Top 3 trombone videos

I was wondering recently what are the most interesting trombone videos according to the general audience. A quick way to find out was to search youtube on keyword "trombone" and choose a filter for the most views. One would guess that the most talented trombonists and biggest soloist fit this top view list. As you will notice, this is just partially the case. This is the top 3:

On three: Pharrell Williams - Happy: Trombone Loop

This video by Christopher Bill places third with 2.46 million views. He made a loop composition of the very popular Happy by Pharell Williams. We actually played this song with the local concert band as an encore. Christopher is an upcoming musician from just outside New York city. His work can be found at: http://www.classicaltrombone.com/  

In second: When Mama Mom Isn't Home original Freaks (Timmy Trumpet & Savage) Dad and Toby trombone & oven kid 

This video went viral. What can i say, just watch it! Over 5.34 million views. I think it's the kid with the sunglasses that makes the performance.

And the winner in first place: Serenading the cattle with my trombone (Lorde - Royals)

 

Not he best trombone player in the world, but I guess he attracts a crowd. With over 9.2 million views and counting, farmer Derek Klingenberg (https://www.facebook.com/Klingenbergstudios) know how to get attention from the world wide audience. Congratulations!

Trombone icons

For some nice trombone icons:

http://www.iconator.com/search.php?query=trombone&stype=icons&icat=0&vcat=0&wcat=0&lcat=0&acat=0

http://www.iconarchive.com/show/wind-instruments-icons-by-iconshock/Trombone-icon.html

Lego trombone

Myself being a fairly large Lego fanatic in childhood years, I recently wondered if there existed trombones in the Lego world. Standard: no, but some fanatics make their own. Cool!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrispockster/2875875269/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41245877@N06/3978967575/

Clipart (2)

Some more free to use clipart I found on various websites. Enjoy!

Super Mario Bros.

My dad gave me a NES console when I was about 6 or 7 years old. And off course the first game I played was Super Mario Bros. The main tune from this game is an evergreen among all the other video game songs. I still love the game today for its nostalgic charm and character. My NES is a piece of antique now, but playing it brings back warm memories.

The embedded video is from a preformance by the Maniacal 4 Trombone Quartet. They have their own website at http://www.maniacal4.com/live/ and have recently won the quartet competition at the International Trombone Festival in Denmark.

This post I also want to link to an arrangement for trombone written by slick07 on Youtube.
http://sites.google.com/site/hotbrainwash/Home/SMB_Trombone_Duet.zip?attredirects=0

Black Trombone

This song from the French songwriter, poet, composer and artist Serge Gainsbourg features a jazzy trombone. It is the second song from his 1962 LP calles 'No. 4'. But other cd's also have this song on their tracklist.

The song goes about a woman driving him a bit mad in a night-life setting. He describes her womanly attributes and her effect on his mind and feelings. This song is of a poetic nature and the musical style serves the meaning of the song very well. When I hear this song I image a story. I see myself sitting in a metropolitan nightclub some 40 years ago. People talking and whispering, the smoke of cigars and fine cigarettes in the air. And amidst them all there is one woman catching my eye. Wearing a black dress that comes to her knees. She has a dark red lipstick, black hair and eyes that can enamour a man.

I walk to her, but when blogging I leave the rest to my imagination.
Dear reader I hope you can follow me in this setting ;-).

The animated video is made with blender. Its a freeware program you can find on http://www.blender.org/ but it gives a server 500 error when I surf to this link (strange, I think they will fix it soon).

A grasp of Serge Gainsbourg on the web:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Gainsbourg
http://gainsbarre.typepad.com/
http://www.gainsbourg.org/
http://www.myspace.com/forserge
http://www.francevision.com/nsltr/vf14/gains.htm
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006092/
http://www.slipcue.com/music/pop/france/gainsbourg.html

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?

iBone - Trombone applet for iPhone

I don't have an iPhone, but I know you can do more with it than make some calls. This applet can be downloaded on iTunes, but the homepage is http://ibone.spoonjack.com/. I don't think that it is worth buying an iPhone for nor that it is any help in improving your trombone playing (except for practicing slide positions and notes), but it looks fun to try it. I can imagine that it is cool to have even for people that are not involved with music and such. The guy in this video is pretty handy with it.

