I practice my legato and made a recording. Comments?

[imsevimse]

Hello

I practice my legato and made a first post of it here: http://www.trombonechat.com/viewtopic.p ... 305#p62238

As of 13:th of July I made a recording to document the progress on my legato. I will do more recordings later on. Hopefully the recordings will show I do better and better.

Here is the 1:st link to document my studies on legato: https://soundcloud.com/user-796193724/a ... mouthpiece

Comments?

A week ago I read Walter Barrets document on how to practice legato http://trombone.org/jfb/library/jfb-legato.asp I thought that was a good help. He talked about doing it in steps. To practice the different types of legato that exists without tongue. The different types will sound different in the beginning because they are done different. In some case there will be smears when you play without tongue and in some cases there will be a bump ("click" or "puff" sound) when you play against the grain. Blow through the legatos but try to do them as smooth as possible to minimize those problems. Always keep a consistent airstream. Next step would be to add a light tongue to make both kinds of legato perfect and sound the same. You shall not be able to tell one from the other. No bumps and no smear.

This is the different types of legato we need to practice without tongue:
1) Lip-slurs which is slotting without moving the slide, 2) playing cross the grain moving slide out to get higher and 3) in to get lower, 4) playing legato step wise up while moving the slide in and 5) step wise down while moving the slide out.

When every type works smoothly you add the tongue to make them sound the same.

I have practiced my legato for about three weeks now on a collection of Swedish folk songs I know from memory. I play them in all keys and focus on making a better legato. I decided to post the latest recording to get some feedback. I play the song twice. First time with no tongue except first note in every phrase. The second time with a little legato tongue and also added a little vibrato.

I use my Kanstul KBT-760 tenor (.500/.530) and my Hammond 12M mouthpiece. For the recording I use a Zoom H6 because it is very easy to operate.

/Tom

[VJOFan]

You have a very nice sound and I love the song you play on the recording.

For my taste, even when you add some tongue, there is too much glissando effect between notes. My choice for legato is to make it sound like a wind player with keys or valves playing with no tongue:very connected but not smeared at all. Further, all pitches have very similar articulations in my ideal legato.

Also, just my taste, I would start the vibrato later in each note. Let the sound settle in before warming it up a little.

It is pleasant to listen to you and you should be commended for putting yourself out here for all to hear.

[imsevimse]

Thanks for the comments.

I think the perfect legato is perfect when all the different trombone-specific legato types sound the same and no one can tell if the legato is done "against the grain" (up or down) or if it is a stepwise descending legato when slide goes out or if it is vice versa .

The ideal legato is not a smear and not a bump, it is a smooth flow of notes where the listner can not tell what technique is used.

/Tom