Leif I have heard that expressed through-out my life and not just trombone-playing. Teaching is learning and I believe the better players can learn from the lesser players. The advantage of having a teacher who you see even a few times a year is that they get to know you, your playing, your strengths, and your weaknesses, and then can offer advice to move you forward quickly - even if it's that a new instrument or mouthpiece were necessary to achieve your goals or modifications to your current one.
Quote from: Geezerhorn on Aug 03, , PM I find it interesting that more than one has ranked social media sites like this one as a low form of getting information on how to play the trombone.
Geezer There are lots of great resources about how to play - including advice on this site. However, advice that works for YOU won't work for others. When I was doing masters work, my teacher sent me to have a lesson with several other teachers.
His exact words about it were, "You know now what works for you - so check out what these others have to say, and see if you think it will help. Discard the rest. The time when lessons start to be less than worth the money spent is when you start predicting what the teacher will say.
I ran into that my last 5 lessons 3 with my regular teacher during masters work, 2 with other teachers I was curious to get their opinions about my playing on and thoughts on improvement. At that point, you've developed your self-reflection muscle enough to be able to be truly honest with yourself to push your own development, and have enough knowledge to know where to find or how to create resources to support that development.
Until then, when a new perspective improves your abilities, you know it's not time to stop taking lessons. That being said, your needs will vary. Some people need, or desire, weekly lessons. Some, monthly. Some, quarterly. And some, as needed or when concepts have been mastered enough that they are ready to move on. If you want to start taking lessons, then I'd start with once in a while lessons - a few times a year for you. Then, if you find that the teacher you are traveling to would be worth seeing more often, go more often.
I think you'll find the time saved learning concepts will far outweigh the time traveling to and from the lesson, and you'd be able to have more fun on the horn faster. Just my 2 cents. I don't have anything against self-taught musicians, personally - all that matters is can you play. But, I'm an efficiency guy - if I can learn something faster for less effort, why wouldn't I?
It means I can learn more in the same amount of time, then - which is what I find inspiring. But I think also I'm very much a "DIY" kinda person, I like to go through the entire production process on my own and not be "disturbed" in my creative element, but I do see that I am rather stubborn when it comes to being told I suck, and I lose motivation easily however, NOT taking lessons didn't HELP me get better as a trombonist or as a person, I can say that for sure!
I can certainly confirm that the large majority of the really great players I know HAVE had lessons, if even only one year. People tell me I'm quite good for never having had lessons, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm "good". But I'm gonna change that! I'll be getting lessons for both trombone and trumpet in this upcoming year once I'm back in the states. I'm MEGA-excited now. I made many more discoveries working with a teacher, but turning those discoveries into habits has generally been something I did on my own.
I see private lessons having a couple of advantages for me: teachers have helped me identify the root cause of problems in my playing, and helped me address the root causes of my playing problems rather than masking symptoms. Teachers have provided me with a critical ear, showing me the parts of my playing where I'm "cheating" and not sounding as good as I could because of it. Teachers have also given me motivation, since I never want to show up to a private lesson sounding bad.
For me, the major disadvantage was the time commitment I needed to make to keep from wasting my teacher's time. I'm not taking regular lessons now because I have small children at home and I can lose a week's worth of practice time in the blink of an eye if one of the kids brings home a flu bug.
I'm pretty down about the way I'm sounding right now, so I'm hoping that I can start occasional lessons again in another year or so. A common thread seems to be a tendency for some individuals to vacillate between the two at times for different personal reasons. Not many so far have touched on something that has always been important to me.
Davdud did and perhaps someone else as well. I'm the type of guy who takes great pride in teaching myself how to do something. In my lifetime so far, I have taught myself how to craft heirloom-quality furniture, watercolor paint to the pro level, become a master gardener and a credible home-style chef. Clearly, of all of them, teaching myself how to play the trombone reasonably well has been the most difficult and time-consuming.
Thank goodness for this Forum and other resources available to me as needed! As Jessie J sings, "It's not about the money, money, money Being a geezer is the new gerry. I'm not the kind of geezer who cheaps out on everything. I tip well for good service and I chide people to leave the damn salt 'n pepper shakers on the table. I even tip our trash haulers when I think I've abused them with all the crap I set out for pick-up. I don't have alligator arms.