Hands on music - Barbara Ivey

This oilpainting is made by Barbara Ivey as part of a series called hands on music. It is a very realistic painting and if you look very well you can see a very detailed reflection on the bell of the instrument. It looks like a great plain landscape and the stretched relfection of the trombone player. I find the sense of realism very intriguing.

Barbara Ivey states on her bio/c.v. that she has a strong Native-American heritage. You can see the strong influence of this fact through her works. If you want to see pictures of the whole set, go to http://www.barbaraiveyart.com/.

Flamethrower Trombone

This is a trombone that could intensify the myth of trombone deaths! Awesomely made, but not very handy if you need to play long parts.

Fisherman's Friend

I've playing is a bit hard because of a sour throat, I suggest you use a fisherman's friend or you will be playing on what feels an instrument like this for a while.

The large picture is available on http://adsoftheworld.com/node/34260

All the credits go to:

• Copywriter: Vanboon Sankhavadhana
• Photographer: 68 Studio co., Ltd.
• Designer / Illustration: Chaiyaporn Benyakusol
• Retouching: Somporn Inthong
• Other additional credit: Wareemon Benjapong

In da club - 50 Cent

This song is probably the best known song of rapper 50 cent. A fat beat with a cool base and some strings playing bombom.....bombom.............bombom. This is played by the trombone as G Ab F G Ab G.
I find this video funny, especially the guy in the back acting crazy :-)

Saxtrombone

The picture above is one of a six piston trombone invented by the famous Belgian instrumentmaker Adolphe Sax (1814 - 1894). (Taken from WikiCommons) Off course he is best known for the invention of the saxophone, but beside the saxophone he has experimented much in making other instruments like saxtrombas, valved bugles, saxhorns and so on. The six pistons of the saxtrombone make it possible to play all the six positions without a slide. There was an improvement on the correctness in play compared to other valved trombones from those days. In Belgium the six valved trombone has been a part of the official music education. It has also been used in various orchestras and the opera of Brussels for quite a while.

Bob Beecher: Variation on the trombone

A nice site that has been in use since 2000-2001 is the site of Bob Beecher where he describes the historical variations on the trombone that are made by men during the ages. It's worth checking out. The picture shows trombones in Syntagma Musicum (1614) by Michael Praetorius

http://home.att.net/~bobbeecher/trombone/trombone.html

Trombone Icon - Snapfiles

This is made by me with Greenfish Icon Editor. It's a freeware program available on http://www.snapfiles.com. You can find lots of other freeware programs there as well and review them. A good audio editing program is Audacity which I use whenever I record some off my playing at home. It suits me, but don't expect pro software like Sound Studio (Apple).

A free scoreviewer is Notation Player. I tried it a few times, but because I have an old copy of Finale I use that to view midi and scores. I know Sibelius is also very reknown, but costly.

Glissando chart

On the website http://www.youngcomposers.com I found this interesting trombone slide chart which composers can use to know what slurs and slides a trombonist can make sound good.
The direct links is: http://www.abearnamedflint.com/trombone-gliss.pdf (400kb)

Take a look at it and distribute it to composers you know!

I can make good glissando's on my tenor trombone in range from the low F (6th position) to the F 2 octaves higher (1st or 4th position). The hardest part of glissando's for me is following the pitch with my lips when I go from low to high. The other way around is easier. I think that when my range in the high notes starts to get better this will get better too. For glissando specifically I'm practicing it by playing the glissando from A (6th position) to F (1st position) faster and faster.

Trombone Clipart - Own creation (first try)

Simply made in MS Paint, later this week (if I have time) I'll try to make another. Feel free to use.

Clipart

If you ever need some clipart/pictures of trombone and trombonists to spice up booklets, articles, etc., than use the first two who are part of the public domain. The rest below is for personal use only. They are taken form the site: http://www.clipartheaven.com/. For the more graphical talented among us: its also fun to draw some yourself and scan them. I'm planning to explore how good I'm in doing this!