Paul

Great work with long tones and lip slurs this week.  Keep working on these in regular practice – they are the key to brass playing!

Again, nice job with reading music – recognition of notes rhythms are coming along nicely.  Keep working towards feeling the pulse (indicated by the time signature and tempo markings), that underlies all of the rhythms we play.  A steady sense of pulse (/time) allows for rhythmic accuracy.

I’ll look forward to picking up where we left off next week!

 

Martin

It was awesome to see that you were able to focus on having better playing posture last week, and and break some bad habits.  Good work!

This week, keep reminding yourself to keep your upper body “up” and aligned (think “marionette”), and keep the trombone bell up at your eye level.  Bring the trombone up to you, and play.  (Don’t come down to it, then adjust your position, and then play).  Have the setup optimal for you, right from the get-go!

Continue to work on long tones in the low range, from B flat in first position, down to E natural in 7th.  And work up from B flat, to C in 6th position, and up from there.  If your sound production isn’t working for you the way you’d like it to, take a break, and do some breathing exercises, imagining the sound you want to produce while breathing.  Then, come back to playing, and use your air in the same way you’ve just practiced.

Nice work on reading music again this week.  I’m glad you’re feeling more comfortable with rhythm identification.

Please bring all of your OBA music next week, and we’ll work on the pieces we haven’t looked at yet.

See you next week!