TromboneChat

StefanHaller wrote: ↑Sat Jul 20, 2019 3:41 am Oh, and speaking of folk songs, I finally found out where your funny forum name comes from. I found this in a small book with "Svenska Visor" in a book shelf in our cottage:

366A4F73-699E-4035-90CF-CCB42ADB73C6.jpeg

Yes, you got me there . Imsevimse is chosen to give the chills to Sweds at this forum that are afraid of spiders and there are a lot of people afraid of spiders. The username could be translated to "itsybitsy" as the same song also is known as "Itsy bitsy spider".

You are right the Swedish folk songs lend themselves to harmonic variations. Jan Johansson was a great jazz pianist who made some remarkable recordings where he merged the Swedish folk songs with American jazz tradition and created a new dialect that later Swedish jazz composers like Nils Lindberg and others continued. If you've listened to Nils Landgren he sometimes includes some Swedish folk songs into his tromboneplaying. Nice that you arrange these traditional folk songs for your family choire.

What I'm I doing? I'm having long walks in the forest every day. I've got to do a change to improve some minor health issues. Not to late to do a change, but it has to be done now. I will se what the doctor says in August. My walks last between one and two hours and I have beautiful surroundings here so I can not complain. I've done them for about a month now. Since April I have also put myself on a diet. I'm beginning to get the reward as I can feel the health improved. Other things I do is to work on my house and of course I play a lot with my trombones. I've had a few weeks of vacation which are going to end soon. I will do a concert with the "Johan Stengård Jazz Big Band" at a jazz festival on Saturday and then life will return to normal again as a computer programmer and tromboneplayer.

/Tom

BflatBass wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2019 11:57 am Well the gigantic community band has finished it's series for this year. Out of the 6 weeks they ran I played weeks 1,2,5 and 6. Week 5 was the Independence Day concert where the brass all stand up for Stars and Striped Forever which can be somewhat challenging for trombones on a cramped stage. The best part was playing the trio for the National Emblem down an octave . This was their 100th year so there were a lot of accolades, awards and celebrations for most of the concerts. The last week we had a 98 year old fellow in the audience who played in the band back in the mid 30's. I can't say I'm a big fan of playing in a band with 135 members on stage, 17 of which were trombones and 7 of those were playing the 3rd part. The kids on 3rd playing their student model straight tenors had to play plenty of notes up an octave It was all fun for the social aspect of it tho.

Still working on an arrangement of Atlantis the Lost Continent for 4 bones and tuba. I've got the 1st movement on paper and am now getting the 2nd movement written while I try and create a decent recording of the 1st movement on my little 4 track digital recorder. Fun stuff but it can be tedious at times.

Cheers,
Robert

Wow, that’s a lot of bones. I think anything over 9 is overkill. 5 or 6 is ideal If they can all play. I played in my college alumni band a few weeks ago and we had 8 really solid players. That was fun.

Taking a vreak fron trimbone for a week

My community band is on break for a few weeks, but have been taking the time to work with my trombone section in the band on some trombone trio work. Queuing up Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus", a "Trio for Trombones" by Beethoven and "Danny Boy" for use during the fall/winter schedule of the community band. I have really enjoyed the Beethoven trio, and the Baylor Bones have a great recording of it on YouTube.

I started playing with the Smoky Mountain Brass Band in Asheville, NC a couple of weeks ago. It's a long drive, but I have been wanting to play in a brass band for a long time and these guys are the closest one to me. I have been to two rehearsals. They have some excellent players in the group. The guy playing bass told me he used to be in the San Antonio Symphony. This should be a lot of fun.

We've reached another season change. My summer band played our last concert of the season on Tuesday. It was a fun season. Trombone section was strong, and had a couple of new members. I mostly played first, but when someone was missing, I played that part because my daughter also played first. She took most of the solos, and the band loved her playing. Now she goes back to school. The studio has a new professor, so it should be a strange, exciting time for them.

Hi. I'm really looking forward to this autumn. I have just started to play bass trombone with two rehearsal big bands. The bands will be an opportunity for me to use several of the bass trombones I own and to have a chance to improve my bass trombone playing.