I'm usually the first one to grab the check. As I state, it's about the pride. I am very pleased with myself to have figured it out so far. But I am rapidly getting to the point where I am satisfied with myself enough. I am rapidly getting to the point where I think it would be fun AND a different kind of source of pride to be a student of so-and-so's, provided I'm not an embarrassment to him. That day will come. Certainly different people are wired differently. I certainly feel no less of a sense of accomplishment for achievements that I've made while taking lessons, since I've had to apply just as much hard work and intelligence to transform ideas and criticisms from my teachers into something that actually works for me on the horn.
But I'm more engineer than scientist; I've always prioritized achieving goals over making new discoveries. As our parents used to say, "That's different". Did you teach yourself how to ride your first bike? Did you teach yourself how to drive? I did - on a Willys Jeep, when my parents were out. I taught myself in the back alley. Then when my Dad took me out, I already knew how to drive a stick and he thought he did great "teaching" me. It's been the ride that has been at once, pleasurable, frustrating and rewarding.
One of the things I used to do yep - self taught was to code in Cobol. I loved doing original coding and hated legacy patch-work. The few times I got to do original coding, I totally savored it. It was the ride I got to go on, not the finished product that I valued. Nothing wrong with being self taught but as I see it, it has some limitations. For most people that want to learn trombone I would recommend a teacher.
Learning trombone we actually have to do our self, but a teacher can guide us in the right directions so we get more fun out of the trombone. We can reach our goals faster, and get more out of the possibilities each of us have.
It has to be an professional really good teacher of course. There is lot of bad teacher's around that is dangerous. The danger about being self taught is we go on a road that never can bring out the full potential we have. It actually is a risk that we will limit our own potential. Then often the fun about playing will go away. Of course this is a personal choice and many of us play in a community band once a week and have some fun with other people.
We don't need a teacher for that. Still I would recommend going to a really good teacher once in a while to get maximum fun out of our trombone. Its a personal choice. If young people want to go the professional route, they don't have a choice.
Go to the best teachers available. They need a school where they have to learn how to get into the professional life. Its much more than just playing Having said that, I fear I haven't made my point as precisely as I should have.
As I said, I've taken lessons for a few years of my adulthood, and been self-taught for many more. When I compare a year in which I did take lessons to a year where I slaved away by myself in my basement, I am personally no less proud of what I accomplished during the year in which I took lessons. In fact, I might be more proud of what I accomplished while taking lessons.
Not exactly case-control, but it's the best I've got to present. Again, this is my story, and I'm more focused on the goal than the process. You've appreciated it from both angles! Maybe I can get to that point as well. Back in the day, I started working through the David Burge relative pitch course. I found it to be effective, but also a bit tedious and expensive. These days, I'm seeing a lot of online options pop up as well. I often feel like the time I've spent developing my ear and the time I spent at a keyboard working through chord progressions have been as important to my development as a trombonist as the time I've spent with the horn on my face.
Talking about resources I resolved in earnest this evening to play more against the "radio". I put the word radio in quotes because I use Amazon Echo. I can ask Alexa to play almost any genre of music from my prime account.
Interesting working out the key of a pop piece of music. Lots of them in A, D and C. Other keys as well, but those keys seem to be prevalent. Probably a guitar thing. I also decided to use BiaB in a more advanced way. I have all four Hal Leonard Real Books. I've keyed the chord progressions into BiaB of all the standards that I know in those books. I play through each one twice.
I'm going to start playing through them 3 times, improving progressively more and more with each pass - until on the 3rd pass - where I'll try to devise an on-the-fly alternate melody line to whatever tune is up. I can play well enough for all three bands I'm involved with.
So it's time to cut down on the study books a bit. Now is the time to start picking up my horn to just play. I admire those who can do that. I've been at BiaB pretty steadily now for about 6 months, but it and playing against the "radio" is going to get more priority. Even better yet! Actually, I'd forgotten about that.
