(start with 2 tutors in a split screen dialogue – the same video as for cornet)
(cut to one tutor, full screen)
“You’ve already met the note C. It’s the low note you get when you play with the slide pulled right in, like this (play a low C)”
“Let’s play it together. Remember to take a good breath as I count you in, and use your tongue to start the note. Ready? 1, 2, 3” (breathe on ‘4’ and play C for 4 beats, indicate the end of the note with your hand)
“Now you might already have played a higher note than C, because if we blow the air a bit faster and vibrate our lips a bit faster we get the note G with the slide pulled in, like this” (play a G)
“I’m going to play C then G a few times. Listen and see if you can hear the difference” (play C, G, C, G, C, G, about 2 beats each)
“Did you hear the difference? The G sounds higher than the C. Listen again” (repeat)
“Let’s try that together. To play the G you will need to blow the air faster, so tighten the lips a bit, blow slightly downwards and think of the sound ‘ee’. To play the C, relax the lips again and think of an “‘or’ sound. Have a go with me. I’ll hold my hand down here for C and up here for G (indicate). We’ll go slow. Ready? 1, 2, 3, C”
(play C for about 3 slow beats then say “G” and indicate a higher note, play G similarly, C, G, C, G)
“Don’t worry if that seems hard. It can take practice to get good at it. Just do your best and listen to the notes you play”
“So that’s C and G but there are 3 other letters between them: D, E and F!”
“To play these notes you will need to use your slide.”
“To move the slide you will need to loosen the locking nut here. Gently twist it until the slide can be moved”
“Now let’s check you are holding your trombone correctly.”
“Hold the trombone in your left hand and hold the slide here like this.”
“Try moving the slide out and back in like this. Does it move freely? If you have any problems, please ask for help from your music teacher at school, or contact us for help.”
“Now we are going to learn about the slide positions. There are 7 positions for the slide and I am going to show you where they are.”
“The 1st position is easy. It’s when the slide is pulled all the way in. We used 1st position to play C and G. We just didn’t know it was 1st position! Let’s play C and G again in 1st position”
.
“OK, so the next note after C is D, which is a little bit higher, like this (play D)”
“To play D we need to push the slide a long way out, like this (demonstrate).”
“If your arms are not long enough to reach that far, you can use the handle we have supplied with your trombone. If you don’t have one, please contact us and we’ll see if we can send you one”
“We call this 6th position. If I push the slide a little further, you can see brass stockings, which means you’ve gone a little bit past 6th position”
“If you are using a handle, find where you need to hold the handle to reach 6th position with your arm stretched and your mouth is still resting in the mouthpiece ready to play the instrument”
“Remember how you are holding the handle and always hold it in the same place. Use the handle all the time even when you don’t have to, so you can move the slide from one position to another without letting go of the handle, or having to quickly grab it”
“OK, are you ready to play D with me. Ready? 1, 2, 3, (breathe on ‘4’ and play D for about 4 beats). Let’s try that again….(repeat twice, ie play 3 times)”
“Let’s try playing C then D, like this (play C and D, 4 beats each, make sure the video shows the slide being moved)”
“Ready to play with me? 1, 2, 3,” (breathe then play, C and D, 4 slow beats each, 3 times)
(when playing a note for 4 beats, I suggest actually playing the note for about 3 beats with a 1 beat rest to breathe and separate them clearly)
“The next note after D is E. E is played in 4th position. To find 4th position the top of the slide should be level with the end of the bell, like this.”
“Remember, if you need to use a slide for 6th position, keep holding it in exactly the same way for the other positions.”
(continue E as for D, then C and E)
“If this is 4th position, and this is 6th position, then 5th position is about half way in between, here”
“We won’t need to use 5th position for now”.
“If this is 1st position, and this is 4th position, then 2nd and 3rd positions are in between, about a third and two thirds of the way”
“The next note after E is F, and we play F in 3rd position here”
(continue F as for D, then C and F)
(Then take them through playing C, D, E, F, G slowly (4 beats) and then down again)
“There is a video below where you can do some more practice playing C to G”
“Before we finish, what about the notes we haven’t played yet? We’ve played C to G, but what about A and B?”
“Here’s how we play B…” (the note below low C – demonstrate as before)
“Here’s how we play A…” (the note below – demonstrate)
“Don’t worry if you find it hard to get the lower notes at first”
“You can also try playing the A that comes after G. It’s a higher note like this…”
“So now you know how to play 7 notes A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.”
“But for now, it is enough to practice the 5 notes we started with: C, D, E, F and G, because we have some tunes for you to play with those notes!”
“Keep practicing and see what you can do! The more you practice, the better you will get”
“See you soon”
Return to Lesson