Recruiting and Retaining Trombonists in the Band Program The Basics

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Recruiting and Retaining Trombonists in the Band
ProgramThe Basics!

• Presented by
• Robert Kehle
• Pittsburg State University
• At the Kansas Music Educators In-Service Workshop
• February 24, 2006 245-335
• Century II Room 206
• Wichita, Kansas
• This program has been made possible through a
  grant from C. G. Conn.

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Robert Kehlerkehle_at_pittstate.edu

• - University Professor of Music _at_ Pittsburg State
  University
• - Principle Trombone with the Springfield, MO
  Symphony Orchestra
• - Trombonist with the PSU Brass Quintet
• - Artist/clinician with C. G. Conn
• - Degrees in Music Education and Trombone
  Performance from
• Washington State University
• Indiana University

• Studied trombone with
• Mr. M. Dee Stewart (Philadelphia Sym. Orch.)
• Dr. S. Thomas Beversdorf (Pittsburgh Sym.)
• Mr. Keith Brown (Philadelphia Sym. Orch.)
• Mr. Ed Kleinhammer (Chicago Sym.)

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THE BASICS

• It is how you get better.
• Accept no substitute.

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Breath support

• The alternative to breathing is not very
  pleasant.
• This should be a natural process unfortunately
  we often make it harder.
• Never stop talking about it.
• AIR, AIR, AIR, AIR, AIR, AIR, AIR, AIR, AIR

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AIR

• In order to improve
• the playing of a
• student we must
• concentrate on the
• critical factors of
• playing.
• AIR is 1.

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AIR

• The diaphragm works
• like a bellows. It
• sucks air in and the
• result is an expansion
• of the lungs as the
• diaphragm moves
• downward.

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Diaphragm

• Centrum tendineum
• the chest
• Diaphragm

• at inhalation
• at expiration

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AIR

• Do not let the shoulders rise unduly as this
  just creates tension in the upper body and lungs.
  
• Tension Tight sound

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AIR Reasons we cut back on the air.

• Long phrases.
• Seeing how long we can play.
• Super soft playing.

• These result in a
• reduction of air to
• the embouchure
• therefore, the
• Embouchure shuts
• down and we lose
• the pitch and tone.

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AIR Proper air.

• Demonstration techniques
• The Yawn.
• Breathe in on HAW.
• The nose breath.
• Normal breathing.
• 5. A poke in the ribs.

• Exercises
• Inhale on a MOE for a 4 count exhale on TOE for
  a 4 count.
• Do not hold it in!

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AIR

• To open the oral cavity
• Breathe through a paper towel tube or place 2
  fingers in your mouth. The throat is an extension
  of the tube.
• 2. Say in a regular beat ee, ah, oh, ee, ah,
  oh then inhale through the larger oral cavity.

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AIR
It should be like a circle or swing, in and out.

• Inhale
• Exhale

The inhalation and exhalation should be one
complete process. Do not hold the air in as it
creates tension.
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Air the Exhalation

• To help a student
• achieve a
• continuous full
• exhalation try the
• pinwheel
• demonstration.
• Blow at the pinwheel and keep the wheel moving.

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Breathing Problems

• 1. Noisy inhalation (especially a high sound) is
  a symptom of tension and constriction. Try
  lowering and relaxing the tongue.
• 2. Make sure that the student is not using the
  breath as a chance to change the embouchure in
  different registers.
• 3. Air blockage is a common problem. Often we
  tighten up in the throat or upper chest and in so
  doing we compensate by forcing the air. In
  reality what we have done is to constrict the
  airflow.
• 4. As a good rule, breathe early rather than
  waiting for the last second to breathe. Late
  inhalations are often tight and forced.
• 5. Breathe in time with the music. One beat or
  two, depending on the tempo will help relax the
  drawing of the breath and help you feel the tempo
  and beat.
• The shoulders should stay calm and not rise up.
• 7. Grunting sounds usually indicate that the
  player is constricting the throat.

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Air the Inhalation

• Using inspired volume measuring devices can help
  measure the amount of air taken in.
• These are used in hospitals.

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AIR Posture
When standing, stand tall with the legs slightly
apart. Not rigidly at attention as shown.
If you slouch you will not be able to breathe
properly.
Playing over the top of the stands can cause
incorrect embouchures
Sit up straight, but relaxed. Not at attention
as shown.
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AIR Posture

• NEVER do this!
• For marching band you
• may need to tilt back
• slightly in order to get
• the horns up. It is a
• necessary evil, but a
• more normal
• posture following the
• lines of the teeth is
• best.

