This is exactly what I needed since I have been struggling trying to do even just simple improvised solos on trombone, and these tips are really great.
I’ve been teaching someone how to solo and I’m not good at teaching and I’ve been looking everywhere for advice on how to teach because best advice I have for them is too feel it but it’s hard for them to understand sometimes. Idk what to do but this video helped a bit
Hi Paul. First of all, your tutorials are wonderful - I thank you from my heart. In fact, you have been my personal godfather of trombone. I play tenor saxophone more or less, but last year I stumbled into your channel here and you mesmerized me into the trombone land. Pied piper, that sort of things. So I up and got me a trombone, Bb/F type, and dived in head first. Perhaps I am your oldest student here, at 63, and one of the few who follows you from Russia. I hope you live to be a hundred, and let your every day be full of sunshine. Well, now a nurdy question, if you don't mind. You mentioned playing chord changes in this tutorial. Sometimes I open a book of lead sheets, and what I see there is pretty scary, something like this (in the key of C major): C - C#o7 - D-7 - D#-7 - C/E - E+ - F6 - F-6... etc. This is a quote from the Great Gig Book, 1996 edition, btw. The tune itself is quite simple (Bewitched, by Rodgers), but the changes, oh my God! So my question is: If you - Paul the Trombonist - wanted to improvise over this tune, how would you consider this half-step ascending sequence - or would you at all?
Seems like a lot of substitutions to me. I recommend to just use the chord changes in the real/fake book or I real B for that tune . Thanks for nice words!
Amazing timing Paul, I literally just got back from my very first improvisation workshop. Teacher wasn't there due to illness, so your beginner lesson was perfect! Thanks for your guidance and encouragement, and the patience to understand a beginners needs. Let's do this, people!
Thank you so much! Over the summer my trombone playing has gotten worse and i have a jazz band tryout about a week after school starts again and i am really stumped on how to improvise, it’s part of the try out but i don’t think i’ll be ready in time. Hopefully this will help!!!
Paul is right. The main troubles I see and hear with improvisers is: Rhythm (having a weird, or less than great sense of rhythm and swing) or tendency to not VARY texture. So RHYTHM and concern with TEXTURE and variety are key. If all your notes are legato (potential texture problem), even if you had decent rhythm, the solo might be perceived as quite good, but somehow would lack that extra "magic", maybe even be a bit boring. Listen to great improvisers and you will start to hear a great variety of variation (Paul is right and it's a great idea to put in SPACE to provide variation), articulation (toss in some truly staccato notes and this really helps), rhythmic variation, stuff like vibrato, perhaps even things like flutter tongue or squeeze tones. You are basically composing on the fly, so you need to develop a VOCABULARY, but you don't adhere to a regimented set of words, or sentences, but pick up the pieces and reassemble them in a CREATIVE way to make up your own mini-composition. I'd suggest for beginners to improve their ear training by listening to some tunes that are easy to get to remember (perhaps something like "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" would be good to start on) and then learn to just pick up the horn and play it correctly. Use your ear to guide you as to which are the next notes. Continue to do this same kind of thing with many different "standards" type tunes. "All the Things You Are", "Lover Man", "We'll Be Together Again", "Stella By Starlight", "Straight No Chaser" are all great tunes to just play out and do them in a variety of keys (there are twelve you could do). As you move down the line you will learn to do BLUES, Rhythm Changes, Turnarounds and with trombone likely you will get to do PLUNGER WORK (this is a quite different thing, requiring some actual thought and practice to sound convincing on). As you look at chord changes. Get used to seeing series of Minor 7, Dominant 7 in patterns like this: Fm7, Bb7 (which likely is a key of Eb temporary key center), and you will see these ii7, V7 combos all over most music (the two and the five are the function or location of the chord within a key and it's related scale) - note these things and you cut down how many brief key stops you need to think about. If you see Half-Diminished 7, followed by Dominant, chances are we are seeing a MINOR KEY Center so, if you see Gm7b5, C9 (the Minor Flat Five is another way to express half-diminished) this is likely F minor key center (you can quickly confirm this looking at the context). These brief key centers will vary and both major key centers and minor key centers can appear together in a song. If you quickly take a look and determine the varying centers you will be less likely to be surprised at the sounds coming from the rhythm section. Learn the blues scales, symmetric or diminished scales (some patterns in this one are truly epic sounding), whole tone scales, and all the major and minor scales. Learn basic patterns over those scales, but don't just blurt out endless amounts of patterns. Use the patterns as you would use packaged expressions in speech (good speakers don't just string platitudes or famous expressions together, they make central points, elaborate upon it, and sprinkle related famous expressions to help drive the speech). A little goes a long way and variation and rhythm are TOP PRIORITY.
This is exactly what I needed since I have been struggling trying to do even just simple improvised solos on trombone, and these tips are really great.
You can do it!
Maceo Parker of the JB's was a master of riding the funk on few notes. Funkiest solos ever. Fred Wesley, the Godfather of t-bone funk.
I've been looking for something to help me get started with improv solos. Thanks for the video!