Most of the playing/rehearsals I do is on tenor except when it comes to gigs, then my bass has been called for. I'm happy I was finally asked to join two good kick-start bands now on bass trombone at the same time.

I will still be playing tenor with The Johan Stengård Jazz Big Band. I'm on second but the first five concerts I will be on first since the first player will go and visit U.S. The J.S Jazz Big Band will play at a theatre every monday until christmas

I continue to sing with a church choire once a week and do concerts on weekends.

In October I will play 1st trombone with a wind orchestra. It will be a weekend tour to the North of Sweden to Östersund. It will be a weeken of rehearsals and to play one concert. I usually bring my .525 Bach 36BO to the Wind Orchestra

This autumn I have also been contracted to play eight performances with an opera orchestra in my hometown. Besides strings and woodwind and drums it has three brass parts. It is trumpet, french horn and trombone. The trombone part includes things for both tenor- and basstrombone. I have not decided whether I will bring two horns or if I will bring a small bass. The opera is composed by the conductor and is called "The Wizard of OZ". It's not the same as the popular musical which was what I thought from the beginning. It is almost as when I thought I was going to play music from the famous musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" and it turned out to be music from something called "Jesus Christ Morningstar". That time it was a disappointment. In this case I look forward to play this Opera from this locally known composer and conductor of my hometown.

I have also been asked to join a jazz combo group with trumpet, tenor sax, trombone, piano, bass & drums. The plan was to meet every other week to build a repertoire but after have compared our notebooks we could not find much time where we all could rehearse together. I think it will not be that many rehearsals before christmas since members are busy with other projects, especially me and the bass player.

This will be a very busy autumn

/Tom

This season, our orchestra is playing (among other things) Sibelius 2. It should be cool. I would love to play first, but third is what was needed.

1st concert of the season last night. Dvorak #8. Lovely piece with some nice bits for the low brass. I brought home a friend’s old Benge 290 to try for a few days.

This December I'm in two concerts.

The Colinton Orchestra are playing Raff Symphony No.2 and a couple of other pieces. I'm playing Bass Trombone.

The Open Orchestra (my main group) is playing Beethoven 3 and a Trombone Concerto by their founding conductor David Crisp with me as soloist.

Ronnie

Last night I played the lead book for a big band rehearsal on the wrong equipment... I brought my Duo Gravis in the mistaken belief that I was playing the bass book.

I made it work. It was a good lesson in keeping the burn and bark in the upper registers of the horn. But the chops are definitely tired this morning!

--Andy in OKC

ronnies wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2019 2:11 am
The Open Orchestra (my main group) is playing Beethoven 3 and a Trombone Concerto by their founding conductor David Crisp with me as soloist.

Ronnie

Congratulations. Good luck!

Posaunus wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2019 12:14 pm

ronnies wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2019 2:11 am
The Open Orchestra (my main group) is playing Beethoven 3 and a Trombone Concerto by their founding conductor David Crisp with me as soloist.

Ronnie

Congratulations. Good luck!

Thanks, I'll probably need it!

Just returned from my favorite trombone activity. We have a Dixieland ensemble that performs monthly at an county-operated "adult day care" center. We show up at the end of their group lunch and entertain the clients for an hour. These folks may have had strokes or other forms of disabilities, they may be afflicted with Down Syndrome, they may have early-stage dementia - but they all love music in their own way. Many are actively dancing, clapping, or singing along with us – huge grins on their faces. Others just sit and smile. Some seem lost in their own reverie. Some want to come give us hugs as we leave. I am convinced that we are making a difference in their lives, and am more than willing to donate my time.

I'll be playing in the pit orchestra for a production of "Promenade". I'm looking forward to the run.

Opening night. I hope I'm not nervous.

I am in the midst of organizing a symphonic brass choir concert, which is very similar to herding cats. Trying to get 15 players who are really good AND willing to play for free is a challenge. Then you have to find and buy music, line up a rehearsal space and performance space, try to promote the concert with no money, and then hope someone shows up to watch. We are halfway through our scheduled 4 rehearsals. Things are going OK, but I was missing 3 out of my 5 trumpets last night and we are a ways away from being ready to play a few of the tunes. But I think we will make it eventually.