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Mouthpiece Angle

• Follow the teeth.
• The horn is straight out
• and look at the
• mouthpiece seal, or
• lack of proper seal.

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Holding the instrument,it makes a difference

• The left hand forms
• a L or gun.
• This is what it
• should look like.

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The Bad Slide Hand
The claw
The finger
Hold that bell, NOT!
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Embouchure

• There is nothing wrong with your chops, your
  mind is messing them up.
• Paraphrase from Bud Herseth, Chicago Symphony

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Embouchure

• Various ways to discuss
• the embouchure.
• 1. Saying M.
• 2. A straw in the mouth.
• 3. Say Beau-ty and hold on Beau.

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Embouchure

• Keep the corners
• down.
• 1. Pretend that you have dental floss across the
  teeth and pull down the corners.
• 2. Think of an anchor on both sides of the mouth.

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Embouchure

• The puffy cheeks
• Trombonists need to anchor the
• corners of the mouth, hold the
• cheeks against the teeth, but not
• rigidly, and minimize the puffing.
• The bunched chin
• Keep the chin flat, especially
• as you ascend. Look in a
• mirror as you practice and be
• aware.

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Embouchureand Pressure

• Left-handed embouchure.
• Let me cram the mouthpiece through the back of
  my face, says the masochist.
• Try pressing your thumb against the lower
• edge of the front teeth. Now look at the
• indentation in the thumb. Imagine what
• this is like to the soft lip tissue.
• Ring on the lips.
• If the lips become swollen it is a result of poor
  circulation.

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Embouchureand Pressure

• An improper balance between the airflow and the
  lips.
• It often results in tension in either the chest,
  throat, or both.

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Embouchureand Pressure

• The smile
• Embouchure
• creates
• a set of thin lips.

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EmbouchurePressure Fixes

• 1. Make sure the air is there for the lips.
  Double check the breathing process.
• 2. Consciously strive to pull the horn away from
  the lips without losing the basic seal needed to
  play.
• 3. Make sure the lips are not thin in the
  mouthpiece. There needs to be a lip cushion, but
  too much will result in a stuffy sound.
• Air takes the stress off the embouchure...
• Norman Bolter, Boston Symphony, master class
  October 2, 1991

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Embouchure

• If the student tends to drop off from one note
  to a lower harmonic it may be due to not having
  enough lip in the mouthpiece.
• The drop off can also be the result of the air
  velocity dropping in intensity. Use the block of
  air or sound concept
• The same can be true if there is difficulty in
  starting the note or keeping on pitch.

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Embouchure building

• The best way to build up the
• embouchure and increase
• endurance is to do
• 1. Lip slurs.
• 2. Flexibility studies.
• 3. Mouthpiece buzzing (in moderation).

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Tone and the Mouth Cavity

• The mouth cavity should not be
• closed rather it should be in a
• slightly open fashion.
• Try closing your lips and let the
• jaw hang dont close the teeth.

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Tone Results from

• Proper Air.
• An open mouth cavity. Remember let the jaw hang
  open.
• A solid tone concept.
• Good equipment. (There are some slides at the end
  of the presentation that deal with this topic.)
• The horn is a megaphone for us.
• Eric Cress, Co-principle Trombone with the London
  Symphony Orchestra.

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Articulations

• Attacks are the first thing people hear of your
  sound.
• Jay Friedman, Chicago Symphony

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Articulations TONGUE CHART

• Tu a defined start to the note
• Do a soft attack
• Thu a softer attack
• Lu an unaccented articulation. The notes butt
  up against each other for a very smooth legato
  sound

• This creates a space between notes.
• This allows for long notes and less space.
• Almost a legato articulation with virtually no
  space between notes.
• The true legato tongue.

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Articulations

• Stop tongue
• This is where the player ends the note with the
  tongue. Brass players do not do this as it
  usually causes a disruption of the tone. It most
  often produces a toowhat sound.
• To fix the problem liken it to blowing out a
  match or candle. You just stop blowing and use a
  burst of air timed the proper length to get the
  job done.

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Articulations

• The square root sign and/or ballooning the note.
• Do not allow the air to drop after the
  articulation like a square root sign.
• This will result in a doowa type of sound.
• b. The balloon is similar in that. The player
  pushes off the end of the note with a crescendo.

