The World Will Be OURS!!

So I've been elected as treasurer of the Commonwealth Brass Band, which is just another trombone player in a position of power. Little by little, we'll insinuate ourselves into the infrastructure of the world until it is OURS!! OURS I TELL YOU OURS!!! Trombone players will RULE THE WORLD!

Bad Habits

I see guys around me who aren't really bad players, but are a pain to sit next to because of some of the douchey things they do in rehearsal and while they're playing. Mostly just bad habits, these things can really improve the dynamic of the ensemble if you just think a little.

1. Don't play while your slide is moving! (unless it's some glissando effect written in the music) Yeah, that seems obvious but some players don't realize it. Lazy, glissy playing not only sounds bad, but it's out of tune too. One guy I see just doesn't land on the note - he eases his slide into the position and I don't think he realizes he's doing it and his intonation is terrible because of it. Maybe we should all video ourselves playing something simple and watch what's happening since we all have a cell phone with a camera. It'd be pretty easy to find out for sure.

2. Don't play so damn loud ALL THE TIME! The trombone is a loud instrument and has been getting louder due to the trend of building horns with bigger and bigger bores. A lot of players tend to just play loud all the time because they can and think everyone wants to hear how great they are or some other douchey reason, but if you play with some restraint, you not only save your chops, you're that much more dramatic when your awesome volume is called for.

3. Pay attention in rehearsal! Yeah, that means shut your pie hole and put your phone down. An old guy looking at Facebook and texting during rehearsal like a kid is pretty douchey, especially when he doesn't know where we are in the music because he wasn't paying attention. All the talking is the same - if you were running the rehearsal I'm sure you'd think it wasn't so harmless.

There are other things which I might add as I think of them, but these are the biggest things I consistently see around me in sections in which I play. I wouldn't mind if any dear readers of this would add things in comments if so inclined.

Slide Prep.

There are lots of opinions about which is the best slide lubricant and about as many on how to apply it. I use Trombontine and only apply a little bit to the inner slide stock and then work the outer slide over to distribute it. If the slide doesn't seem super fast at that point, I'll wipe off the inner slide and spray with water. Before I do that though, I'll clean the inner and outer slide well, using a cleaning rod with a cloth worked back and forth inside the outer slide until warm for each tube. I've tried the Yamaha stuff and it seems to just slide off the metal like snot and did use Superslick for a long time before that, but found Trombotine to be more durable and slicker.

Spit? No, not really....

So, when you open your spit valve, water key, or whatever you want to call it and all that liquid comes pouring out onto the floor or where ever it is that you let it drain, is it spit? How could it be? Wouldn't your horn be nasty if you spit in it all the time? I'd think it would become disgusting in a hurry because spit is pretty gross even if you're pretty hygienic. It's just distilled water from your breath! How could it be anything else unless you purposely slobber while you're playing, but if you think about it, the water never leaves a stain unless it soaks into the wood, but even then there's not much and it never smells, has no color, texture, bubbles (like when you spit? am I right?), so yeah, it's just water... unless you're pretty tanked, then it might be moonshine......

Hipster Tromboning

In light of the hipster trend of growing a full beard and the fading trend of having a goatee, I have a hard time playing if I’m not clean shaven. I seem to have a poor seal against the mouthpiece and wondering if other guys have the same problem.

By the way, I shave with Harry's shaving products. Reasonably priced, high performance and stylish.

5CL

Today has been kind of a breakthrough day on the new mouthpiece. It’s been a week I guess now and at first I could feel the potential but my performance on the Christian Lindberg 5CL was kind of weak. It was really easy to get a buzzy sound, precision wasn’t as good, and notes down below F in the staff were kind of dead, but my upper range took much less effort and it seemed much easier to play in tune.  I’ve been playing some almost every day on it and today it just opened up. Popping out notes around high Bb without praying is easy and my fat sound is back for the most part. It still isn’t as dark as on the Giddings & Webster (kind of a Bach 5G New York) but it’s a full sound and it’s getting better every time I play. I think the people who got one and hated it just didn’t give it enough time. Sitting on the shelf or playing the part of a paper weight is way beneath this fantastic piece of equipment. Then again, maybe it’s not for everyone… who knows, but I’m loving it.

Playing Prep.

One of the things I like to do to prepare for a rehearsal is that an our or so before hand, I’ll take a couple of ibuprofen along with a couple of Sudafed. This helps reduce inflammation, which can affect your lip when you’ve been playing for a while and also to help open the airway and aid breathing.