TromboneChat

Hey trombrethren,

Just thought I'd put a word-vomit post updating my musical journey. I'm practicing my phrasing and lyrical playing using a beginners' (7th grade-level) Cello book. I've always loved the sound of beautiful cello playing, and I feel like that sound (particularly vibrato, phrasing and movement between notes) is something that transfers well to the trombone. So I'm using a 7th grade cello book of Disney-themes. But let me tell you - doing that stuff on small bore/no trigger is CHALLENGING! There're so many low B's and low A's to B's and C's that it's not even funny! And of course since everything is written mostly in or below the staff, getting no higher than an Eb over the staff, it means a lot of very large movements on the slide since the positions for the lower notes are so much further apart than on the higher partials.

Two of the best things I can take away from this is improving my low register intonation and accuracy when moving around the horn - something that's become very apparent lately- as well as looking at my technique, flexibility, and the quality of my attacks and transitions between notes in the low register. And of course there's always improving breathing to make more efficient use of air and aim towards making more beautiful musical phrases. Hopefully within a month or two I feel this low register "beauty-centric" playing gets to be good enough to where I feel it's worth posting something here!

As a student Doug Yeo hired a string trio to form a string quartet and have him play the 'cello part on his bass trombone. He did so because he went to a small school with limited ensemble experiences.

He ended up at the top of the world.

You're on the same right path!

I should point out that there is no low B on a normal cello.  The strings are C, G, D, and A starting with C 2 lines below the bass staff.  But low D's and low C's? Sure.

You may note in the footer of Robcat's posts that he offers some cello exercises by Dotzauer and Popper.  In fact, he also plays cello.

The idea behind Johannes Rochut's use of the Bordogni vocalises is to improve musicianship in trombone playing.  Too much of our exercise material is "nuts and bolts" and not enough is "music".  Of course you need some nuts and bolts, and a diet of nothing but Rochut is just as bad.

Something I've noticed after playing cello for a while and looking at orchestral parts is that composers from the Baroque to early Romantic periods seem to know/try to write parts that sit well under the fingers.

As 21st century instrumentalists we tend to think all notes are created equal and it shouldn't matter how they follow each other, but yeah, it can matter a lot.

"Idiomatic" writing I guess it's called and that idiomatic nature can also make it a challenge to transfer something directly to another instrument that may have its own idiomatic style.

I'm not sure if any of that applies to Disney melodies which tend to be vocal in origin. But in trying to play some Bordogni/Rochuts on cello I'm often noticing how frequently they lend themselves to normal cello fingerings.

Although Bordogni was not a cello player, he spent a fair amount of his career singing/premiering operas by Rossini who was a cello player so maybe some of that sense of what notes should follow other notes rubbed off on him. 

If you get into some of the more difficult cello specific stuff, like the Bach cello suites, you'll be reminded  that cello players don't have to breathe to make sound, so phrasing can be challenging to match. Also, string players don't blink an eye at large intervals even in running passages.

There is a lot of great music that wasn't written for trombone.

This is easy 
This is easy 
This is easy 

Not as easy   


At the elite level they're expected to catch anything, but I been to a lot of master classes watching very accomplished university students... the big leaps they have to shift for, those tend to get talked about. The target you have to hit is vanishingly small.

This is easy 
This is easy 
This is easy 

Not as easy   


At the elite level they're expected to catch anything, but I been to a lot of master classes watching very accomplished university students... the big leaps they have to shift for, those tend to get talked about. The target you have to hit is vanishingly small.