Mikebmiller wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2019 4:03 pm I am in the midst of organizing a symphonic brass choir concert, which is very similar to herding cats. Trying to get 15 players who are really good AND willing to play for free is a challenge.

Mike,

You need a sponsor! Know any music-loving angels (individual or institutional)?

Good luck.

This weekend is Mozart Vesperae de Confessore at a=430, beautiful cast of soloists, okay choir, and quite good pick-up period instruments orchestra. Tonight is in a really cool late 20's Art Deco church with just the rug amount of kitsch! I keep forgetting and then being surprised everytime I play or conduct this work at just how good it is. Nice trombone parts!

Monday and Tuesday part of a really cool project in the Duomo in Milan with 10 singers and 6 early winds (cornett, bombard and 4 sackbuts/trumpets), where we will perform a concert mainly reading from one of their original, 15th century (!) choirbook (which does mean 16 people sharing one (huge) music stand!), a mix of written-out polyphony and improvised counterpoint. I think the book has not been taken out of the vault in a couple centuries or something.

LeTromboniste wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2019 7:26 am This weekend is Mozart Vesperae de Confessore at a=430, beautiful cast of soloists, okay choir, and quite good pick-up period instruments orchestra. ...

... I think the book has not been taken out of the vault in a couple centuries or something.

Maximilien,
You lead a fascinating musical life, that we North Americans can scarcely imagine.

Posaunus wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2019 6:37 pm

Mikebmiller wrote: ↑Fri Oct 25, 2019 4:03 pm I am in the midst of organizing a symphonic brass choir concert, which is very similar to herding cats. Trying to get 15 players who are really good AND willing to play for free is a challenge.

Mike,

You need a sponsor! Know any music-loving angels (individual or institutional)?

Good luck.

A deep pocketed brass fan would be nice. We have one of those in my big band, but not this group. I am going to be out about $400 putting on this concert, but hopefully some folks will toss a few bucks in the kitty at the show.

I play in big band called "Joshua Experience" in the Dallas area. We have a few things happening in the next few weeks. First the band is traveling to Israel for concert with Michael English (from the Gaither Singers). We will do our own concert to open as well as back him on some arrangements of some of his music.

Then sometime in November we begin to release music that we have done with the ministry that Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo have called "Soldiers for the 2nd Coming". Over the last several months we have recorded 8 songs that will be released as singles on the different platforms for downloads and streaming.

The trombone section with the band is John Bush (from Ohio), Dan Canterbury (UNT), Guy Terry (Oklahoma), myself-John Thomas, and Alex Dubrov (of Maniacal 4 fame). Some of you may know some of these guys from high school, college or military.

The band was founded 18 years ago by Larry Randall (The Sax Man) who some of you may know from Vegas/cruise ship gigs.

afugate wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2019 5:47 am Last night I played the lead book for a big band rehearsal on the wrong equipment... I brought my Duo Gravis in the mistaken belief that I was playing the bass book.

I made it work. It was a good lesson in keeping the burn and bark in the upper registers of the horn. But the chops are definitely tired this morning!

--Andy in OKC

This is why I always have a Bach 4G in my bass case!

The brass choir show is Sunday. But in the last 2 weeks, one of our conductors came down with pneumonia and a horn player had a heart attack. Fortunately, he had emergency surgery and is OK. But I am starting to think my band is cursed.

Mikebmiller wrote: ↑Wed Nov 13, 2019 8:48 am The brass choir show is Sunday. But in the last 2 weeks, one of our conductors came down with pneumonia and a horn player had a heart attack. Fortunately, he had emergency surgery and is OK. But I am starting to think my band is cursed.

They're both OK now, so I'd say that's more a blessing than a curse.

Well if by OK, you mean alive, then yes.The conductor had to drop out of the gig and the horn player is still in the hospital.

Shostakovich 5 tonight. Quite a workout. Wonderful piece.

