http://www.jacobgarchik.com/

The trombonist from whom the website in the title is, caught my eye in the tromboneforum.org. Most of the music he makes is not very open to the whole public, not even to me. But it grabbed me in a certain way, enough to share it on my blog. I think jazz is someting I want to explore more and has to be seen in a broad musical context. It is good that there are "experimental" and daring composers out there to try to expand the vocabulary of music, and this not only in jazz! From a musicians perspective you have to appriciate this. In the embedden song, the parts for the drums and piano make the playing an interwoven object where every instrument knows his place.

Air on a G string

There is a perfect explanation why this tune is called after a single violin string. Wikipedia says:

The original piece is part of Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068, written for his patron Prince Leopold of Anhalt sometime between the years 1717 and 1723.

The title comes from violinist Wilhelmj's late 19th century arrangement of the piece for violin and piano. By transposing the key of the piece from its original D major to C major and transposing the melody down an octave, Wilhelmj was able to play the piece on only one string of his violin, the G string.

The video shows a very nice performance of this tune by four trombones. They adapted the original arrangement a bit by playing the first repeat of the score on two trombones rather than the written four.
To get the arrangement for four trombones follow the link below, it's public domain and can be ditributed for free:

http://www.mutopiaproject.org/ftp/BachJS/BWV1068/air-tromb/air-tromb-a4.pdf

Trombonestreet

I wondered if there are any streets called trombone or trombonestraat (straat = dutch word for street, quite obvious). And how would you know, there are streets called after this cool instrument.

According to google maps there is a street in the Netherlands called trombone. Also a lot of others are named trombonestraat. There is no street called trombone in Belgium according to google maps.

Trombone

5231 's-Hertogenbosch, Nederland

In the States you have more names like Trombone drive, lane, ...

Trombone Rd, Newark, New Castle, DE 19713

Trombone Ct, Vienna, Fairfax County, VA 22182

Trombone Ln, Henderson, Clark, NV 89074

Trombone Ct, Aldie, Loudoun, VA 20105

Trombone eCard

Emailed cards are fun to send because for every occasion there is somewhere a card to find. Some sites offering the possibility to send free eCards related to trombones are listed here.

BCC National Orchestra of Wales
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/now/imageresource/pages/trombone.shtml

Jib-Jab Rusty Trombone
http://sendables.jibjab.com/sendables/107799/rusty_trombone

Fishpie
http://www.fishpie.com/ecards/trombone-ecards.shtml

How it's made - Trombone

The famous series of Discovery Channel made a part about custom made S.A. Shires trombones. It's very educating and gives a brief introduction on how much craftsmanship it takes to make a good trombone. The skill that is needed to make trombones has not changed over the years, but I must always think on how they managed to do this in the past without the modern equipment of today like those acetylene burners. Coal-fired like a blacksmith makes his iron stuff?

Range progress

Since a few days my range has expanded to the high Bb on the first position. Sometimes I can hit the C too, but it is still uncontrollable. I have been doing range exercises as a warmup almost everytime I practice. I think it is a good way to prepare your lips for an intense practise session. My low range gets better too. When practising my range I try not to change my mouth position, just rather increase the tension on my lips. To get a fatter sound on the pedal notes I have noticed that it can be handy to lower the lower lip, but it does not train your embouchure that much.

Last Wednesday we had a marching session with the concert band. Normally I play a snare drum when we march, but for the first time I marched with my trombone. I have to say that it is quite hard to read the music when playing and walking at the same time. Some study will be needed to learn the marches by hard and to use the score as a mere reminder.