TromboneChat

Hi!

So I've been playing brass instruments since the age of 8. I started on trumpet, flirted with Euphonium in middle school and Freshman year of High School while I had braces, then went all in on tuba doubling on bass trombone for jazz band Sophomore year. Come Junior year, all but one of the good trombones graduated, so I found myself doubling tuba and small bore tenor. In my first attempt at college, I did tuba in marching band and played tenor in jazz band. Even after I dropped out of school, the jazz director let me keep playing until I moved back home. (Chris Vadala was a god among men). After a few years, I decided I wanted that degree and wound up at a tiny tech school that didn't have a music program, but has a damn fun pep band where I doubled sousaphone and trombone. Sadly, I put my beautiful 2-B Silvertone in its case when I finished at that school.

After 13 or so years off, I'm finally playing again. In those 13 years, I got a decent engineering job, got a dog, met a pretty lady who plays violin, bought a house, and married said pretty lady! Oh... and had two pulmonary embolisms... yeah, that sucked.

This is already long winded...

So there might be an opportunity to join one of the local orchestras that said pretty lady plays in. With her gentle encouragement, I finally pulled the horn back out, cleaned it up a bit and started practicing. I quickly discovered that there was an ummm... let's call it "opportunity" to re-develop my technical skills from the ground up. This is where the huge thank you comes in. From reading this forum, I decided to reach out to Doug Elliot and take a lesson. Since trombone was always a double for me, this was literally the first private trombone lesson of my life. Courtesy of his help, my tone and clarity are better than they have ever been, and my range is coming back with so much ease and so little tension. I think another lesson is coming soon to work on mouth shape and tongue position in the upper register, but I am still unpacking the massive amount of information I learned from an hour with him.

I have a lot of work to do. My lung capacity doesn't seem too damaged from the blood clots, but right now it takes forever to inhale enough to get through a phrase. If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears!

Also, if any of the New England crowd knows of a good brass shop that I could get my horn cleaned at, I'm sure it could use it. It's playing well and the slide is really good considering it's about 75 years old. I can go back to the childhood stomping ground and bring it to Dillon where I bought it.

I guess this is a very wordy "hello", "thank you", and "how the hell do I breathe?" all in one.

Thanks again for everyone in this group.

-Pete

Welcome!

If you are in the Boston area, the go-to guys are Bob Osmun (Osmun Brass) in Acton MA and Ken Pope in Boston.

If you are planning to play in an orchestra I'd suggest a larger instrument. Also, learn to read alto and tenor clef. You can do this somewhat painlessly from Simone Mantia's "The Trombone Virtuoso" (available for free on IMSLP). New England is loaded with amateur orchestras and jazz bands who would love to have you join. I think I've played with at least a dozen of them.

Kingfan wrote: ↑Thu May 18, 2023 6:12 pmWelcome!

Thanks!

BGuttman wrote: ↑Thu May 18, 2023 8:16 pm If you are in the Boston area, the go-to guys are Bob Osmun (Osmun Brass) in Acton MA and Ken Pope in Boston.

If you are planning to play in an orchestra I'd suggest a larger instrument. Also, learn to read alto and tenor clef. You can do this somewhat painlessly from Simone Mantia's "The Trombone Virtuoso" (available for free on IMSLP). New England is loaded with amateur orchestras and jazz bands who would love to have you join. I think I've played with at least a dozen of them.

I'm just up in Derry, so Acton is pretty easy. Just downloaded the Mantia book. Thanks! I'm planning on getting a .547 horn. Between the honeymoon in July and some medical bills the budget is going to make that challenging this summer. But I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a decent older horn.

Now you have me curious. Which of the local Community Orchestras are you considering?

Incidentally, if you want to play in a Jazz Band, contact the Windham Community Band -- they have a Jazz Band that is pretty open. Also, consider the Timberlane Band at the Timberlane Performance Center (not terribly far).

For less serious repairs, consider Dave Bailey in Nashua. He does all the basic stuff: slide alignments, dent removal, etc. And he's a whiz with woodwinds.

BGuttman wrote: ↑Fri May 19, 2023 9:02 am Now you have me curious. Which of the local Community Orchestras are you considering?

Incidentally, if you want to play in a Jazz Band, contact the Windham Community Band -- they have a Jazz Band that is pretty open. Also, consider the Timberlane Band at the Timberlane Performance Center (not terribly far).

For less serious repairs, consider Dave Bailey in Nashua. He does all the basic stuff: slide alignments, dent removal, etc. And he's a whiz with woodwinds.

My wife is in NHPhil, so that's where I'm hoping to land. She is a much better violinist than I am a trombone player, so we'll see how that goes!
I'll definitely look into Windham. I'm about to start some big travel for work, so I'm going to be away midweek quite a lot. But when that project is done, my travel should cool down a bit.

Well, I solved one problem. A nice Benge 165f followed me home today...

Pardon the dirty sock...

I second the Osmun ref!
https://osmun.com/

If you are traveling westward, Bekka at John Keal outside of Albany does fine work. I am in Western MA, where this is local for me. https://www.johnkealmusic.com/

I have also used the slide doctor in Tennessee - You buy a shipping box and mail your slide. Also does really nice work.
https://slidedr.com/

Good luck in your trombone journey.