Recruiting and Retaining Trombone Players
Deal with the myths The trombone is hard The trombone is too big or too heavy The trombone is a boy s instrument The trombone doesn t play melodies Others?
Too Hard? It s no harder than any of the other instruments Kids believe you when you have them try it. Usually a quick blast on the horn gets them over that myth. Praise early and often.
Too big, too heavy Find the smallest person in the room, hand them the trombone (make a show of this), when explaining how heavy it is, let go of it and leave them standing with the instrument. Wow! Do you lift weights? Have the kid pump the instrument a few times for effect.
The trombone is a boy s instrument Abbie Conant Dorothy Ziegler Rebecca Cheriah Susan K. Smith Jan Kagarice Melba Liston Donna Parks And many, many more.
Trombone Doesn t Play Melodies Yes, the trombone is a melodic instrument Play a melody on the trombone for them Program music for your bands that feature the trombone or at least allows for them to play something other than a whole note in 6 th position! Pep band, marching band, jazz band? Use them to prove your point more on that later
Others What trombone myths do you encounter? Whatever they are, be prepared with a quick and easy counterview. People have opinions about the trombone In the neighborhood where I grew up, most of the kids were in band and most of them played trombone, including my brother. My mom wanted me to play football or the French horn.
Who should play the trombone Characteristics of a great trombone player Strong enough to hold the instrument in the left arm Good ear Full lips Fairly straight teeth Quick wit aka smart aleck Seriously, you have to have a quick mind to play the trombone
Retention Once you ve got them playing trombone, how do you keep them?
Keep them Interested Keeping kids in band is a complicated issue Approximately half of all rental trombones are returned within 1 year! WHY?
1 st mistake Sit them in the back row beside the percussionists Break the 11 th Commandment Put the trombones in the front row Or utilize one of an infinite varieties of seating charts
2 nd Mistake Pick music for your beginning band that has a terrible trombone part. You know the piece. It s in C minor and the trombone part has nothing but C, F, and G whole notes. The trombone section tries for a while but it s so bad that you ignore it and them.
Why kids quit? Type quit band into a search engine and take 20 minutes to read the results, it s fascinating. In general you discover from kids who quit: They think they are terrible at the chosen instrument Were made to play something they didn t want Their parents were tired of taking them to practice or else tired of spending the time and the money Their director doesn t like them or they don t like their director If not that, another interest and/or lack of schedule flexibility
Control what you can Teach every instrument intentionally. 1. The trombone is a special instrument and requires special considerations 2. Make sure the students enjoy their chosen instrument and encourage them often 3. Develop a relationship with every student 4. They joined band to play music not listen to an adult talk at them
A Few Solutions for the trombone
Good Pedagogy If you want them to know it, you have to teach it Everything about the trombone is weird and most things about trombonists are equally weird. You have to be intentional
It is an awkward instrument The entire weight of the instrument is supported in the left hand. Always the left hand and only the left hand. Keep the horn off the floor, never rest the slide on the floor. The slide will start to get bowed legs like a cowboy.
Slide Technique Hand placement on the slide 1. Use only the thumb, forefinger and middle finger of the right hand 2. Hold the slide near the bottom slide tube, on the slide brace 3. Push the slide out with the thumb 4. pull the slide in with your middle and forefingers
A note on instrument care And we have all been guilty of some variation of this. Kid says their instrument doesn t work. You quickly look over and decide that it will work and tell them to sit down. Reality, the instrument has a minor problem that isn t catastrophic yet. The problem grows, the kid gets frustrated and the issue snowballs into a full-fledged problem Make sure the slide is always working properly, check everyone weekly it s quick and easy to do this. When you encounter any sticky-ness address it ASAP I worked at Don Wilson between graduate school and teaching. One of my jobs was processing rental returns everyone instrument I processed had a playability issue. Everyone.
Tone Quality Most beginning band students take their director s word as literal truth. Tell them to buzz the mouthpiece and they do that. BUZZZZZZZZZZZ. Reality is, that isn t the sound you want to hear on the mouthpiece. If you do, the center of the lips are too tight! I call it mouthpiece solfeggio and I ask them to play a beautiful sound on the mouthpiece alone. I would rather hear all air then the super BUZZZZZZZZZZZ.
Mouthpieces The Trombone is not the Euphonium Bigger isn t better Bach 6 ½ is big enough and is sometimes too big 12C is too small Find something in between, I really like the Yamaha 48 and Bach (like) 7C Find what works for each individual
Embouchure Say Ah Shape your mouth M Blow 3 types of embouchures (Reinhardt and Farkas) Very high placement (downstream) Medium high placement (downstream) Low placement (upstream) For a very thorough discussion of this, check out http://www.wilktone.com/
Air Breathing Gym The Singing Approach to the Trombone Anything written about Arnold Jacobs Brian Fredericksen s website and materials are great http://www.windsongpress.com/
Slide Placement Many great trombone sections look at their slides for time and placement. In regards to slide placement, please understand that 2 nd and 5 th position are difficult to find Electrical tape helps 2nd position Eyes and ears help 5th
Articulation Tah Dah
Slurs Tongue slurs: Legato tongue Too-loo, Dah-lah, etc. Natural slurs Ascending pitch and pushing the slide out Descending pitch and pulling the slide in Basically a lip slur while moving the slide
Flexibility Lip slurs are very important to teach early and to spend time on them everyday. One of my favorite exercises for full band.
My Checklist Sit Tall? Head straight? Weight in the left hand? Elbows away from body? Right hand and wrist? Shoulder moving? Mouthpiece placement? Corners firm? Center of the embouchure relaxed? Open mouth? Deep breath? Good tone? Focused air blowing a dart?
The F-attachment When should a kid get an instrument with one? As early as possible. I like the Yamaha YSL-448G as a 1 st F-attachment horn,.547 bore, 8.5 bell, approximately $1,500.00 What does it do and how do you use it? Simply, this gives the player 2 horns in one. Horn players think like this more than trombone players.
F-attachment Trombonists get relief from 6 th and 7 th position stretches. The valve also adds notes not available on the straight horn. Tuning to F gives you: Most players I know, tune to C:
The Bass Trombone This is a special topic for another clinic. But a note, the bass trombone has to be one of the neatest most fascinating instruments created. There are limitless tuning possibilities and every high school band should try to get one in the inventory and teach a kid how to play it well.
Keeping Trombone Players and getting them into the High School Band
Why Marching Baritones? I get it but only a little Just because Drum Corps do it doesn t mean High School kids should I ask everyone to make any instrument switch after careful consideration and planning
If marching baritone The two instruments are different, complimentary but different. Do the best to get the same exact mouthpiece rim diameter and shape and strive for a similar cup depth. The instruments blow differently, communicate that early. Create trombone moments in the semester, if not the show. Stand tunes that feature the trombone, using them in parades this does a lot for recruiting.
A story A band director wants to recruit trombone players because their aren t any in the band They decide taking the jazz band to the feeder school is a great idea The jazz band performs Awesome sax solos, amazing, mindblowing solos from the drummer and the guitar player it s awesome
Guess What? The next week at the rental meeting The kids want to play the sax, drums, or guitar!!! They want to play what looks cool. Good luck making the trombone look cool