Happy to help!
I’ve been teaching someone how to solo and I’m not good at teaching and I’ve been looking everywhere for advice on how to teach because best advice I have for them is too feel it but it’s hard for them to understand sometimes. Idk what to do but this video helped a bit
Hi Paul. First of all, your tutorials are wonderful - I thank you from my heart. In fact, you have been my personal godfather of trombone. I play tenor saxophone more or less, but last year I stumbled into your channel here and you mesmerized me into the trombone land. Pied piper, that sort of things. So I up and got me a trombone, Bb/F type, and dived in head first. Perhaps I am your oldest student here, at 63, and one of the few who follows you from Russia. I hope you live to be a hundred, and let your every day be full of sunshine.
Well, now a nurdy question, if you don't mind. You mentioned playing chord changes in this tutorial. Sometimes I open a book of lead sheets, and what I see there is pretty scary, something like this (in the key of C major): C - C#o7 - D-7 - D#-7 - C/E - E+ - F6 - F-6... etc. This is a quote from the Great Gig Book, 1996 edition, btw. The tune itself is quite simple (Bewitched, by Rodgers), but the changes, oh my God! So my question is: If you - Paul the Trombonist - wanted to improvise over this tune, how would you consider this half-step ascending sequence - or would you at all?
Seems like a lot of substitutions to me. I recommend to just use the chord changes in the real/fake book or I real B for that tune . Thanks for nice words!
Amazing timing Paul, I literally just got back from my very first improvisation workshop. Teacher wasn't there due to illness, so your beginner lesson was perfect! Thanks for your guidance and encouragement, and the patience to understand a beginners needs. Let's do this, people!
That’s awesome to hear! I’ll be posting more on this topic in future so stay tuned!
Thanks Paul, your video is very helpfull for me!
Thank you so much! Over the summer my trombone playing has gotten worse and i have a jazz band tryout about a week after school starts again and i am really stumped on how to improvise, it’s part of the try out but i don’t think i’ll be ready in time. Hopefully this will help!!!
Paul is right. The main troubles I see and hear with improvisers is: Rhythm (having a weird, or less than great sense of rhythm and swing) or tendency to not VARY texture. So RHYTHM and concern with TEXTURE and variety are key. If all your notes are legato (potential texture problem), even if you had decent rhythm, the solo might be perceived as quite good, but somehow would lack that extra "magic", maybe even be a bit boring. Listen to great improvisers and you will start to hear a great variety of variation (Paul is right and it's a great idea to put in SPACE to provide variation), articulation (toss in some truly staccato notes and this really helps), rhythmic variation, stuff like vibrato, perhaps even things like flutter tongue or squeeze tones. You are basically composing on the fly, so you need to develop a VOCABULARY, but you don't adhere to a regimented set of words, or sentences, but pick up the pieces and reassemble them in a CREATIVE way to make up your own mini-composition.
I'd suggest for beginners to improve their ear training by listening to some tunes that are easy to get to remember (perhaps something like "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" would be good to start on) and then learn to just pick up the horn and play it correctly. Use your ear to guide you as to which are the next notes. Continue to do this same kind of thing with many different "standards" type tunes. "All the Things You Are", "Lover Man", "We'll Be Together Again", "Stella By Starlight", "Straight No Chaser" are all great tunes to just play out and do them in a variety of keys (there are twelve you could do). As you move down the line you will learn to do BLUES, Rhythm Changes, Turnarounds and with trombone likely you will get to do PLUNGER WORK (this is a quite different thing, requiring some actual thought and practice to sound convincing on).
As you look at chord changes. Get used to seeing series of Minor 7, Dominant 7 in patterns like this: Fm7, Bb7 (which likely is a key of Eb temporary key center), and you will see these ii7, V7 combos all over most music (the two and the five are the function or location of the chord within a key and it's related scale) - note these things and you cut down how many brief key stops you need to think about. If you see Half-Diminished 7, followed by Dominant, chances are we are seeing a MINOR KEY Center so, if you see Gm7b5, C9 (the Minor Flat Five is another way to express half-diminished) this is likely F minor key center (you can quickly confirm this looking at the context). These brief key centers will vary and both major key centers and minor key centers can appear together in a song. If you quickly take a look and determine the varying centers you will be less likely to be surprised at the sounds coming from the rhythm section.
Learn the blues scales, symmetric or diminished scales (some patterns in this one are truly epic sounding), whole tone scales, and all the major and minor scales. Learn basic patterns over those scales, but don't just blurt out endless amounts of patterns. Use the patterns as you would use packaged expressions in speech (good speakers don't just string platitudes or famous expressions together, they make central points, elaborate upon it, and sprinkle related famous expressions to help drive the speech). A little goes a long way and variation and rhythm are TOP PRIORITY.
I am curious about the way of blowing, are you using your tongue by every single note??
cool
How do you fit all your trombones in your space behind you? Do you have some compact stand? I've only got 4 to deal with. Love your stuff!
thanks! they are on each a stand. It's tight in here for now.