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Featured Article Slow Practice Techniques for the Trombone One of the things that young trombone players have a real problem with is the concept of being patient and striving for perfection, while practicing their instruments. So often trombonists would like to get to the meat of playing without practicing the solid concepts that will get them there in the first place. It is almost like a little old lady in the hamburger commercials that used to yel "Where's the beef?" (If you are above the age of 45 you probably don't have a clue who I'm talking about, but I think you get the idea.) Patience is a real problem with young performers. As a teacher, I find that one of my biggest struggles in teaching trombone players is trying to get them to slow down and practice the fundamentals. I want to emphasize the word "slowly". The paradox of the whole thing is that if they took their time to practice their music slowly building up speed, they would get to their desired goals much quicker and they will become much better musicians at a much faster pace. Learning slowly produces the best results! This article is continued below |
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Featured Trombone Article from above Here are a couple of techniques that will enable any trombonist to be a much better musician in a much shorter period of time: 1. When looking at a new passage of music, take a look at the three basic ingredients: key signature, Time signature, volume and speed. 2. Next, take a look at the rhythm. Do you understand the rhythm? If you do not understand the rhythm, you need to slow down and slowly count the rhythm to yourself. If you're having a hard time with rhythms, perhaps you should take a pencil out and write the rhythms over the passage. (You know - one and two and - for eighth notes etc.) 3. If you're having problems playing the notes, take each note, very slowly. If you have a tuner with you, you can check your pitch material to make sure it is in tune from one note to the next. If you have an eighth note or 16th note pattern, slow down the notes and treat each note like it is a whole note listening to the pitch and slowly getting your technique or fingering down. As you feel more comfortable, and are hitting the pitch is more accurately in tune; you can then gradually speed up your playing. 4. Once you have slowly taken each note and gradually sped it that it up now think about phrasing and how you are going to interpret the music. At this point, after you have slowly practiced the music in a repetitive manner, you can now speed it up and practice it at the correct tempo making sure that you are observing all dynamics and adding aesthetic and creative feeling, which can only come from your own personal emotions and ideas. Once you have practiced like this, you can now begin putting the icing on the cake. This is the point at which we have the feeling and phrasing because you are fused with the music now your own personality, will begin to shine through. Using this technique, you'll find that your music will sound cleaner, more emotional, and more enjoyable, not just to you, but also your listeners.
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