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Articulations

• No tongue
• This is where the student has learned to play the
  note without starting with an articulation.
  Somewhere along the line they didnt hear and
  retain the concept of articulations.
• To fix this you will need them to do what I call
  beat the head against the wall practice. This
  is where the student must practice with a tu or
  du articulation on various notes and ranges
  over and over and over and over ... again. DO NOT
  HOLD THE AIR IN BEFORE STARTING THE NOTE.
  Remember it is one process of in and out.
• It is great TV commercial practice time.

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Articulations

• Legato tongue
• This is by far the hardest aspect of trombone
  articulation.
• The slide must be very fast. Tell them 100 MPH.
• 1. The slide must work correctly.
• 2. Practice by glissing between the notes. Make
  it so fast that you can barely hear the slide.
• 3. Use a thu tongue to begin with. This is
  close to a true legato and works well in
  ensembles.
• 4. Once the thu works then deal with the lu
  tongue.
• Make it happen on the note F then add chromatic
• Add motion.

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Articulations

• Multiple tongue
• An alternation between
• tu ku or du gu.
• Practice saying it, but use the air too.

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Tone

• In my opinion, the trombone is the true head of
  the family
• of wind instruments, which I have named the
  epic one. It
• possesses nobility and grandeur to the highest
  degree it
• has all the serious and powerful tones of sublime
  musical
• poetry, from religious, calm and imposing accents
  to
• savage, orgiastic outbursts. Directed by the will
  of the
• master, the trombones can chant like a choir of
  priests,
• threaten, utter gloomy sighs, a mournful lament,
  or a
• bright hymn of glory they can break forth into
  awe
• inspiring cries and awaken the dead or doom the
  living
• with their fearful voices.
• Hector Berlioz, 19th Century composer

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Range

• - The primary key to range is AIR.
• The air must be faster and more compact as you go
  higher.
• - One way to speed up the air is by changing the
  mouth cavity by using the syllable dee as
  opposed to doo.
• - The air column must change like a camera lens
  reducing in size due to increased lighting.
• - Lip slurs are a must in order to improve range.

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Intonation

• There is no substitute for tuner practice.
• Train the student to listen for the beats.
• Problem with being flat?
• If the tuning slide is way out it is usually a
  symptom of someone trying to play with his or her
  lips apart. Make sure the air separates the lips.

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Intonation

• Use easy, but fun music that includes a CD play
  along to assist in early intonation building.
• Here are a couple of examples I like.
• Tons of Tunes published by Curnow Music
• Double Dip duets published by Club Hip-Bone

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Warm-up

• A warm-up to a brass
• player is like a warm
• up is to a runner. You
• do not run flat out
• without stretching and
• getting the muscles
• functioning. The
• same is true for the
• trombone.

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Warm-up

• Get the air moving! Use breathing exercises.
• Play semi-long tones. 4 beats at q 60
• Use scales and arpeggios for articulation work.
• Play lip slurs.
• 5. Try some mouthpiece buzzing as they mature.

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Warm-up - Fun stuff

• Use easy childrens tunes to help warm-up and to
  begin to deal with improvisation.
• a. Mary Had a Little Lamb
• b. Old MacDonald

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Warm-up - Fun stuff

• Have the students play childrens tunes.
• Do not tell them the key. Just let them go
• by giving them a starting note. They will
• explore and learn new notes on their
• own.
• This is a beginning improvisation
• technique.

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Equipment Recommendations

• Most new beginning horns are at least OK.
• Things to look for
• A slide grip that is not one piece.
• You get what you pay for.
• Used horns
• Does the slide work correctly.
• 2. Are there large dents on the horn.
  Particularly check the slide and tuning slide
  bows for dents.

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Equipment Recommendations.Mouthpieces.

• To start on a 12C
• (Bach designation) is
• fine, but switch them as
• soon as possible to a
• 6½ AL. Middle school
• or by high school is a
• good time to switch.
• The 6 ½ AL will take
• more AIR, but it opens
• up the sound.

Mouthpiece Trueing Tool
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Equipment MaintenanceThese are problems.
Slide width http//www.slidedr.com/
Stuck slide http//www.oberloh.com/SPL/spl1.htm
Sprung slide http//www.slidedr.com/
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Repairmen

• There are lots of
• fine and qualified
• repairmen.
• They should not use
• an expander to
• remove slide dents.
• That is model T
• equipment. Ask
• them about it.

I use the Slide Doctor John Upchurch.
http//www.slidedr.com/
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Slide LubricantsOil

• A great way to slick up a tile floor.
• Your custodian will love to have it on the floor!
• Give it to the trumpet players.

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Slide Lubricants3 good 1 bad
Super Slick
Slide-O-Mix
Trombontine
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Thank you.

• Blee a Blee a Blee
• thats all folks!