Trombones de Costa Rica - Feb. 18th

Just to let you know...
Trombones de Costa will be visiting the University of South Carolina for a concert on Wed. Feb. 18th at 7:30pm in our recital hall.
The concert is free and open to the public.

Here's a link to their website.

Gliss Finding

Hello Everyone
Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I just got busy with other things.

So, here's an idea that I've been using with some of my students. I've started calling it "gliss finding"

The Problem: trying to lip the notes into tune instead of finding the pitch with the slide. I believe this can cause a loss of centering and resonance.

The Solution: by glissing around the note while listening carefully for a resonant full tone, then stopping in the position, you can find the right pitch while your center of resonance stays "in the pocket."

You're not likely to see tubas doing this

OK, first of all, simply assembling this thing must have taken a very long time.

(too much time)

(Silent) Monks Hallelujah

Sorry, I've been out of town for a while.
Here's a good one from YouTube.

Remember these monks have taken a vow of silence.

Big Ol' Smackdown in New York

Dave Finlayson has posted recently on his new blog about Gilbert Kaplan, who recently conducted Mahler's 2nd with NYPO.

I'm not familiar with Kaplan's conducting but I've had to endure too many podium frauds over the years.

Here's the link.

Here's my own cynical rule about conductors

Of every 1000 conductors, 900 are completely useless.
The ensemble would sound better if they walked away.

Of the remaining 100, 90 are mediocre at best.
At least they don't do serious damage and will be bailed out by most ensembles.

Of the remaining 10, 9 are good at their jobs.
They actually make the group sound better.

That last one is excellent.
A pleasure and an inspiration.

So, in your next rehearsal, ask yourself, "What about this one? In the 900, the 90, the 9, or the one."

Realize, you may go your whole life and never have the chance to work with "the one."

My Christmas wish: that you get to work with "the one" in a good orchestra.

Rubber Band Rubato

Back to the subject of rubato (about which I put up a post in July called "Wheel Rubato.")

I've thought of another way to look at it.

Take this example of the cadenza from Morceau Symphonique..





Being a cadenza, it should have some freedom. But still, 16th's should sound like 16th's, 8th's should like 8th's and so on.

In other words, the beat can change but the subdivisions of the beat should still make sense.

An analogy occurred to me. Suppose you took a large rubber band and made evenly spaced vertical marks on it. Or maybe your marks could graphically represent the spacing of quarter notes, half notes and so on.

Then, stretch the rubber band and look at your marks.

The rhythmic pattern is consistent over a time frame that is stretched.

...sort of like the perception of time as you fall into a black hole.

The Etude Finder

I heard a good quote from Ted Turner, "Early to Bed, Early to Rise, Work Hard and Advertise."

For the most part, I'm pretty good at the first three (especially now that my kid has to be at school at 7:30!). I'm not so great at the advertising part.

Here's something I put up on my website and didn't really announce. Why? I wanted to proof it and make sure there were no mistakes.

Well, I didn't proof it so IF you find mistakes, email me with something like, "HA! You messed up!"

What is it? Well, try it out and you'll see. There are lots of ways it could be improved. The original database (part of my doctoral dissertation) had other categories..things like "Building the Low Range" "Wide leaps in the High Range" "Double Tonguing" etc.

DOCTORAL DISSERTATION ALERT
OK, here's another topic to consider...matching etudes with solo lit and orchestral excerpts. Something like this "If you're working on La Gazza Ladra (or the David Concertino), you might practice the following 4 etudes to help..."

So, here it is...
THE ETUDE FINDER

Special thanks to my computer whiz son, William, for writing the javascript code that makes this work. I sorta kinda understand it, but it's almost over my head.

South Carolina All State Exercises..Bordogni #37

This one's mostly for any high school trombone players here in South Carolina. I've written a few pages of exercises to help you prepare the required etude for the All-State Band audition.

Here's a link to the pdf file.

For others curious about this, the audition piece is most of the second page of #37 in Melodious Etudes, Bk 1 written by Marco Bordogni and transcribed by Johannes Rochut.

By the way, I have always thought it was a travesty that Rochut gets top billing on the cover. Don't call them Rochut etudes. Except possibly for #1, he didn't write them.

Giulio Marco Bordogni

In these times....

