally from the Dutch school, with some Remington influences. So in that lineage there's a lot of Albert Devito, Joe Suskin and Doug Burden (typical for a classical trombonist from Montreal) and influences from both the Remington and Chicago schools, and probably others.

So I think the lines between schools get really blurry, with a lot of cross-influences as students learn from teachers from different schools, and then in turn become teachers and have influence within an ecosystem with other local teachers of various backgrounds. And there's an extent to which the differences between individual teacher-student relationships can be larger than the difference between schools.

Then again, the few times I played with Dominique Lortie, I was struck by how similarly we phrased and shaped things and how similar a sound concept we had, despite having never met before. So we do emulate our teachers' playing even when we're not trying to.

[LeTromboniste]

Isn’t the biggest school right now You Tube? (And here to take the temperature of a cross section of trombonists about any specific concept, exercise or tool.) I can’t imagine a student these days not sampling from a wide range of opinions on every aspect of playing. A teacher’s job would be to help them weed through the garbage and understand the good stuff better.

I’m sure teachers still have their favourite exercises and print resources, but how would a “school” exist when everyone can hear everyone? “Everyone” is playing and pedagogical discussions inclusive. Historically there may be schools, but I don’t know that such a concept exists anymore.

I don't know how true that is. Listening to recordings is useful to get different sound ideas, but that doesn't necessarily give you direct insight in how they do things and how they think. And between a selection of disparate YouTube recordings and your teacher who you hear and play with several times a week, you're more likely to pick up tendencies and emulate the latter. And even with instructional videos where they actually give advice and explain their way of doing things...I would think and hope that serious students give more weight to their teacher's tailored instruction that the generic instructions of some Internet stranger whose approach is just as likely to be terrible as it is to be good. You overestimate how much time we have in lessons – if I'm spending my time as a teacher helping students "weed through the garbage", that is a serious waste of both my and the student's time. That's not to say students can't, don't or shouldn't seek information elsewhere and that we never discuss it, but if it was the main focus that would be an extremely inefficient way to learn and teach.

[Wilktone]

I would like to initiate a series of talks on the characteristics, pros and cons of different schools or methods of playing the trombone and other brass instruments.

For initiating discussion this is a good topic.

For advancing pedagogy and musical performance, I'm not so sure. I personally don't like to separate what we do into different "schools," particularly when they get associated with a specific teacher who may inspire loyalty or devotion. Every teacher, no matter how they are regarded, has ideas that are worth adopting. Every teacher also has ideas that are better left behind or that better addressed with something different.

When the teacher is particularly famous or charismatic criticism or disagreement with something they said can often lead to hurt feelings by people who are particularly devoted to that teacher.

Good teaching is good teaching, no matter who said it. I've found that too often when things are split into "schools" that they become a competition, rather than a collaboration designed to advance pedagogy.

[blast]

A little note on Russian 'schools'....from what I have been told from Russians, there have been two distinct schools of trombone teaching, one in Moscow, the other in St Petersburg. Perhaps some Russians will chime in.
In Britain, there is a view from other countries at least, that Denis Wick created a British school of playing. The truth is more complex. The breeding sounds for trombonists were, for more than a century, military bands, brass bands and the Salvation Army bands. Few players came from elsewhere. The ability to play outside in all kinds of unpleasant weather is perhaps the principal connection between these schools. A formidable technique and roundness of sound are less obvious, but a hallmarks of the best exponents of this traditional school. Post WW2 orchestral circles were stunned by the sound of the visiting New York Philharmonic in 1948, and a move toward this tonal concept followed.

[MStarke]

Maximilien, great to hear from Canada! I have (of course?) heard a lot of Alain Trudel recordings and love them - especially his alto CD. And generally he sounds different than everybody else.

David, I see your point as well, but I think this is just a way - as with basically every "categorization" - to make things easier to understand and structure.

Chris: That point on Russia is really interesting! I have no clue about their teaching and methodology, just know that there have been some Russian trombonists (Aleksey Lobikov, Alexander Gorbunov) in the last decades that have had some sort of global footprint.
Reg Britain: I remember that at some point I had been working with Peter Gane's Circuit Training, Chris Houlding is professor in Germany for around 20 years, or even longer, so there are of course more than Denis Wick. He is probably just the most prominent name.

[cmcslide]

I’m surprised that I haven’t seen anybody mention Andre LaFosse. Lots of good material from him, including his Complete Method, Vade Mecum and School of Sightreading and Style. Is it maybe a little bit old school, or are the books getting harder to track down? And speaking of stuff that is older and not always easy to find, there’s all of the etude books by Tommy Peterson!

[cmcslide]

Tommy Pederson, auto-correct got me…

[StephenK]

I’m surprised that I haven’t seen anybody mention Andre LaFosse. Lots of good material from him, including his Complete Method,

I'm sure I got mine because it was referenced by Denis Wick in Trombone Technique.

