[Trombone-l] Pedal Note Articulation

[Raymond Horton]

You are doing pretty much what I do. 

Although Edward Anderson, (former Bass Trb w Cleveland, then faculty at 
IU) always said tongue everything with "the tip of the tongue at the top 
of the teeth."

If you are unhappy with your sound, you cold try the latter approach for 
a while. 

As with anything new, don't forget the other basics, especially: keep 
plenty of sustained air behind the tongue. 

Raymond Horton
Bass Trombonist
Louisville Orchestra

Doug Rowe wrote:

>Hello all,
>
>A quick question.  I've been spending a lot of time trying to get a 
>fuller, quicker responding pedal range on the bass trombone (my primary 
>horn).  I'm playing more big band now than I used to and have found that 
>the short hard hitting low notes (about low Db on down) don't speak as 
>loudly nor as quickly as I need/would like them to.  Phil Teele style 
>exercises, lip slurs in the low range, and articulation exercises are 
>the meat and potatoes of my practice sessions now.
>
>I have noticed that starting around low Eb or D, when I have to 
>articulate something hard, I "naturally" (meaning without thinking about 
>it) articulate with my tongue between my teeth--as a matter of fact, 
>when I get down to Ab or even lower my tongue actually slots itself in 
>between my lips (I removed the mouthpiece mid-articulation and was able 
>to observe this).  I would like to know if this is normal, wrong, or a 
>"do whatever works down there" way of articulating the low notes.  Of 
>course, I'm not happy with my current articulation down low, so I'm 
>guessing that it's NOT working.  Do most folks articulate "normally" in 
>their low registers?  Are there any tricks, so to speak, for getting a 
>nice hard pedal note articulation? 
>
>Of course, I do not tongue between the teeth anywhere else in my 
>playing, and tend not to when articulating softly in the pedal range.
>
>While folks are at it, if you have any other good low range developing 
>exercise suggestions beyond what I mentioned above, I'd love to hear them.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Doug
>