Kentucky All-State 2020-2021 Tenor Trombone Excerpt 1-Melodious Etude #52

A quick read of the 2020-2021 Kentucky All-State Tenor Trombone Excerpt Melodious Etude 52. 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.

What I initially hear from my run through is a tempo issue. There are a few specific places that I am rushing but overall, let’s just say there are tempo issues throughout. Now we have a decision to make here, am I just going to fast, or am I compressing the second note of the piece? I think I am compressing the 16th note which then snowballs into rushing the next 8th note and so on. Easy fix! First sett eh metronome on and then play the subdivision on the first dotted 8th note. Play 3 16th note D’s in time before moving on to the E 16th note. Keeping a consistent tempo initially is crucial to your success as you want the judge to KNOW you have solid time. You can play with tempo after you’ve established you can in fact play with good time. This will make it seem more musical, without trying to sound like you are being musical.

The next thing I would fix is playing the end of phrases, or any note thats before a rest FULL VALUE. Let the room take the note and resonate so the judge can really hear your sound, and put some vibrato on it if its longer than an eighth note.

This will also help in not rushing through the rests, which I also fell victim to. The last bit you have to play isn’t as tricky you it looks. There is a nice back and forth between legato tongue and natural slurring happening that makes this rather easy. Let’s say N= natural slur and L= legato tongue.

Yes, it looks complicated, but remember, you are trying to not only win the audition, but also get better at playing the trombone and as a musician! Learning when to legato tongue and use natural slurs is, in my opinion, the easiest thing to understand on trombone, but the hardest thing to accomplish. With enough practice, this becomes automatic and you don’t need to analyze each note grouping to figure out when you need to natural slur, or use legato tongue.

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