[Trombone-l] by ear :was Music for tenor and bass trombone and piano

[Daniel Pliskin]

> On Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 9:58 AM, John Burton <John.Burton at johnburton.org> wrote:
> >  The "out of their heads" could also be stated as "by ear".  

> I think it is less an intellectual undertaking, and more an aural one.

John,

I'm not on to agree with Jeff, but give you a set of exercises that will free you to play by ear.  But first, you need to be able to carry a tune.  Let's assume you can.

Listen to something musically simple on the stereo, like The Blues, Kind of Blue or Sugar.  

Tune up to the music and start by playing scales in the key of what's playing on the stereo.  OK, at any moment, in the music, there are some notes, in the scale, that at that moment won't quite sound good.  What notes won't sound good will change as the music progresses.  Leave those notes out, as you play your "scales".

There will also be notes that are not in the scale but will sound good at times, in the music.  Feel free to include them.  But keep what you play scale-like, at first.  

When you start feeling brave, either because of the music or because of the key, start trying to play exercises along with the music, again, leaving out notes that might not sound good and including notes that are outside of the scale but that sound good at that moment.  

When you start feeling more sure of your ability to play exercises, along with the music, try playing the melody, along with the music.  Some people find that easy and some find it challenging.  

Finally, try playing something that you think will sound good, along with the music.

Getting to that last stage might take weeks and might take years.  But bare in mind that playing by ear is a very different skill than reading music.  Your ear and your technique will definitely help speed things up.  

You might also try just working on your ear, without the trombone, by singing scat along with the music.  Singing scat works on getting you up to speed on what you'd like to play, without making you also think about playing trombone.  The more you can get any aspect of playing music to the point where it happens unconsciously, the more mental energy you have to concentrate on other aspects of playing.

Enjoy,

DanP





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