TromboneChat

So I'm a freshman who's been playing trombone for a couple of years. I am 1st trombone in my highschools top wind ensemble. I feel as though I'm pretty competent in most aspects of my playing. One of my huge weaknesses is range. Specifically low range. I can consistently hit a high F above the treble clef. But I cannot hit the Bb 2 lines below the bass clef staff. My trigger notes are weak, soft, and powerless. I know what I can do to improve my low range down to a low C but I am not sure how to improve the Bb and below. I can change my embouchure to hit the Bb but I know this is not what I need to be doing. What can I do to be able to hit the Bb and be able to move down from there? Any and all suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks, Jack.

Try playing F in the staff and then getting to Bb below by only moving the tongue to provide larger space behind the teeth. If that works, then the same can get you to the Bb below. And similarly above. There is an endless amount of stuff to do with this.

Long tones my friend

For lower ranges, a larger mouthpiece would help but if you're mainly playing first, you won't need to play those notes very often so it's better to stick with what you've got since it seems to be working very well for you. It mostly comes down to practicing more of the low ranges. Try and incorporate it into your warm ups and practice routine to simply get more exposure to the notes. I recommend practicing long tones and taking music that you know and practicing it down an octave. For pedal tones, it may take a while for them to come out well without much embouchure change so you should just practicing playing petal Bb and keep it as much in tune as possible before moving down. You most likely won't need to play that low as a 1st trombone in high school so I wouldn't worry about it too too much. I'm sure others will have great things to say as well but I hope this helps a bit

What has your teacher given you to do?

He/she will know your playing, that said having a lesson with Doug Elliott will give you a great insight into your embochure type and your own break/shift points

How often do you practise low? I guess that you play the high F a couple of times every day? 5 minutes every day on the low range can make a differense for many young players. Both long tones and flex daily.

Spend more time down there and you'll improve over time. I personally feel it takes a different 'kind' of air to play pedals, and its better to learn to play them without shifting embouchure. What probably will work is to follow similar techniques as to how you built up your high-range; alternating note patterns progressively moving away from and back to a starting pitch might work well.

Playing with a deeper mouthpiece might help initially to build up some of the muscles and technique before switching back to your main.

I was in the same place you are in when I was in high school...

Spoiler alert, your high range isn't as good as you think it is. You HAVE to blend all notes in your range together. Can you slur from your lowest comfortable note to your highest? Figure out how high you can go when you start from a great middle register note- that is the highest note you can play. From there, start to work your range outward. You will get back to that F on top of the treble staff- not as fast as you want, but sooner than you'd expect. And it will be usable.

The "blending" idea goes for pedals too. They should not be separate from the rest of your range. Work on this with slurs and low, slow descending scales.

I'm not really sure why you're telling him "your high range isn't as good as you think it is" when you've never heard him play before. It seems like you really didn't read his post.

It sounds like a lot of things work, learning how to integrate your low range into your normal playing embouchure can take some time and work, and direction from a teacher like Doug Elliott who will teach you how to do it the correct way. If you do it the right way, you will get it a LOT faster and more reliably.

If you NEED to play those notes with some serious volume for now, 'changing' your embouchure won't hurt you for those limited instances, but do know that it is unrelated to your normal embouchure form.

As a bass trombonist, it drives me crazy when I have to play unison lines with tenor players who feel the need to try and make a huge sound on notes at the bottom of the staff and lower. Make it sound beautiful, clear and in tune. Don’t worry about a huge sound. There is a reason bass trombones have a larger bore than tenor trombones.

Lip slurs into the trigger range. Brad Edwards book has the solution

Take some lessons with a really good teacher in your area who can lead you to the proper way for your face to play low notes. One size does not fit all. And here on this forum there are way too many so called experts who really should be ignored. You can't diagnose or fix a problem with your playing by reading texts.

BurckhardtS wrote: ↑Tue Sep 24, 2019 3:24 pm I'm not really sure why you're telling him "your high range isn't as good as you think it is" when you've never heard him play before. It seems like you really didn't read his post.

I read his post carefully... and just about everything he said reminded me of how I developed as a player in high school. Sitting in the top chair, there's a lot of pressure to develop a high range fast, and the low range gets left behind. And yes, I thought I had a great high range in high school, and no, it was not as good as I thought it was.

A little more advice for OP: the pedal notes might be easier to develop before the trigger notes. Focus on getting them to start and end reliably, and then focus on making them softer and softer. I'll also second the recommendation of another contributor for the Brad Edwards lip slurs.

I agree with a lot of the advice above and ultimately you need to find what works for you, but I’ve had similar issues in have a weaker low range than high and shifting so I can play "stronger" pedal notes. For myself playing Rochute down the octave was very helpful to make my low range more musical and useful, as far as shifting I think your right to avoid it it’s a habit I spend a lot of time working to break. In working on not shifting I’ve started by playing Bb in the staff and then slurring into the pedals maintaining the same embouchure and holding out the long tones at first these will sound awful but over time will develop like any long tone.