TromboneChat

What makes this such a great recording?

Two of the best ever doing this.

ryant wrote: Tue Jul 22, 2025 6:49 pm What makes this such a great recording?

Did you notice that he's not just singing notes -- he's singing music. There is interpretation. There is phrasing. He happens to have words to put his emphasis on, but you could/should do the same thing if you are playing a solo. If I were playing this song as a solo I'd be trying to pretend my trombone was singing it just like he is.

BGuttman wrote: Wed Jul 23, 2025 6:35 am

ryant wrote: Tue Jul 22, 2025 6:49 pm What makes this such a great recording?

Did you notice that he's not just singing notes -- he's singing music. There is interpretation. There is phrasing. He happens to have words to put his emphasis on, but you could/should do the same thing if you are playing a solo. If I were playing this song as a solo I'd be trying to pretend my trombone was singing it just like he is.

So as a trombonist and musician I have always struggled. I love the mechanics of the trombone, I love listening to music, but I have trouble really understanding what makes a performance or a performer great. I can hear it and know that I love listening to it, but how do I emulate that as a player?

One thing I've taken from this recording that makes it so great is that there is a smoothness between notes. I am trying to emulate that in my playing. I record myself and look at the waveforms to find where I am backing off or unintentionally adding accents-like on longer intervals. I also notice that when he uses dynamics he is always doing so smoothly, so I also am examining my playing on long tones, scales and etudes to try and emulate that too.

Are there any other concrete things he is doing that I could emulate? I am asking because I can't always figure this stuff out on my own-not really how my brain works. I've been asking chatgpt and that has helped. But thought I'd ask you fine people too...since you're real humans.

When emulating singers, do any of you try to match the consonants that they end phrases with? I'm not sure if that translates well to the trombone, but I guess I don't really know.

See if you can find some recordings by Weston Sprott of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra. He performed a bunch of opera arias and it feels almost like he is singing them. I continually try to emulate that style.

Note that in ensemble playing you must subordinate these soloistic effects to better blend with the rest of the ensemble. There is a time and a place for everything.

BGuttman wrote: Mon Jul 28, 2025 8:58 am See if you can find some recordings by Weston Sprott of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra. He performed a bunch of opera arias and it feels almost like he is singing them. I continually try to emulate that style.

Note that in ensemble playing you must subordinate these soloistic effects to better blend with the rest of the ensemble. There is a time and a place for everything.

Right on, I'll check that out. I haven't listened to any of his stuff for a long time.

ryant wrote: Wed Jul 23, 2025 12:20 pm So as a trombonist and musician I have always struggled. I love the mechanics of the trombone, I love listening to music, but I have trouble really understanding what makes a performance or a performer great. I can hear it and know that I love listening to it, but how do I emulate that as a player?

One thing I've taken from this recording that makes it so great is that there is a smoothness between notes. I am trying to emulate that in my playing. I record myself and look at the waveforms to find where I am backing off or unintentionally adding accents-like on longer intervals. I also notice that when he uses dynamics he is always doing so smoothly, so I also am examining my playing on long tones, scales and etudes to try and emulate that too.

Are there any other concrete things he is doing that I could emulate? I am asking because I can't always figure this stuff out on my own-not really how my brain works. I've been asking chatgpt and that has helped. But thought I'd ask you fine people too...since you're real humans.

I think if you're looking at waveforms as the key to cracking the code, you're in a few layers deeper than required or even useful.

Musicality is greater than the sum of its parts, and if you are approaching it mechanically, you are missing the whole of it: Some people are more emotive than others, more expressive, the trombone is just a machine you blow into.

ryant wrote: Mon Jul 28, 2025 8:14 am When emulating singers, do any of you try to match the consonants that they end phrases with? I'm not sure if that translates well to the trombone, but I guess I don't really know.

Not so much the consonants they end phrases with as every consonant, and every vowel, and every diphtong, and the shape of every syllable and word. Which syllables are stressed, which are not, within each word, and then within the broader sentence. How are two syllables connected, and how is it different from how the previous or next are. What consonants are involved, and are they hard or soft consonants. Are there double consonants that cut the sound, and if so how is the sound released and restarted. Are certain syllables held through, are some tapered. How all these things can translate to articulations, note shape, dynamics and micro-dynamics, and even time.

As a trombonist, you start really paying a lot of attention to all the tiny details of this and look at it so to speak with a microscope instead of just having an overall view, and very quickly you realise that for years you've been trying to paint masterpieces with a broad-tipped black sharpie.