Happy New Year everyone!
Thank you for continuing to be subscribed to my newsletter. I hope you've found some of these helpful, and as always, let me know if you have suggestions for the next month!
Dig This:
This month I wanted to highlight this recording from Live at Emmet's Place. This is an outstanding collection of live performances hosted by pianist Emmet Cohen, all of which are high quality and free. These performances feature some of the most amazing musicians playing tunes we've heard! I also am highlighting this because some of the best soloing information you can get as a bass trombonist can come from bass players! This video features the house bassist Russell Hall, and bass legend Christian McBride on Birk's Works!
The bass player has been doing 8vbebop before it was cool, so dig into these great solos and you can take from this already perfected low register language! This month's free PDF is actually a series of exercises I use to work on my valve proficiency. Oftentimes we have to line up slide position, articulation, lip partial, and then up to two valves for a note change to happen effectively (thats up to five different factors!). In order for me to take one level of complication off of the table, I practice just being able to move my valves in time effectively. Ensure that you move the valves in time so that the note speaks on the beat or subdivision, and aim for a relaxed but efficient grip with your left hand. There are some trickier ones that I call "Valve Twisters", so feel free to give these a go, and make up some more of your own!
As a final bonus, check out my transcription of Charlie Parker's solo on Cherokee, which includes a PDF with valve positions. There are TONS of great ideas in this solo, so don't hold back!!