Getting ready for a big band gig this week, playing a jazz suite based on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by the featured sax soloist who is playing with us and also narrating. Interesting range of harmonies and styles and some comic narration.
After that it’s a soul show with a different, 10 piece band near to Christmas. But just before that a blues jam night in a local music bar, featuring all comers in random combinations - great fun and a lot of talented musicians to play with. December is looking good. Ends with playing a massed brass band carol sing along concert at a large local Children’s hospital.

Bach5G wrote: ↑Sat Nov 30, 2019 11:50 pm Shostakovich 5 tonight. Quite a workout. Wonderful piece.

One of my favorites. I'm jealous!

Posaunus wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2019 8:01 am

Bach5G wrote: ↑Sat Nov 30, 2019 11:50 pm Shostakovich 5 tonight. Quite a workout. Wonderful piece.

One of my favorites. I'm jealous!

Yes, I would love to play it again. Last time I played it, it was scheduled because we had a strong trombone section. Then the other two players left the orchestra before the scheduled concert.

StevenC wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 5:23 pm

Posaunus wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2019 8:01 am

One of my favorites. I'm jealous!

Yes, I would love to play it again. Last time I played it, it was scheduled because we had a strong trombone section. Then the other two players left the orchestra before the scheduled concert.

And then there's this:

Bach5G wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 6:44 pm

And then there's this:


[/quote]

Oh that's excellent. I love them, but this may be the best I've seen.

Just on my way home from the works Christmas party where we played our debut as a brass quartet made up from employees. We had two trumpets, a horn and bass trombone. It was good fun to play in front of around 700 fellow employees in a fancy banqueting hall. It was far from perfect but nonetheless a solid debut.

I normally play in larger groups so took a while to adjust but with four rehearsals the short programme came together well. One or two people asked if we take bookings for weddings etc., maybe they were just being polite but I think we chose our repertoire well to make the best of our abilities.

I quite liked the sound and balance with bass trombone, tuba is fine for the bottom voice in a quintet but I feel would have been too much in our quartet.

Anyone else playing in a quartet in this combination? Any tips for music we could use for the summer festival?

Been a while (again).

No more tuba. I don't want to play more than one instrument anymore so the tuba is for sale.
The guy I took a few tuba lessons from told me in my first lesson that I'd never be a great tuba player is I double on trombone. Well...I didn't pay attention to him because I had no intention of being "great" on the tuba. But after a year of playing the tuba I realized that I was never going to attain the level I wanted if I kept doubling.

Christmas was really slow this year. Only one community band concert. No caroling, no church gigs, no tuba Christmas.
Looking forward to starting the new year with the two concert bands I'm in (3rd bone in both). Just wished I was playing in a jazz big band to top it all off.

Hope everyone has a good new year.

Robert

Community Band just started rehearsals for the new year this past Tuesday night. On deck is Pines of Rome.

HawaiiTromboneGuy wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:29 pm Community Band just started rehearsals for the new year this past Tuesday night. On deck is Pines of Rome.

I would love to play in a Community Band that would even think of programming something like that. Our band has an open door policy that means anyone with an an instrument and a pulse can show up and play.

Mikebmiller wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2020 6:43 am

HawaiiTromboneGuy wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:29 pm Community Band just started rehearsals for the new year this past Tuesday night. On deck is Pines of Rome.

I would love to play in a Community Band that would even think of programming something like that. Our band has an open door policy that means anyone with an an instrument and a pulse can show up and play.

Ours has the same policy. Luckily, our CB has a solid foundation of a lot of returning players season after season so we have a general idea of what kind of tier we can perform.

Just trying to get my face back after a longer than usual/comfortable/tolerable period of chop problems...

January and February are the low season here with not much going on, so things are winding down, which is both a curse and a blessing. The good thing is it gives time to refocus and the chance to get some practicing done on the important things that tend to give way to the urgent things when it gets busier. Also time to properly work on future projects.

Among too many other things, I just started transcribing a really gorgeous choral piece from 1750 Vienna with two trombones (including a couple of solo movements) which we'll perform in April. It probably hasn't been heard by anyone else in about 250 years, so even though the MIDI playback sucks, it's pretty exciting to hear it as I work on it!

