TromboneChat

Have y’all seen the new video from James Markey and Virtuosity Musical Instruments in Boston? It’s a pretty in depth look at the low range, how it works, and how it can be practiced.



Any thoughts?

I’m really impressed with his generosity and willingness to share core concepts of his teaching philosophies, it’s super inspiring.
Not sure why they felt the need to have jazz music playing in the background throughout.

RustBeltBass wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 9:09 am I’m really impressed with his generosity and willingness to share core concepts of his teaching philosophies, it’s super inspiring.
Not sure why they felt the need to have jazz music playing in the background throughout.

Because silence is weird.
People always have to find something to complain about. It is a free video done by a retailer and one of the best trombonist in the world and you complain about background music that is used to mask any awkward background noise or silences.
Sometimes when a person has criticism, it isn’t worth sharing.

This is something I struggle with. My low range kind of bottoms out at about pedal G in a way that it didn't up to a certain point. When I was younger, I used to be able to play my 88h down to pedal C. Now I can't even play my bass past pedal G. It's easier to play pedal F on small tenor than on bass, in fact. So I'm going to give that embouchure thing a try and see what happens.

ZacharyThornton wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 9:43 am

RustBeltBass wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 9:09 am I’m really impressed with his generosity and willingness to share core concepts of his teaching philosophies, it’s super inspiring.
Not sure why they felt the need to have jazz music playing in the background throughout.

Because silence is weird.
People always have to find something to complain about. It is a free video done by a retailer and one of the best trombonist in the world and you complain about background music that is used to mask any awkward background noise or silences.
Sometimes when a person has criticism, it isn’t worth sharing.

I am happy you are enjoying the background music. Not sure how silence in a teaching video could possibly be considered to be weird, most videos I know of Mr. Markey or any other world class player giving educational videos do not have any sort of background music. Personally, I just thought it was making it a little bit more tricky for me to focus on the wisdom shared by this world class musician and teacher.

I think this video is basically a private lesson from Mr. Markey and is fantastic. Though he is half my age at least, I think his learning process of having to deal with this register was the same kind of process that I went through in my 20s.

Like him I found that flattening my chin, being facile with changing the mouthpiece placement between extreme registers, focusing on warmth core and brilliance of musical sound, and listening to other players and teachers to learn how to do this was very important. With his added advice of a patient approach to learning how to do this, I was able to have a very successful 50 year professional playing experience on the bass trombone

I was fortunate to hear George Roberts several times in person and to talk with him a few times as well. I learned more from listening to him then talking to him, I don’t think he really liked to talk about the mechanics of what he was doing. He just wanted it to be musical. I think Mr. Markey has that same kind of focus and undoubtedly he is one of the most musical bass trombone players on the planet right now.

His video validated my experimentation and learning of how to do things on the bass trombone that made me a professional for 50 years. Unfortunately, most of those years we did not have YouTube or emails or quick contact with other players. It was kind of experimentation, listening to recordings, and learning from other great players. Which I think is his basic message.

But he put it very clearly that you must be patient and analyze what you doing all the time in performance and practice.

In case some of you haven’t heard this, the original Josephine from All My Friends Are Trombone Players

Just watched this. Great video. Would be curious to hear from some of the Reinhardt method experts about Markey's embouchure. Is he a IIIA type?

EriKon wrote: ↑Tue Aug 08, 2023 2:59 pm IIIA

from the opposite of an expert, sure looks like it