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Welcome back to the studio!
Today we're going to discuss the alto trombone,
and how we transition from the tenor to the alto. The alto trombone is a unique
instrument. It's very close to halfway
in pitch between the trumpet and the tenor trombone,
and yet the instrument is played
exclusively by trombonists,
most of whom, perhaps nearly all of whom,
have started their journey playing the tenor trombone,
and it's also played with the trombone mouthpiece. Nevertheless,
you will find that the tonal approach to this instrument
is going to be much easier for you to assimilate,
when you think of it a little bit more
like a trumpet.
Now, for me, when I'm
practicing the alto trombone, there are a couple of words,
maybe three words that I like to think about
that help me to get this trumpetlike approach
to the alto. The first of these words
is brilliance.
These are just a few examples
of some trumpetlike licks, or
passages, or exercises, or whatever you like to call them,
that I might do to put my mind
into a trumpet player's state of mind,
and to work on my brilliance.
The production of brilliance in my sound. The second
of the words that I like to think about is lightness.
The trumpet is a light instrument in comparison to
tenor and certainly bass trombone. In comparison to the tuba,
the trumpet is very light, and so when we play
our alto, we can draw upon this.
One of the ways that I like to think about
lightness is in the tone.
Another way like to think about the lightness is in just the
aspect of my note choices, and the sort of
general feel that I get from
playing. That's something that can easily be done
with a simple phrase.
These are just a few things
that describe lightness. Now the last
of the three words that I like to use in my head
when I'm practicing my Alto is punchiness.
This is a word that, well, maybe doesn't
always work. Trumpet players might want to argue this,
and tell me, "no I'm not punchy", but,
as a trombonist, I have found that
trumpets sound punchier, and I think the size of the instrument
creates an attack that has a certain
edge to it that is just a little bit more
of a hard edge than what you get from a large instrument like a tuba.
With a tuba it's obvious. With a tenor trombone, you can also hear
that difference, and one of the things that
we're going to talk about today, is the difference in
that sort of punchy sound. This is a
an example.
Smaller horn means smaller approach. Smaller approach to the sound. Whereas the tubist,
and the bass trombonist, may be enunciating a deep
sound with a "toh" type of
articulation, and the tenor trombonist might be saying
"tah", the trumpet player is probably saying something like
"tu", and the alto has to be somewhere in between.
So, it's a little bit of a different kind of
mouth position.
And, so your mental vocalizations that are associated with the alto
should be a little different than when you're playing
the tenor.
So, when I do this,
I don't think about the same sort of
"tah-dah-dah-dah-dah" sound that I'd be getting
on the tenor trombone. I'm thinking more...
Smaller horn,
smaller sound concept.
The slide
movement on the alto needs to be faster
and more precise. Whereas
on the tenor you can get away with a little bit of
slop in your slide movement. You might even get away with moving it more slowly.
On the alto, and in that particular register,
the ear hears this kind of sloppy slide
movement as an obvious imperfection.
You need to work on getting your execution to be very quick,
very quick slight movement, and try to really nail it.
This is one of the things that's going to help you
get to the next level in your alto playing.
Now we come to the tongue. When articulating on the alto,
even if it's legato, I like to think of the tongue as
very sharp. The
tenor trombone should also be sharp.
the alto is sharper. The analogy is,
if the tenor trombone, when you're playing the tenor trombone,
the tongue is a pencil, on the alto it's a knife.
When you begin to think about this difference
in the sharpness of your tongue, you'll start to see
a difference in the sound of your alto playing,
and you will achieve the required lightness, brilliance
and punchiness that makes it into that instrument halfway between
the trombone and trumpet.
Let's review what we learned today.
I like to think about brilliance,
lightness, and
punchiness.
Smaller horn means smaller approach.
The slide movements
need to be faster and more precise.
For the alto,
the tongue must be sharper. Think of it
as the comparison between the point of a pencil
and the point of a knife.
I hope you've enjoyed our little alto excursion today. As always,
keep a watch on our YouTube page for additional master classes and
thanks for stopping by!