Learning to play single-trigger bass trombone on my new Yamaha 421G that I bought from Quinn! I don't care that it's rated as an "intermediate horn". It's a lot of fun for what I want to do and I love the sound!

TimBrown wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2020 6:18 am Learning to play single-trigger bass trombone on my new Yamaha 421G that I bought from Quinn! I don't care that it's rated as an "intermediate horn". It's a lot of fun for what I want to do and I love the sound!

Yamaha student or intermediate horns are good, I think they often can be as useful as a professional horn. I have both the older student YSL-321 and the YSL-322 and they are great, much better than a double dependant professional YSL-612R I own.

/Tomas

BflatBass wrote: ↑Tue Jun 05, 2018 12:21 pm ...
Post a little something, maybe on a weekly or even daily basis, about what you're doing trombone-wise or musically. I know some of you are on YouTube regularly so that might seem a little redundant. But for the rest of us I think it would be interesting to find out where you all are in your "progression" as a trombonist, what you double on, what else you dabble in or concentrate on musically, etc.. If you're working on a particular piece of music, either solo or in a group/band/orchestra, maybe take a quick pic of your music and post it. Talk about troublesome areas in what your working on or how great you sounded last night. Whatever....
Maybe this would make for a new forum? Idk
...
Cheers,
Robert

imsevimse wrote: ↑Sun Jan 19, 2020 7:36 am Yamaha student or intermediate horns are good, I think they often can be as useful as a professional horn. I have both the older student YSL-321 and the YSL-322 and they are great, much better than a double dependant professional YSL-612R I own.

/Tomas

Thanks Tom! Always good to read your thoughts on various subjects.

I decided to go back to the OP's original assertion to make sure I won't be deviating in my post below:

What I have done and what I am doing is a measured movement towards using a bass trombone for my pop ballads with BiaB arrangements. I discovered that the fastest way for me to increase my playing range was to go to a bass trombone. Since I can still play almost as high on it as I can on a tenor, I have easily and instantly gained more than one octave. Boom. Mic drop.

Lots of fun to configure pop ballads from the 1920's through the 1970's (that's where the pretty melodies are!) to take advantage of all the lows (pedals and such) up through as high as I am comfortable right now.

I'll open with a chorus where I stick true to the melody line. Then I hand over from 8 to 32 measures to a BiaB RealTracks soloist. I then come back in for another chorus where I add a lot of melodic embellishments. Sometimes I will start the song as low as possible. Sometimes I will do octave jumps within the melody line and sometimes I will play the whole 2nd chorus high. It all depends upon the melody line and what I want to do with it. It's a lot of fun for me to play with the different voices I have on my single-trigger bass; from very mellow to spanking it out.

I believe there is or at least should be much more to a bass trombone than what they are currently commonly being used for. I think both George Roberts and James Morrison could have quite a bit to say in agreement with me. Hopefully, there are others.

Last Friday I played a "cotillion" at a nearby private club. I get called to play this thing about once a year by a guy who drives 5 hours to do the gig with his band, which is kind of a cross between a big band and a wedding band. They have 3/2/3 horns and a rhythm section along with 2 girl singers. He has a few folks that play with him regularly, but most of the band is people that might do just a few gigs with him. So most of the band is sight reading at any given time. But he hires really good players, so it sounds great. One of the trumpet players used to be in teh Airmen of Note. We do an hour set, then get fed a nice fancy meal, then come back for another 2 hours until about 12:30 am. All in all, it is a fun gig.

