[Trombone-l] alto trombone question

[jscot@ucalgary.ca]

>Jason -

I went through some of the same issues when I bought my first alto
trombone. The idea of having the music transposed for the instrument is
actually very similar to the way brass band music is written - all in
treble clef in the key of that particular instrument. That tradition
allows for a player to be switched to another instrument with no reading
issues - just the adjustment to a bigger or smaller mouthpiece. The only
instruments in the brass band that use bass clef are the bass trombone and
the percussion.

Unfortunately, as someone else has pointed out, all of our orchestral and
solo material has been published in concert pitch, with most of what's
appropriate for the alto being in alto clef. With that as a reality, we
have to take the time to learn to read for the instrument in that way.

One book that I found useful blended these approaches. It's called "A
Complete Method for E flat Alto Trombone"(Vol. 1) - Stephen C. Anderson. I
believe there's a volume 2 out there as well. He takes short etudes
combining scales, technique and legato tunes, and writes them on the left
hand page in a transposed (E flat) bass clef. On the right hand page, the
same etudes appear in alto clef (concert pitch). This gives you the chance
to do some playing using familiar positions, where reading isn't an issue,
so you can just concentrate on becoming familiar with the horn. Then, you
go back and play what are now somewhat familiar notes, and read them in a
notation that is more traditional. Eventually, the alto clef becomes very
comfortable on the alto trombone, and hopefully, you will have made some
good progress on the tuning and accuracy as well.

By the way, I think writing out pieces that you want to work on into a
transposed version will help with increasing your familiarity with the
instrument as well, but unfortunately, doing it on the computer doesn't
help as much as writing it out by hand. When you copy by hand, you look at
each note an figure out how to notate it into the transposed version. This
helps to make that connection become second nature, and teaches your brain
to see a note and think "fourth position", etc. Also, working in different
notations can be helpful later, when you may wish to borrow some solo
literature from another instrument, or when you may have to cover a french
horn part or perhaps alto sax.

Good luck and enjoy your alto!

Jim Scott

 I have recently purchased and am struggling to learn
> the alto trombone.  I bought a copy of L Mozart's
> concerto and am trying to learn.  My question is this
> Why is alto trombone music not written transposed like
> so that the positions correspond to the notes on tenor
> rather than learn a whole new set of notes and
> positions.  To me it would seem to facilitate
> switching back and forth, tuning tendencies would
> correspond to the same position on the harmonic series
> etc.  I entered the music into finale but in bass
> clef,  did a quick transposition and now I can
> actually come close to playing rather than trying to
> learn a who new set of positions?
>
>
>
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