[Trombone-l] Brass Band music for Tenor Trombone

[Marius Helgå]

On the ITF in Århus, Elgar Howarth and Chris Houlding had a hour and a half-long talk/lecture on trombones in british brass bands, which I found highly entertaining and educating.

A lot of the lectures and workshops at the ITF was videofilmed, I'm not sure if this one was, but if it was I'm sure it will show up on the ITA website.

Marius Helgå
Bass Trombone
Mo i Rana, Norway

-----Opprinnelig melding-----
Fra: trombone-l-bounces at samford.edu [mailto:trombone-l-bounces at samford.edu] På vegne av thetubameister at roadrunner.com
Sendt: 13. juli 2009 17:35
Til: trombone-l at samford.edu; Martin Hubel
Emne: Re: [Trombone-l] Brass Band music for Tenor Trombone

Interesting side note - there were some valve Eb bass trombones which allowed reading the bass clef parts as Eb transposing treble (just change the clef and key).  There was also a rather unusual pully system Eb bass trombone patent (and perhaps an extant instrument) which also allowed this.

J.c.S.

---- Martin Hubel <mhubel at gmail.com> wrote: 
> 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.
> > > (http://personals.aol.com/?ncid=emlcntuslove00000003)
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