Advice on bass bone

[Tubaryan12]

tips or advice for teaching myself how to make the transition from valves to slide?

When I did it years ago I thought of each slide position as a fingering. Since I played BBb tuba 1st position on trombone I thought of as doing nothing and for BBb horn that is open, 2nd position I thought of as 2nd valve, third position as 1st valve and so on. Then play tuba parts on the trombone so you are familiar with the pitches. Practice slow and often.

[Joe Baker]

Arban's did more than anything to improve my slide and tonguing technique. I can't recommend it highly enough.

I also played all my tuba stuff on bass trombone. Like Ryan, I found it really valuable to link my trombone positions and fingerings so that I didn't even have to think about the link, it was just there. Of course, that won't work if you play CC tuba.
_____________________________
Joe Baker, who hasn't had a bass trombone available to him for almost 10 years, and really misses it.

[tubagirl5]

I think the advice of relating it to Bb is great and is exactly how I first thought of slide positions. I, now, play a c tuba so that wouldn't relate quite as well, but you get the idea.

The best thing for me to do when I first started doubling was to play tuba solos, etudes, etc. that were really familiar to me on the trombone, in a comfortable octave. Your ear will tell you exactly where the pitch should be because of your familarity with the pieces. You could also try playing scales using a drone to hear where the pitches slot. Obviously, you will have to take things really slow at first. It will come faster than you think. Slide positions are all relative to a certain degree. There is a lot of room in each position and you have to find where it sits for you: much like tuning slides being in different positions for each tuba player. Think of it as a long tuning slide.

[GC]

Remember to toss the slide from position to position with the wrist instead of dragging the slide from position to position with the forearm. You don't have to have instant transitions between positions most of the time, but you don't want to develop a habit of moving the slide slowly like it was lubed with molasses, either. Avoid glissing between notes like the plague unless it's written.

[MartyNeilan]

Biggest thing: Take lessons from a trombone teacher and make sure you are using a real bass trombone mouthpiece (sounds like you are, don't go the cut down tuba piece route.)

The trombone, even the bass trombone, is not a tuba so don't try to make it sound like one - strive for a focused and centered sound with color and clarity, not a spread woofy "slide tuba" sound.

Many trombonists are so hung up about the legato tonguing, but the real trick to legato on trombone is keeping the air completely smooth and constant throughout the phrase, without inadvertently huffing and puffing on each note. Practicing smearing a section first, then Da tongue it - this will help ensure an airflow without bumps or hiccups.

P.S. Don't Blat!!!!!!!!

[Wes Krygsman]

My girlfriend is a trombone player and I've heard alot about playing trombone so maybe I could help a little. Also, I just attended the Yamaha trombone day and there were 3 awesome clinics that I got alot out of. I enjoyed the Peter Sullivan(princ. of Pittsburgh) and Doug Yeo (bass bone of boston) clinics. I did miss the first one, but I'm sure it was great too. There was much said about the difference between playing valves and slides and just slide technique in general.

Doug Yeo talked about how you hold the horn with the left hand is the first step to technique. You need to find the most comfortable position for YOU to support the weight of the horn, whether it looks right or not. Then he moved on to the slide.

He talked about 2 different schools of slide technique. One is more of a jerk to each postion, stopping exactly at each one. The second one is a fluid motion, where the slide never technically stops moving except for longer notes. The first technique requires a tighter hand grip while the second one is usually loose. THEY BOTH SOUNDED THE SAME...but he said that he preferred to use the fluid one because he felt that the other one promoted tension in many parts of his body. His point was that both could work and you need to find what works for you.

The slurring thing was touched upon a few times by both speakers. They both said to move the slide as quickly as possible to avoid the mini glisses before notes. Peter Sullivan said to not even think about a "dah" tongue for slurs, just a little "blip" in the air.

Peter Sullivan also had a good exercise to get to know the slide positions and how they are relative to each other. I'll try to explain it, but showing you would be a million times easier. The first part is to go to the next position below. So for instance, 1st position-2nd-back up to 1st, then 2-3-2, 3-4-3, ...down to 6-7-6. Then you would start at 1st again, and go 2 positions down. So...1-3-1,2-4-2,3-5-3,...down to 5-7-5. The rest is easy to figure out, just put another half step/slide position between the note you start on and the lower note. 1-4-1 to 4-7-4,1-5-1 to 3-7-3, etc. Obviously, the more space you have between the positions, the less times you go through that, 1-7-1 would only be one time in other words.

I hope you could figure that out. I think sometimes I know more about trombone playing than tuba playing, yet I've never picked one up. One day I will though. Good luck, let me know if it helped at all or if you have any more questions. It would be good to know that I could use this info and teach other low brass students besides tuba.

[bigboom]

I started play trombone last year for jazz band to fill out some slots. I thought the hardest thing was opening a concert on trombone with the Jazz band and then playing the rest on the tuba. The thing that took me the longest was being able to switch and do it well. You might not be playing both in the same night but if you need to, practicing both at the same time and even playing your parts on both horns helped me with that. The last thing I have is it took me a lot of patience having to relearn slide positions until my embechure for bone settled. I still have tuning issues but not near as bad.

Ben

[tubeast]

I won´t go deeply into this, because I actually don´t play trombone at all. I just want to point this out so maybe someone knowledgeable can chime in.
One day on ITEC 2004 I tried out a cimbasso, and the gentleman in the booth took the time to give me a 15-minute private lesson right there. He had a few, simple suggestions for me that worked (and improved my playing) instantly and I still stick to them.
The cimbasso being sort of a valved bass trombone, he pointed out that tubists tend to alter their embouchure for most notes, which you´re NOT supposed to do on trombone.
He also had some comments on different, narrower air flow.

As mentioned in a recent thread of mine, I thought my tuba playing was effected positively by the trombone.

[MartyNeilan]

Great stuff, one more thing to add. Remember that positions vary slightly for each specific note. For example, 6 position on low F is usually not out quite as far as 6 position C. 5th position is slightly different for Gb vs. Db. 4th position G is often different from D and also from B. Every horn is different, but there are some general tendencies. Use your ears, and a tuner doesn't hurt any if you are just starting out.

Also, don't forget that positions get progressively longer when the F trigger is engaged. B natural is trigger FLAT 2 - I don't know how many tenor and bass trombone trombone players I have watched play an A scale wrong - starting from 2nd pos A then just throwing the trigger for the B. Nothing like going up a step and a quarter in a major scale!