[Trombone-l] Brass Band music for Tenor Trombone

[Martin Hubel]

Hi,
British brass band music is written in Bb treble clef for the first and
second trombones. The Eb instruments, being the Eb soprano cornet,
alto/tenor horn and Eb bass are in Eb. Essentially, this means that any
player of a Bb or Eb instrument can easily transfer to another instrument
and immediately read the parts using the same valve technique. Switching
instruments could often be required to balance the band in a small town.

For tenor trombones, the Bb treble clef is like reading Bb trumpet music if
you have had occasion to do that. The easiest way to read this for many
trombone players is to consider it tenor clef and add 2 flats. This works
well. Some older arrangements we play are in tenor clef, so players need
this skill as well.

The only non-transposing instrument is the bass trombone. The reason was
this was a G instrument, and this required additional ability to learn the
positions. I doubt a transposition to Bb would have been easy, meaningful
(or correct). My advice is to find a good brass band bass trombone player
and forgo the player who "can't read treble clef". The bass trombone is a
solo instrument in brass band and a good player can make the band smile.

I hope this helps.
--Martin



On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 9:12 AM, <thetubameister at roadrunner.com> wrote:

> British Brass Band music is typically scored for 2 tenor trombones in Bb
> transposing Treble Clef (which tenor clef readers adapt to very quickly) and
> 1 bass trombone in Bass Clef concert pitch.  Really long explanation as to
> why, but there it is.
>
> J.c.S.
> ---- PrivtBnkr at aol.com wrote:
> > Good morning everyone...
> >
> > There is talk about the formation of a brass band in our area...I
> > understand that most of the brass band music is written for trombone in
> either
> > Concert C or Concert B flat...
> >
> > Can I get some clarification from our listers about how best to prepare
> for
> >  reading this music?
> >
> > Many thanks!
> >
> >
> > George
> > Florida
> > **************Looking for love this summer? Find it now on AOL Personals.
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