[Trombone-l] Leaving a horn on its stand

[George Carr]

> But I look at Dick Nash and Frank Rosolino playing jazz and I see stuff
> centered around 3rd and 4th positions.   I think they like to use fifth for
> middle Bb, they like to do their G's in fourth and so on.  You can do a
> heckuva lot using only 2nd through 5th positions and staying mostly above
> middle C.   Throw in an occasional break with moves to sixth or seventh or
> all the way to first and then use an appropriate technique (such as doodle -
> tongue or "across the grain" ) and then you have provided a reason to
> include the "outland" positions.   Of course it all really depends upon the
> key and the music and your imagination.

One of my teachers, Gary Carney, described a jingle recording session
where the producer asked him to improvise to a backing track, in a
dixieland style.  "You know, lots of rips and flutter-tongue slides,"
says the producer.  Then reality sets in: for some arcane reason, the
backing track is in the key of B.  "It's tough to play a rip when you
have to stop in fourth position," said Gary.

But you have a good point: players who are comfortable with
improvising do tend to stay in the middle of the slide, using
alternate positions for notes that fall in first, sixth, or seventh.

George