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Re: Playing trombone

Author: blazian
Date: 2014-09-22 06:39

I've been playing trombone for a few years after my brass technique class but I haven't found any correlations between it and clarinet.

For starters, what equipment are you using? How much do you know about the overtone series?

Buzz with your mouthpiece only. Say "mmm" and force air through. Your teeth should be kept open. Your lips will be in the mouthpiece for the most part. Practice doing an octave siren up and down.

The pitch of the buzz is determined by the length of your lips that's vibrating, the amount of tension in them, and the amount of mass you use. Lower notes need more mass, more length, and less tension. As you use higher partials, you'll need to roll your lips in ever so slightly and buzz using a smaller area of your lips.

Low and high notes also are related to tongue and throat voicing. Think of how you whistle. You basically have an "oo" vowel going on for low notes and progress through "ah" and "ee" as you go higher.

To get good tone, start on a comfortable note (probably a Bb in the bass clef staff), and bend the pitch up and down (within 25 cents mostly) until you find the "sweet spot" where there is more resonance. That spot will give the best tone and it can be found on every partial. If you're not in tune, you can push in or pull out the tuning slide from that spot.

Here's a very basic video (that you may have progressed past already). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96nh3tfnKhk

If you want to take time to watch a thorough video, try this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fdhYpwAfr0

- Martin

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