1001 – BrassWorkBook for Alto Trombone

Roger Harvey

Price: £20.00

Contents:

Preface
The Alto Trombone
Chapter 1 – Basic Exercises
Chapter 2 – Tuning and slide movement
Chapter 3 – High register
Chapter 4 – Clefs
Chapter 5 – Excerpts
Chapter 6 – Etudes

The approach to the practice of the alto trombone.

Nowadays it is desirable that any adequate orchestral trombonist is able to play the alto trombone decently, even if he/she has a very good high register on the tenor. He sound of the instrument and its relative weight in the texture make it much better suited to certain repertoire.

Although the instrument is in essence simply a smaller version of the familiar tenor, it will pay any player to devote some time to learn how differently it blows, making sure of accurate pitching and tuning and mastering fluent reading. There is nothing worse for a normally confident player than sitting in an orchestral concert, half-prepared on a relatively strange instrument! Suddenly it doesn’t seem like such a good idea after all.

Rather than simply practicing the part you are about to play, and many of us have learned to survive by doing just this, it is much more beneficial and ultimately rewarding to become comfortable with the instrument in a much more all rounded manner; the exercises here are to help with this objective.

It is assumed that the player is already aware of how to work on basic embouchure formation, production, legato and breath control. The exercises here should be used to develop a familiarity with the particular feel of the instrument and its tuning, to strength the high register, to become adept at reading in different clefs and to learn some of the repertoire.

It is a good idea to practice the alto on a regular basis, however infrequently you need to use it. Once you have started to get the feel of the instrument, keep it ticking over and gradually build your confidence on it so that you are not starting from scratch net time you need it. The instrument should begin to feel as natural as the tenor. Then you can enjoy playing it rather than struggling with it.

There is a marked lack of remarks about music and musicianship in this book. The task in hand is largely technical but it is essential that the desire to feel comfortable playing the instrument is entirely so that that you can then perform the music in a more confident and considered manner. Although this is somewhat taken for granted here, it should always be borne in mind.