Kentucky All-State 2020-2021 Bass Trombone Excerpt Bordogni 9

A quick read of the 2020-2021 Kentucky All-State Bass Trombone Excerpt Bordogni 9. Like I said yesterday, I like to play the pieces that my students are working on allowing my natural tendencies (tone, tempo, rhythm, intonation problems, style, and so on) to exist.  This gives me an idea of possible problems that may occur during a lesson so that I can have a game plan on how to fix said problem.

First things first, you have to know your E major scale! Get comfortable in E major before pounding away at this etude! Next, we need to understand that the 8th note gets the beat, so set the metronome at a comfortable learning speed and subdivide everything based on the 8th note, not the quarter note.

The biggest challenge I see creeping up is keeping the long, connected lines, trying to breathe in organic places that don’t interrupt the musical lines. It is clearly marked where phrases start and stop, these are important to observe as it gives this etude a unique ebb and flow when observed. A pattern is set in the first three bars with the dotted 8th notes followed by three 16th notes, but the pattern is disrupted by six 16th notes that generates forward motion to a repetition of the first three measures. That would be a good spot for a little crescendo.

Keeping this in mind, the next line has a similar rhythmic patter with long 16th note lines followed by dotted rhythms. On the long 16th passages you can play around with crescendos or decrescendos and see how this relates to your breathing. I side with whatever you can do that keeps the phrase long and uniterrupted.

The beginning of the third line is an end of a phrase that picks up into a new phrase but at a louder dynamic level. That being said, I would structure the beginning to measure 16 as one long crescendo from mf to f. Within that feel free to add shape as stated above.

The trouble with the third line is placing the grace notes. I would initially play these lines without the grace notes so I can hear the melody I am embellishing. After I am comfortable with the rhythm, I would add the grace note AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE to the note it is preceding to give the obvious change in character. We also have some half step motion here, where I would ask a student to lean into any note that has an accidental attached to it.

Once again we see a new dynamic marking in measure 21. I would consider an overall decrescendo from the f to the mf and continuing a decrescendo to the mp in measure 24. Measure 24 to the end is similar in nature to the first few bars with long 16th note passages that you can easily cresendo through (because you have already been practicing your E major scale so notes shouldn’t be an issue!). Don’t let the intervals in measures 28 and 31 force you to play clipped notes, play everything full value and connected.Crescendo all the way to the poco rit and end on a strong low E for ONLY 3 eighth notes… it isn’t a fermata so don’t let the judges think you can’t count!

The purpose of this etude is to show the judges you can play with a beautiful sound with good flow and expression. Tone should be number 1 priority, and any musical decisions you make should be confident and so clear that if a judge were to transcribe what you just played, it would be an exact copy of the part you just played.

Feel free to reach out for a lesson, book here for either a half hour or an hour!