Worrisome news about the Charleston Symphony. When I came here almost 10 years ago, I had the good fortune to sub with Charleston on occasion and was really impressed with their brass section. Now I hear that they're not sure they can make payroll after Dec. 19th.

Here's the article.

Some young trombonists who apply to the USC School of Music tell me they want to major in performance.

What do I tell them?

"Yes, I know it is your true passion and despite any odds you feel you have to go for it. But....there are so few jobs!" (and the number is shrinking).

Not to be all gloom and doom but, anyone pursuing a music performance career needs to have a realistic perspective on what is going on out there.

Ask yourself these questions:

• How many talented young performance majors graduate each year? Don't just count the "big name" schools. Sometimes great players come from smaller programs.
  
• How many openings are there for jobs that pay over, say $20k, each year?

If you have no idea, then you haven't thought things through enough.

How do most professional musicians earn their income?
Freelancing, small per-service gigs, lots of private students in the public schools, and maybe a part-time job. Don't get me wrong, this can be a good life. When I lived near Washington D.C., I saw people doing this and leading happy, productive lives. One small fringe benefit: if you have 27 different employers, you can't get laid off.

Yes, I know music gets in your blood and becomes a part of you. But if you are an aspiring high school trombonist who wants to be a performance major, know what you are getting into. Do your homework on the job market.

Maybe you can find creative solutions....write grants, create a small innovative ensemble, do something in the schools.

Hey, if you can capture people's imaginations, they will flock to you. Who could have predicted the success of something like Blast?

You may want to gag at the mention of the Trans Siberian Orchestra, but whenever they come to town, big crowds form. (actually I know almost nothing about them but they were here recently)

The intersection of art and commerce is never comfortable.

Yes, Ta-Ta-Ka

There seems to be a plague of people who triple tongue this way..
TA-KA-TA, TA-KA-TA, TA-KA-TA

I ask them why. The usual response: I don't know. I've just always done it that way. Nobody ever told me how.

You should use..
TA-TA-KA, TA-TA-KA
(or DA-DA-GA)

Why?

Why do we multiple tongue at all?
Because you can't reset the tip of the tongue fast enough over and over.

Here's my contention (argue if you want): the second of the two "TA's" is the weaker one because the tongue has to do that rapid reset.

Test this: say TA-ta. Now say ta-TA . (capital letters represent emphasis).
For me, TA-ta is easier.

So...the whole point of using that inferior "KA" syllable is to give the tip of the tongue time to reset.

In a string of triplets, you usually want to place your accent on the first note of each triplet..
TA-ta-ka, TA-ta-ka, TA-ta-ka

Putting ka at the end makes it easier to emphasize the beginning of the triplet.

If you use..
TA-ka-ta, TA-ka-ta, TA-ka-ta,
your downbeats will be at a disadvantage.

(By the way, in the new Arban's book, both Bowman and Alessi prefer ta-ta-ka)

If you are used to the other way, use this exercise to help you...

Droning On....Droning Out

Tom Gibson just posted that video podcast of us messing around with the drone CD. Plus he loaded up the whole CD onto his website for download (warning: BIG files)

Here's a link.

(kinda wish he didn't ask me to sing...yow)

The 47 Pound Pencil

Look at that pencil lying there. Easy to pick up right?

Now: as you attempt to pick it up with one hand, use your other hand to hold down the lifting hand. Harder to pick up now.

Seems stupid but ...
how often do we unwittingly do exactly the same thing when playing?


PS Tom Gibson filmed another podcast with me and Eric Bubacz, a fantastic tubist from Atlanta. Basically we were just hacking around improvising stuff over tuning drones. Don't know when it will be posted. Oh yeah, I had the good fortune to hang out for the 45 minutes or so of that Wycliffe recording session he filmed. Very cool (as in...him, not me)

Tone vs. Sound

OK, I'm going out on a limb here.

We often use the terms "tone" and "sound" interchangeably.

For me, someone's sound seems to have more components than than just the timbre of the sound waves emanating from their bell.

What do you think of this diagram?













Why the question mark by vibrato? I think vibrato plays a role in phrasing as well. Some players incorporate it as a fundamental component of the sound, others employ it more to move a phrase along. Vibrato seems to live in both worlds.

