Trombone Wisdom

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tbdana
Posts: 1928
Joined: Apr 08, 2023

by tbdana »

Whether pedagogy, mythology, metaphors, parables, cautionary tales, quips, alliterations, poems or humorous observations, give us your trombone wisdom. I'll start with a couple quick lines:

Easy isn't easy, and hard isn't hard.

Any idiot can play loud. You find out who is good when the music gets soft.
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Doug_Elliott
Posts: 4155
Joined: Mar 22, 2018

by Doug_Elliott »

Tuning is a myth.
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LetItSlide
Posts: 152
Joined: Sep 01, 2022

by LetItSlide »

Play happy.
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harrisonreed
Posts: 6479
Joined: Aug 17, 2018

by harrisonreed »

There's generally less necessity to lower the third than you've been trained to do. In fact, melodically speaking it's usually wrong.

Harmonically speaking, different story.
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Fidbone
Posts: 383
Joined: Apr 24, 2018

by Fidbone »

It’s just a trombone <EMOJI seq="1f923" tseq="1f923">🤣</EMOJI>
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stewbones43
Posts: 333
Joined: Oct 25, 2018

by stewbones43 »

You can programme a clockwork monkey to play faster and faster but it takes a real musician to play a slow ballad.
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tbdana
Posts: 1928
Joined: Apr 08, 2023

by tbdana »

A link Bob Sanders sent me this morning that contains some good wisdom (as his whole interesting website does), especially for community players. Here it is:

https://bobsanders.net/swindlesmanship.html
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Crazy4Tbone86
Posts: 1654
Joined: Jan 14, 2020

by Crazy4Tbone86 »

“Using your air properly does solve about 95% of all problems.”

I was told this hundreds of times when I was a student. Unfortunately, I was not advanced enough to understand and apply it.

There should have been a preface stating……. When you have reached an advanced level of playing, then using air properly solves about 95% of all problems.

Let’s face it…….you can use your air support properly, but it will not do anything to fix your wrong pitches, rhythms, articulations, etc…..
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sirisobhakya
Posts: 445
Joined: Jun 11, 2018

by sirisobhakya »

Counter-inituitively, playing high softly is much easier than playing it loud.
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iranzi
Posts: 209
Joined: Jan 30, 2024

by iranzi » (edited 2024-10-19 1:43 p.m.)

deleted:
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iranzi
Posts: 209
Joined: Jan 30, 2024

by iranzi » (edited 2024-10-20 11:36 p.m.)

deleted
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AndrewMeronek
Posts: 1487
Joined: Mar 30, 2018

by AndrewMeronek »

If you hear yourself in balance with everyone else, you're not playing piano.
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Kbiggs
Posts: 1768
Joined: Mar 24, 2018

by Kbiggs »

Slow practice makes fast progress.
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TomWest
Posts: 73
Joined: Apr 04, 2023

by TomWest »

[quote="Kbiggs"]Slow practice makes fast progress.[/quote]

+1<EMOJI seq="1f44d" tseq="1f44d">👍</EMOJI>
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Cmillar
Posts: 439
Joined: Apr 24, 2018

by Cmillar »

"There are many roads to Rome"

This well known quote was shared with me during a lesson with Dave Robbins.

Dave (former lead trombone of choice of Harry James, LA studio player in the late 40's-50's, principal tbone Vancouver Symphony in '60's, arranger extraordinaire, etc.) had at one time been freelancing with different orchestras in addition to his work with James in LA at the Palladium in the early '50's.

When he played principal trombone in the Denver Symphony, they were playing a piece by Charles Ives.

On the 1st trombone part (which was very difficult according to Dave, so it must have been!) Ives had hand-written the quote "There are many roads to Rome", signed by the composer.

Dave said he also took this as a reminder that a composer should never underestimate the ability of any musician to 'play the part', no matter what you write for them. They'll figure out a way to make it work if they're a good musician.
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atopper333
Posts: 377
Joined: Mar 09, 2022

by atopper333 »

[quote="Kbiggs"]Slow practice makes fast progress.[/quote]

+2

“Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.”
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CBlair
Posts: 32
Joined: Jun 15, 2019

by CBlair »

A sign in a local university trombone studio -

"Don't work harder, play easier."