A couple years ago, I tried playing along with a few LP's and almost went nuts - until someone told me about that tuning thing. Then I ripped the LP's down and tuned the wave files. I probably could have just adjusted the turntable to rotate at a different speed. Contemporary pop can be tough to play along with - all the special sound effects and sometimes no clearly defined melody line. Contemporary jazz can be tough as well; with the fancy-dancy chord progressions. Good stuff though - for someone like me who doesn't want to bother with learning the theory of music - who just wants to pick up the horn and play by ear.
There I go again - causing trouble! After finishing school, I carried on playing in a band for some 5 years, where I was lucky enough to play in a band containing many fine member musicians.
It's this that probably influenced me most, and learned what good playing and musicianship sounded like. I then moved away for a few years, and had a break. Why no lessons? Two main reasons - at school my parents would have thought it bizarre to pay for them, and there were no teachers locally that I knew of.
I had a few lessons while unemployed at ish, and some more at 61! I need to restart them after a a break! I think one of the main things missed is not coming up through the grade system, and not being aware of opportunities that might be there with some musical study. I did some OU muisic courses, which were good but not trombone-related.
But I have been very fortunate to play in SA brass bands in my youth and big bands a bit later one for 30 years! I still get to sit next to a very fine trumpet player and musician weekly, and every time it's like a free lesson. But if some one says what standard am I, it's bit tricky to answer 'cos I never even did grade 1.
I carried on in the band for some 5 years, where I was lucky enough to play in a band containing many fine member musicians. This depends on how much time you are prepared to dedicate to the instrument! The trombone, when approached with a good teacher, is a particularly natural instrument, very close to the human voice and singing in many ways. It takes about 10, hours of authentic engagement to gain basic, professional competence however with a small amount of practice daily and some good quality lessons, an adult should be playing tunes and be able to join a beginner ensemble in a couple of months.
Of course it is possible, and many great players have taught themselves in the past. With the internet it is becoming easier and easier to learn anything, and you can learn trombone on your own, but progress will nearly always be better, more sustainable and more secure with a good teacher.
Q: How do trombone players play the exact note they want? The slide looks so imprecise compared to say keys on a piano. The trombone works just like the violin or cello in that the arm learns where to put the slide, mainly guided by the ear. A trombone player begins by thinking about seven simple positions for his or her slide but as they become more expert this is expanded to over specific positions for various notes.
This flexibility gives the trombone the unique position amongst brass instruments of always being able to play in tune…a double edged sword! Q: How do I arch my tongue to play higher notes on trombone? The most common advice is to visualise a vowel sound, such as 'eee' to arch the tongue whilst playing whilst playing. Sometimes a teacher might add an articulation such as Tee or Dee. The most common set of vowel sound of use are low-Doo, medium-Daa, High-Dee, although many variations and other concepts for helping the various registers of the trombone abound.
For higher notes it is helpful to focus on the rapid movement of air through the lips, creating a fast, thin airstream. This is sometimes combined with the instruction to 'tighten' the lips, which is often unhelpful.
Maintaining a small, round aperture between the lips for the air to pass through is usually more successful. Take a relaxed deep breath and blow out through your lips. Pitch: How high or low a sound is. Usually shown as a letter: A-G and by where the written note is placed: higher or lower on the music stave or staff.
Duration: How long or short a sound is. Measured in beats and shown by the shape of a written note. Beat: How to measure and describe the passing of time in music, the heartbeat or pulse of the music, what you tap your toe, march or dance to. Stave or Staff: the familiar horizontal lines that written music is placed on. Think of this like a ladder: the higher the note has climbed the higher the pitch it represents. Clef: A symbol at the beginning of the music that tells us which pitch belongs on which line of the staff or stave.
On trombone we use the treble or G clef which means the second line is where the note G lives. Bars and bar lines: Vertical lines on the staff or stave, bar lines help us organise time by dividing the horizontal format of the music into bars.
Time signatures: These numbers at the beginning of a piece of music tell us how many beats in each bar top number and what type of note each beat is made from bottom number.
Learn to play. There are a lot of opinions, information and videos on the web about learning a musical instrument. Find music lessons. Check out the videos and backing tracks listed below to help you on your way! Watch these different videos with all you need to know to make a buzz on a brass instrument.
0コメント