I invite all comments/criticisms.

"Note Shape" refers to the degree of attack at the front of a note as well as the kind taper at the end of a note.

C.S.I. Slide-O-Mix

OK, I think I'm onto something here....

It started when one of my students, (let's call him Alex [or Joey]) commented that, "Everybody's Slide-O-Mix seems to work better than mine."

Then I thought about my Slide-O-Mix Rapid Comfort and how it used to to be have thick texture but was now watery.

Then another student (let's call him Colt) pointed out his theory that maybe HEAT had an effect on the stuff. In other words, once it had been exposed to heat (like being left in a hot car) it became watery and didn't work as well.

No sooner do I mention "Colt's" theory to one of my private students than he says that exact thing happened to him: Slide-O-Mix left in a hot car for a few days had become watery.

AHA!


Research grant needed.....$1,500,000 ought to cover it.

A Little Valve Thing...

Has anybody out there ever played Ewazen's Colchester Fantasy?
In the slow movement, you find this forte septuplet that calls for some serious faking.

I tried using my old "valve wiggle" trick....just keep blowing while you press/release the valve as quickly as possible. You can create some cool effects.

Then I thought it through a little more carefully and realized that by "articulating" with the valve, you could accurately play this lick.

Here it is (I'm working from memory here but you get the idea):







Play it fast without tonguing.

This reminds me of a Baltimore Opera gig I did years ago where we ran across this fast E major scale that was effectively unplayable on slide trombone.

It went something like this...






Through kidding around, we discovered that, if you just stayed in 2nd position and employed a healthy valve wiggle, you could simulate the run really well. In fact, when we tried it together, we both burst out laughing because it sounded like we had actually played it correctly.

My Little public service

Johannes Brahms: Sixteen Lieder
Transcribed and edited for solo trombone and piano by
Eric Carlson

If you don't own this collection: get it!

Eric Carlson, 2nd trombonist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, has done us all a great service by creating this compilation.

Not only do you get the solo and piano parts, you also get a wonderful CD of the piano accompaniments. However these accompaniments aren't of the of "Frankenstein Piano" quality of a certain other collection of piano accompaniments that is commercially available. They actually have a very nice musical quality to them.

I was loading this accompaniment CD onto my iTunes and was surprised to see that Gracenote didn't seem to have it on their database. So, I patiently typed in all the info...

you're welcome

.. now go get this.

Here's a Hickey's link

Trumpet funnies

Here's a good one from our trumpet brethren.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

I have started standing facing my students instead of standing beside them. Often, I tell them to watch me while I play.

Why?


It turns out that there are mirror neurons in your brain (both sides) which fire not only when you engage in a task but also when you watch someone else engage in the same task. In other words, if you watch Joe Alessi play a B-flat major scale, in your mind, those mirror neurons are playing along.

Here's an interesting 14-minute segment of Nova Science Now that talks about this...

Here's a good article from Science Daily, if you're interested...

The Freedom Cone

This idea isn't really original. I think I first saw it presented by Ron Barron.

The basic question? How much freedom do you have as a player?

Depends on what you're doing. If you're making an audition tape, especially one for an orchestra, I think you have the least freedom. You just don't know how you're going to be evaluated so you have to stick to the ink.

Similar with a first-round audition. So many people, so many cuts that need to be made. I have to think that most committees are looking for a reason to say no.

In later rounds you are more focused on giving the committee a reason to say 'yes' so perhaps you can begin to show your individuality.

Of course, depending on the conductor, you might have more freedom in a live performance.

Here's a little graphic...

By the way, respected friend of mine disagrees with me and, frankly, she has heard a lot more professional auditions that I have.

Her contention: In that first round the committee is desperately looking for a reason to say 'yes' but candidate after candidate fails to give it to them.

Anybody out there have a lot of experience with professional auditions?
What do you think?

Alessi Seminar 2009

They have just announced the 2009 Alessi Seminar.

Some changes this year:

Three categories, not two..

Old system: 16 participants and a bunch of auditors
New system: 8 participants, 16 apprentices and a bunch of auditors

Top three participants are finalists in a solo competition at the seminar.

As I've said in my blog entries from the 2007 Alessi seminar, you owe it to yourself to attend.