Happy long weekend!  I will be away next week, but Jessica Ly will be in as a substitute teacher.  I hope you enjoy working with her.

Paul

It’s great to see that you are now moving through the fingerings for the B flat major scale fluently. Keep  practising it both slurred and tongued, and with articulated rhythm (4 eighth notes and a half note) on each note of the scale.  Good work on keeping the mouthpiece in place as you move up in register – I’m glad to hear things are feeling easier with this in mind!  Add F major into the mix this week, too.

Working on your music for class, playing the rhythm on one note is a good exercise.  Following that, reading the music, verbalizing the rhythm, and going through the fingerings in time is a great way to work on coordination.  Start this slowly, and bring it up to tempo once you are comfortable.

I’ll look forward to seeing you again in two weeks.

Martin

Nice work on lip slurs this week.  Keep at it.  Work on slurring from low F to C in 6th position, and once you’ve arrived at the C, and then re-articulate the C.  Carry on moving up the slide positions, to B flat and F in first position.  Remember to keep tall, open posture, no matter if you are standing or sitting, and to bring the trombone to you.  Following the slur exercise, come in on the second partial notes (C in 6th position, up to F in first position), and practice the slurs going the other way, from high to low, as well.  Pay attention to sound, and the subtle difference in feeling between these notes on the different partials.   As we’ve been doing, practice an articulated rhythm on the notes of both partials (4 eighth notes followed by a half note).

Great to see your security in reading notes and rhythms.  We now need to work on security in playing notes above the first partial in context of a musical line.  Breaking the passage of music down, and arriving at the higher partial notes by slurring up to them worked well.  Continue with this approach in your practising, working on the short tunes we’ve looked at the past couple of weeks.

Looking forward to seeing you again in two weeks.