A few days ago I got asked if I'd like to come along to fill a seat on EEb tuba in the 'house band' for a conducting workshop at the weekend. It's a British-style brass band which is something I've really missed playing in recently. I haven't played tuba for a couple of years but used to be handy enough. Recently I've been in decent shape on the bass trombone so it will be interesting to see if any of that transfers. I was having a listen to what we'll be playing in preparation:

Light Cavalry Overture - A classic with some nice parts for trombones, EEb bass part should be quite playable so I hope we start with this so I can find my way round the instrument again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RINxbuD ... &index=151

Shine as the Light - Plenty of colours and textures in this, I've only played the trombone part before so wait to be surprised when I see the tuba part on Saturday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg9ek3qgeLA

Hommage to Adolphe Sax : From Ancient Times - This will be a real challenge which I'm greatly looking forward to, probably for the best I'm not having to sight read the euphonium part, it sounds perilously high after a long day of rehearsing. Hopefully by then I'll have got used to the instrument I'm borrowing and can enjoy the music in this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faFdMEW4-W0

Turriss Fortissima - Sounds fun, will be a good workout of double-tonguing and some interesting rhythms. Quite a bit in it for the tubas. For my personal taste it seems to lack a bit of depth in places but let's see how it sounds live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fs3EHsfmVs

MrHCinDE wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2020 4:58 am
Shine as the Light - Plenty of colours and textures in this, I've only played the trombone part before so wait to be surprised when I see the tuba part on Saturday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg9ek3qgeLA

A beautiful piece, i really enjoy it! I'm covering the bass trb part in the Brass Band i play in.
We already performed it in church gigs at the end of last year and at the beginning of january. I'm looking forward to playing it again in March in a concert together with Tuba Soloist Andreas Martin Hofmeir.

Wasn't it you who lived in Southern Germany?
The concert i'm talking about will be in Balingen and the Band is the Brass Band Oberschwaben-Allgäu.

Which Band are you performing with?

Greetings,
shider

shider wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2020 7:30 am Wasn't it you who lived in Southern Germany?
The concert i'm talking about will be in Balingen and the Band is the Brass Band Oberschwaben-Allgäu.

Which Band are you performing with?

Yes, that was me. I live between Stuttgart and Heilbronn.

It sounds like Balingen has a rich cultural programme! I was asked to play in a performance of Beethoven’s 9th there a couple of years ago but unfortunately couldn’t make it.

The band I’m playing in at the weekend is the Badische Brassband. There’s no performance at the end of the workshop. I suspect we’ll all be exhausted after playing through that programme for two days so probably for the best.

I think I offered already but if you ever need some cover in the euph/bari/trom/tuba sections let me know! I might also come for a listen some time.

Schöne Grüße
MrHCinDE

For anyone interested here's a couple of little tasters of the workshop:

Finale to Shine as the light:
https://de-de.facebook.com/brassbandver ... 035833445/

Bit of Light Cavalry:
https://de-de.facebook.com/108903669595 ... 344379041/

It turns out there will be a concert with at least some content from the programme on 26th April in Karlsruhe
https://de-de.facebook.com/events/1834669256663940/

Got a last minute project the next four days, playing mid-19th century arrangements for small wind ensemble of Beethoven Coriolan Overture and selections from Rossini Barber of Seville. The arrangements are for 13-14 players (wooodwinds by one or two, one trumpet, two-three horns, one trombone, double bass, timpani) and pretty fun to play. We're playing at a=430 and I'm using two unfamiliar horns - my most recently acquired horn (traditional German trombone) and one that I haven't had much time or opportunity to familiarise myself with (19th century Courtois) - so tuning will be a challenge!

Last night the big band I'm in started working on the Michael Buble' arrangement of "I've Got You Under My Skin". It follows the Sinatra arrangement pretty closely. Juicy bass bone part in the middle.
It's a real kick to be playing an exposed line like that which Nelson Riddle wrote for George Roberts to play!

Just got a mouthpiece worked on by the folks at Bob Reeves mouthpieces. It's a Shilke 59 with a wider rim. Really happy with it. I highly recommend these guys. Very helpful.
Also invested in a Chromebook for music reading. The dance band I'm in has a 96 song book to draw from so I think this will really help.
And I finished my 4th video collage. This is my rendition of Gerry Mulligan's Festive Minor. It's pretty much a transcription of his recording on the "What Is There To Say" album including the first part of Art Farmer's solo.

My camera angle is too close. You can't really see much slide action so the next video I make I'll back up the camera so there'll be a wider view of each part.



Cheers,
Robert