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My favorite position in a string quartet is viola. The part is not as hard, and I can sit and listen to what is going on around me and just enjoy. In a brass quintet I like to play euph on the trombone part.....same general idea, although the tbone parts can be challenging.

I understand why people say don't tap your foot, and as for myself, I try avoid it. But there are a lot of really fine players who tap and it obviously hasn't held them back. I saw a concert of the Lincoln Center Chamber Players and the first violin was tapping BOTH feet.

Hup

Many years ago I picked up the odd habit of tapping my HEEL, but only when playing trad jazz (foot tapping is not uncommon when playing this style of music, even by non-amateurs) and then only if the music is really moving me - or if I'm trying to drive the rest of the rythym section

No tapping for any other kind of music.

Three Valves wrote:Are viola players really worse than French horn players??

Yes and no.

The conductor of the local orchestra I play in is very against toe tapping. He said his main concern is always that when he sees it, he sees and hears several different beats going on, and we're not together. Leaning to focus on the conductor means you never have to worry about where the beat is.

Also, the people who move too much when they play drive me insane, so I am thankful trombones in general don't do that.

tbonesullivan wrote:The conductor of the local orchestra I play in is very against toe tapping. He said his main concern is always that when he sees it, he sees and hears several different beats going on, and we're not together. Leaning to focus on the conductor means you never have to worry about where the beat is.

Also, the people who move too much when they play drive me insane, so I am thankful trombones in general don't do that.

You are right----trombonists tend not to move around a lot. I can remember one exception, however. I was playing in an Army band once wherein the bass trombonist was the world-class player, Stuart Dempster. The guy was a clown at heart and loved to attract attention to himself. He was a shi--ty soldier, but a real entertainer. He could have had a great instrument provided by the Army, but he chose to use his old antique British G bass trombone-----the one with the ridiculous handle mechanism on the slide to reach out for the long positions. It was funny to watch him play with the handle in operation. He also loved to make fart sounds during rehearsals and, with artful use of the slide, mimic a drunken sailor stumbling down the alley. Stuart, often in trouble with Army officers, was not a gung ho warrior type guy. Rather, his humorous free spirit endeared him to all his fellow bandsmen. He later became professor of trombone at University of Washington in Seattle.

Ace

Ace