I think I’m in a good position to learn reading alto clef now, but I likely will never be in a position that I’ll need to.Kind of Blue is the fifth studio album released on Columbia, and twenty-eighth overall, by the American jazz musician, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis. I would have had a hard time keeping with it at the beginning if I was doing long tones and scales. After a couple of weeks I added scales and long tones to develop a better sound. This helped me find notes and develop intonation quickly enough. I know them pretty well and the sound/pitch of the exercises is burned into my head. I started with Rochut etudes for tenor and a position chart. I like the sound and thought it might be interesting in small group settings or pair with the electronic music I’m dabbling in. I had zero interest in using an alto to play traditional alto literature. I picked up an alto from Thomann last year. Not trying to be discouraging at all and I wish you the best! My professor my freshman year of college actively advised against alto until I got a bit more playing under my belt, and I’m very glad I listened to her! Alto trombone is a different instrument from tenor, make sure to treat it that way and be patient, and practice with your goals in mind. I’m also studying performance and hope to perform in orchestras after I finish school. A 12C has been commonly recommended as a starting point.Īnother quick note, I started on alto after 10 years of experience on tenor trombone, and even still started earlier than most. Get yourself a better mouthpiece and save yourself the headache. Absolutely zero judgement from me, I have one that has served me very well! Just know that you should absolutely not use the mouthpiece that comes with it. First off I’m assuming based on your post that you did the same thing as I did and got an inexpensive Chinese alto that has been QC’d. ![]() Positions are (usually) slightly shorter than on tenor, so make sure to adjust!Ī couple random points. Start out with scales and long tones to get adjusted to the instrument, and learning the positions/slight embouchure change. The bulk of your time should still stay on tenor, but a small portion could be spent on learning/maintaining alto chops.Īs someone who recently started my work on alto, the biggest one has already been mentioned. If you are looking for skills that improve you as a trombonist, then there are a handful of others that most teachers would tackle first. I'm a big advocate for following your passion with music, so if playing alto makes your practice a ton, then go for it. Community groups probably wouldn't care, but don't bring the wrong instrument to a paying gig. That being said, once you learn the instrument you can technically play any trombone part that doesn't go to the bottom of the bass clef. You could see it in trombone choir pieces or in church music. Most people don't study it until college and often not even until graduate school. ![]() You will never realistically encounter it in band music, and you will seldom encounter it in orchestra music, especially if you are a younger player. The sound concept is quite different even from a small bore tenor, and you will need to listen to a lot of ornamentation before playing it.Īlto trombone is an auxillary instrument. Starting with a sprint to Albrechtsberger will lead to frustration and bad habits.īonus: Listen to a lot of professional alto players. ![]() You should practice like you did when you first learned the trombone, with long and few notes repeated multiple times correctly. Your overall goals on alto should be to relearn a new set of muscle memory for the slide positions and to learn how to blow efficiently against a smaller piece of equipment. Combine them after a few weeks of learning separately. Pick which one fits your desire to practice and wallet. Take one of your old and easy beginner method books and pretend it's in alto clef (key signature becomes +2b or +5#), find a free set of exercises online, or spend some cash on a printed method book. You can start working on reading alto clef on tenor trombone while you follow step one above. Then, start learning how to read alto clef. Your goal should be just feeling the instrument and achieving the best tone at every moment. Play basic warmup patterns and scales with a tuner thinking only about the relative positions and which partial you are using. I would recommend spending the first couple weeks without any music.
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