[sf105]

I’m surprised that I haven’t seen anybody mention Andre LaFosse. Lots of good material from him, including his Complete Method,

I'm sure I got mine because it was referenced by Denis Wick in Trombone Technique.

I got mine (vols 1 and 3) because I was told to by my teachers in Manchester. I forget but it might have been Chris Mowat.

[robcat2075]

Tommy Pederson, auto-correct got me…

you can edit your posts by clicking the pencil icon.

[EriKon]

Some thoughts that come to my mind:

There are some Michael Davis things out there that would definitely qualify as schools to me.

There's also lots of resource out there that is not really written down but still very impactful. Talking about Bobby Shew for example who had a lot of impact on many players but there's not really a book or sth that captures that I think.

Although Malte Burba is a trumpet player the method is definitely not a trumpet school but for brass in general. There's nothing in there that is trumpet specific. It's about the general playing mechanics for brass instruments with all those exercises that you have to do without the instrument.

And for sure there is many more. You could qualify the Brad Edwards stuff as it's own school too, I think. And basically all of those etude literature is a school too (Bordogni/Rochut, Blazhevich and and...)

Absolutely, Michael Davis has so much material that it could kind of constitute its own "school".
I think I kind of forgot Bobby Shew as I also don't know about much material that really explains his approach.
And yes, of course Malte Burba is absolutely not "trumpet-only". BTW I am quite interested to get more insights in that direction, do you know someone in Hamburg?

I think there's no teacher in Hamburg anymore who does work with the Burba method. But there are still a few people in Hamburg who worked with/on that method for long or still do. That would be me for example

[MStarke]

One more reason to meet in Oct/Nov!

[GabrielRice]

The ability to play outside in all kinds of unpleasant weather is perhaps the principal connection between these schools.

Bravo Chris! This might be the funniest thing I've ever read on TromboneChat!

[GabrielRice]

One of the most prominent and influential teachers here in the Northeast US was John Swallow.

https://music.yale.edu/2012/10/24/in-me ... er-swallow
http://www.osborne-conant.org/John_Swallow.htm

He taught generations of students at New England Conservatory, Yale, the Hartt School, and others, and he was central to the growth of brass chamber music and contemporary music for trombone in the 20th century. I never studied with him myself but many of my colleagues did, and they tell me his teaching methods focused on the use of rhythmically and tonally challenging etudes such as Bitsch to develop flexibility and accuracy of rhythm and pitch. If I understand correctly, he would often discuss phrasing in terms of metric displacement and the mental flexibility to think outside the constraints of barlines. Many of his students I've played with are characterized (at least in part) by a very focused (but easy, not tight) core to the sound, outstanding control of soft dynamics, and very accurate pitch and rhythm.


One of Mr. Swallow's most prominent students is Norman Bolter, founding member of the Empire Brass and retired 2nd trombonist of the Boston Symphony, who has built a tremendous legacy of students in orchestral and teaching positions around the world that I see as underrecognized and underappreciated (full disclosure: Norman was my teacher in grad school).

Just off the top of my head, a few of Norman's students include:
Doug Wright, Minnesota Orchestra principal
Jonathan Randazzo, St. Louis Symphony principal
Jim Nova, Pittsburgh Symphony 2nd/utility
Matt Guilford, National Symphony bass
Ross Holcombe, Florida Orchestra asst principal
Darren Acosta, Finnish Radio Symphony principal
Allen Meek, Singapore Symphony principal
Karna Millen, US Coast Guard Band principal

One of the things that makes his "school" of teaching difficult to appreciate is that his students rarely if ever sound like him or each other. Chatting with my classmates, I realized my lessons were completely different from them. He was always responding to the needs of the student in front of him; I had pretty clear musical conceptions and needed to sort out playing mechanics, so we worked a lot on Arban's and developing an efficient, focused aperture. Some of my classmates needed to do more work developing their musical imaginations and approach technical challenges from there. But he never tried to make anybody try to fit into any particular tone concept, working instead to develop and refine that particular player's tools.


And another master teacher that hasn't been mentioned is Per Brevig, former Met Orchestra principal trombone who was the primary teacher at Juilliard before Joe Alessi and the main trombone teacher at the Aspen Music Festival for 50 years. He was also a major player in the commissioning of new music for trombone in the 20th century. Dr. (then Mr.) Brevig was one of my teachers early on, and he stressed absolute accuracy of pitch and rhythm and a very direct, straightforward method of tone production, blowing right into the center of every pitch.

One of his students was John Kitzman, retired Dallas Symphony principal and an often unsung hero of taking excellent players over the finish line of refining their orchestral excerpts to win auditions.