TromboneChat

Any thoughts about Teele routines on tenor?

Take them up an octave?

Just play lots of pedals in the lowest registers?

Fugeddaboudit. Pointless waste of time and air?

I have played some of the exercises from the Teele(sp?) book on tenor, and I have modified them slightly - playing less repetitions, and not spending quite as much time the extreme low range. I did go as low as possible however, and I did find them to be useful. I would guess that they are even more useful on bass trombone, but I found that spending some time with his routine builds strength in the chops. For me, balancing those exercises with standard stuff like Remington and Schlossberg worked well. His exercises are helpful, and I think they have some merit for tenor trombonists as well as bass, but I wasn't completely comfortable with spending that much time in the extreme low register. Others might be comfortable playing his entire book on tenor - I don't think there's anything that could hurt one's playing. It was eye opening for me to discover that long tones in the pedal range were good for my chops - I'd recommend the book just for that.

Jim Scott

Paul Kemp, Jr., trombonist in the Chattanooga TN area, adapted the Teele routine for tenor trombone. For a while his book was available on Amazon. It’s a little different than Teele’s rotation—he has a 5-day rotation instead of 3, he includes some Schlossberg and Remington studies, etc.

Anything new to get you practicing and can positively influence your playing is a worthwhile endeavor!

I really like them. I found that they had the most benefit for me when I got into the logic of what's meant to be played open, with 1 valve, and with 2. When I stick to the open and 1 valve I find I get the most out of them.