[Trombone-l] Positions

[Denny Seifried]

Dennis----as a former bass player, who learned from the Simandle Bass 
Methods (edited by Zimmerman ?),  you might be heading in the correct 
direction. Bassists who studied Simandle used fingers 1---2---4, with 
half-steps being played with these fingers. In the lower positions, you did 
not use the 3rd finger, but just added it to support the 4th (little) 
finger.

As soon as you reached 3rd ledger high G, in Simandle, you switched to what 
were called the "thumb position", and the 3rd finger came into use. You also 
used your thumb as a "finger, also. Thus in thumb-position, you had Thumb, 
1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fingers, all doing half steps, as like on a trombone 
slide, the higher you play on the string, the shorter the distance is, to 
create half-steps.

Of course this fingering also applied to the other strings on the 
contra-bass, the D, A, and E strings. On bass, you "fret" (cross strings) 
much like you "fret" on the trombone with the slide and embouchure.


The lines above and below the numbers are throwing me. It has been so long 
that I have looked at a Simandle Book (at least 40 years) I am either 
forgetting something or this was not part of any fingering system used by 
Simandle, in his bass methods.

Hope this helps.

Denny Seifried
Bass Trombone-Dayton Jazz Orch. & Springfield Symphony
Adjunct Trombone-Wittenberg Univ. Dept. of Music
Forum Moderator-The Trombone Forum

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dennis Clason" <dclason at nmsu.edu>
To: "Randy Fendrick" <jfendrick at bak.rr.com>
Cc: "trombone-L" <trombone-L at server5.samford.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 5:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Trombone-l] Positions


> It appears that Slama was on the faculty of the Vienna Conservatory.
> The book is used for Bass, bassoon, trombone and euph.
>
> From my deep, dark, hidden past as a violin student, I recall that
> lines above a fingering mean to incline your finger toward the bridge,
> and beneath a fingering to incline your finger toward the nut.  They
> sound like bass fingerings to me.  G and D are open notes (hence, 0)...
>
> If I knew for-sure that Slama was the bass teacher at VC, I'd be certain
> of it.
>
> Randy Fendrick wrote:
>> I came across an etude book 66 Etudes by Anton Slama.  There are many
>> examples of numbers located over the top of notes.  Traditionally
>> thistypes of notation  indicate a position that is suggested for
>> placement of the slide to play the note, usually to make the passage
>> flow easier.  For instance,  Bb above the staff 5th position. These,
>> however, have position locations that I have never seen.  For example.
>> C in the staff, bass clef 4, D in the staff, 0, E 2, which is the
>> normal position, F natural 4, G 0, A 2, B 2, C 4.  Some position
>> numbers are underlined as 2 some have line over the number.  Does
>> anyone have an explanation for this numbering system?  In other words,
>> is this written for trombones in G or Eb, or what?
>> Any help in this regard would be greatly appreciated.
>> later,
>> rf
>> Randy Fendrick
>> Southside Chicago Seven
>> Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra, ret
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>>
>
> -- 
> --
> Dennis L. Clason, Ph.D.
> University Statistics Center
> New Mexico State University
> Las Cruces, New Mexico
>
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