[Trombone-l] New place, old desires

[Wayne Dyess]

I don't think you guys understand Allen's problem.  Read his letter  
again.  He's in the Marine Corps and says his "school" (MILITARY, mind  
you) doesn't allow him to play music.  That means exactly what it  
says.  School for those guys is just one step beyond boot camp  
training.  And I'm here to tell ya that he will have ZERO time for the  
trombone.  He may not even be allowed to have something like a  
trombone in his possession.

The ideas are good.  But the practice suggestion is probably not an  
option for him.  He MIGHT get an hour or two a week to write a letter  
home.  He most certainly won't have much time to himself, I would  
imagine.  Mental practice -- learning clefs or reviewing clefs is a  
good mental exercise.  But I'm not even sure he'll have access to  
sheet music of any kind.   These military schools are often intense  
and your days and nights are pre-planned for you.  ALLEN IS NOT IN  
CONTROL OF HIS TIME RIGHT NOW!

My suggestion would be to visualize practice.  I did that some in boot  
camp, and it was about the best I could hope for.  I had my mouthpiece  
with me initially, but when my company "Chief" heard the duck calls in  
the "head", he ordered me to mail the thing home.  I'm lucky he didn't  
take it and toss it like they did my shaving and personal items (you  
don't get to keep anything like that).  Do ear-training exercises in  
your head.  You can do those kinds of things as you march to and from  
class or to the mess hall.  Again, visualize the trombone positions of  
songs you sing in your head.  Even if you don't have access to a  
mouthpiece or a trombone, keep music in your head whenever you can.   
Think the positions of scales -- any scales.  You can do that in your  
mind's eye and never get in trouble for it, unless you are in a class  
and miss a question by your instructor.

Good Luck Marine!  I love your attitude.  And thank you for your  
service to our country!

--Wayne Dyess
United States Navy Band, 1971-1975




On Mar 7, 2009, at 1:44 AM, Price Taylor wrote:

> That's good stuff Tom.  Allen - master some clefs - tenor, treble,  
> Bb (brass
> band).  Flexibility exercises, get the Remington book.  Etc.  Find  
> someone
> to play duets with - I recently played a duet with a bassoon,  
> doesn't have
> to be another trombone player.
>
> Go to Hickeys.com for the literature, they have a big selection.
>
> -Price
>
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 9:14 PM, Tom Izzo  
> <contrabasstrombone at yahoo.com>wrote:
>
>>
>> Nothing beats practice. Long tones, warmups, reading anything you  
>> can get
>> your hands on. Good time also to work on sight reading and  
>> transpositions.
>> You got the time.
>>
>> Good luck.
>>
>> --- On Fri, 3/6/09, Allen Cormier Jr <spokenoutfor at aol.com> wrote:
>>
>>> From: Allen Cormier Jr <spokenoutfor at aol.com>
>>> Subject: [Trombone-l] New place, old desires
>>> To: "trombone-l at samford.edu" <trombone-l at samford.edu>
>>> Date: Friday, March 6, 2009, 10:07 PM
>>> I am a PFC in the Marine Corps and
>>> studying electroincs and I have a
>>> problem.  My problem is that the school I am at for up
>>> to the next 18
>>> months keeps me away from playing music.