JimF-LowBari Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 (edited) Early 1974 this trombone player joined Westshoremen Sr (that's what we called it then) corps and was given a Baritone and a fingering chart. Guy next to me (about my fathers age) grunted, gave me a pen and said "Here kid, when yer done marking in the fingerings you can play". So this 16 year old, with shakey fingers stars doing the 0, 1, 2, X (both 1/2) on the charts for ye olde piston/rotor. In those days we had music rehearsals once a week over the winter so had a chance to play with the corps while readling the fingerings along with the notes. Next season still had the charts marked "just in case" but was getting more comfortable with just using the notes. After that the next time I needed to mark fingerings was a few *gag* decades later when I got my first 3v Bari and thought "Holy ####, look at all the sharps in the key signature!". So out of touch with the Jr corps experience today and no idea what members do until Camps start up. So I'll just ask how do trombone or other non-valve players learn the fingerings today? Do they have to teach themselves to be 100% comfortable before they join a corps or possible other ways? Feel free to fill in as don;t want to get to detailed and lead the discussion. Oh yeah, after I got done marking the fingerings, the grunter smiled, laughed and said "Welcome to Westshore kid" and shook my hand. Guess the grunting wasn gruffness was my intitiation. Edited February 11, 2014 by JimF-LowBari 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TboneBtonegirl Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Early 1974 this trombone player joined Westshoremen Sr (that's what we called it then) corps and was given a Baritone and a fingering chart. Guy next to me (about my fathers age) grunted, gave me a pen and said "Here kid, when yer done marking in the fingerings you can play". So this 16 year old, with shakey fingers stars doing the 0, 1, 2, X (both 1/2) on the charts for ye olde piston/rotor. In those days we had music rehearsals once a week over the winter so had a chance to play with the corps while readling the fingerings along with the notes. Next season still had the charts marked "just in case" but was getting more comfortable with just using the notes. After that the next time I needed to mark fingerings was a few *gag* decades later when I got my first 3v Bari and thought "Holy ####, look at all the sharps in the key signature!". So out of touch with the Jr corps experience today and no idea what members do until Camps start up. So I'll just ask how do trombone or other non-valve players learn the fingerings today? Do they have to teach themselves to be 100% comfortable before they join a corps or possible other ways? Feel free to fill in as don;t want to get to detailed and lead the discussion. Oh yeah, after I got done marking the fingerings, the grunter smiled, laughed and said "Welcome to Westshore kid" and shook my hand. Guess the grunting wasn gruffness was my intitiation. Well for me the fingerings came naturally. When I was teaching myself the fingerings, I thought of trombone positions and related them to the euphonium fingerings and it just clicked for me. It was a pretty easy switch and I never had to mark in the fingerings. I've been playing for about a full year now and I'd say I'm decent at it but I'm still working on becoming even better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 Never thought of relating slide postion to fingering. Then again I was having enough trouble switching clefs since I was playing key o' G Bari. My sister bought a corps horn at a flea market back in the 80s and taught herself fingerings. Did it well enough she actually played Sousaphone (at 5' 3") in marching band since they didn't have a marching tuba player. Something about a bet with the Band Director (ex-corps person) if she could do it or not..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewsquared Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 My switch wasn't quite as extreme as that. I went from horn to mellophone, so i already had experience with valve combinations, but none with my right hand. The simple way to say it is I just practiced. I looked at a fingering chart, saw what notes had different fingerings than horn and adjusted my mindset. In less than a week it was no problem at all, except for the occasional weird key signature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tesmusic Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 I think it depends on the person. When I learned treble clef contra, I just used the trumpet fingerings I knew instead of bass clef tuba. When I teach trombone players to play a valved instrument, I relate it to their slide positions. I think just like anything, everyone learns different so whatever works for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrownBariDad Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 When I was learning to play trombone, I attended summer school band. There, I picked up trumpet fingering. Luckily, when I was asked to play baritone in a college British Brass Band, it was in treble clef so no problem. A few years ago, I purchased a Holton SuperBone, so it was time to learn 3-valve bass clef. As others have said, it was easiest to just mentally picture a valve combination with a slide position: 1st and 2nd = 4th position; 1st and 3rd = 6th; etc. I think that's how my son went from trombone to baritone, too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 So out of touch with the Jr corps experience today and no idea what members do until Camps start up. So I'll just ask how do trombone or other non-valve players learn the fingerings today? Do they have to teach themselves to be 100% comfortable before they join a corps or possible other ways? Friends and students of mine who have gone from a ww or t-bone instrument to a drum corps brass line had to learn on their own, teach themselves, etc. This works fine for corps who have a less competitive turnout for auditions; corps that have hundreds of people auditioning for the horn line are able to be more selective and take members who have a deeper understanding of playing an instrument than a beginner: those non-valved brass players obviously have to work a lot harder to make those lines. That's possible, of course, but adds to the difficulty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spandy Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Going down each slide position lowers the pitch by a half step, correct? Which correlates to using valves to move down the chromatic scale. So: 1st position = Open2nd = 2nd valve 3rd = 1st valve 4th = 1&2 5th = 2&3 6th = 1&3 (or 4 on tuba) 7th = 1,2&3 (or 2&4) disclaimer: not a trombone player by trade. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrownBariDad Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Going down each slide position lowers the pitch by a half step, correct? Which correlates to using valves to move down the chromatic scale. So: 1st position = Open 2nd = 2nd valve 3rd = 1st valve 4th = 1&2 5th = 2&3 6th = 1&3 (or 4 on tuba) 7th = 1,2&3 (or 2&4) disclaimer: not a trombone player by trade. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong Works for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 (edited) Going down each slide position lowers the pitch by a half step, correct? Which correlates to using valves to move down the chromatic scale. So: 1st position = Open 2nd = 2nd valve 3rd = 1st valve 4th = 1&2 5th = 2&3 6th = 1&3 (or 4 on tuba) 7th = 1,2&3 (or 2&4) disclaimer: not a trombone player by trade. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong What thumb is third valve? Actually asked my horn instructor that when I got my 3v and got "Man are you old" as a response. My reply was: "And you're old enough to know what I am talking about", Thinking about it, my inexperience with using different clefs would have killed me if I tried that. Might not be explaining right as I never played a Bb valved instrument. But a 1st position Bb on the trombone would translate to a first valve/right thumb on the G Bari. Guess good thing I just went in with the mindset of "OK brand new, start from scratch". And yes Doug, having that time over the Winter to work it out with the rest of the horn line was a blessing. By Spring I had the music memorized so really didn't have to worry about reading anymore. Of course when the next season rolled around...... Edited February 11, 2014 by JimF-LowBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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