Can you play a perfect crescendo in the middle/low range going from ppp to fff in one breath? This exercise is great to improve those skills!

But before you start playing the exercise in the sheet music gallery, please read the following:
The goal is not to play as strong as possible all the time! The goal is to get the feeling of opening up your throat and let the notes in ff pour out effortlessly.

The analogy of a water pouring out of a tap is a great way to visualize the air flow. Take a look at these three pictures: read more »

I know what you think: Yet another five minutes exercise that is supposed to change my life…
But no, this time you can actually settle with two or three minutes! And it really did make a big difference for me the first time I tried it, so I strongly recommend that you tried it out.

I got into some really bad problems with air flow a few years ago. After playing for years without thinking much about breathing with a natural talent for relaxed air flow I slowly got into trouble. It took me a very long time to get rid of the bad habits, both physically and mentally. This following exercise is one that really helped me. It is actually adapted from an excellent article about breathing problems (the Valsalva Maneuver) by Brad Howland.

I recommend that you stand up and make sure that you are relaxed and in good balance without your instrument. read more »

Admitted, this exercise is not the most fun you can have with a trombone, but there´s no way around the fact that there´s a lot of hard work involved if you want to be a top performer on a brass instrument. Footballers don´t kick a ball around all the time at practice…

With that in place: Let´s do something about the world of lip trills. Regardless of the genres you play, they will be needed at some point.

There is only one way to make it work, and that is to start slow. Find a metronome, and set a slow tempo that allows you to play the whole phrase. I recommend that you write down the tempo you can play it in today, and try to raise it by a few beats per minute every day over a period of time. The goal is to get to the point where you don´t notice the individual notes, and just let it flow. Think of it as running, you don´t want to think about every step you take, but rather just the direction and the speed. read more »

The world famous architect Norman Foster was hired to design the new elephant house at the Copenhagen Zoo a few years ago. Living close to the Zoo I could see the project evolve, and it struck me that they couldn´t possibly have a grand opening without an Elephanfare!

I contacted the Zoo and tried to sell them my idea. To make sure I had something to bargain with, I sad that I needed 6 trombones and two tubas, knowing that they would negotiate it down to half the number.

To my great surprise read more »

Having good flexibility on your brass instrument is fundamental. In basically all music you will play, you will find use for the flexibility skills you worked on in the practise room. Not always the most fancy and exciting work, but someone has to do it – and I´m afraid that someone is you. And me. And all the other brass players out there.

The exercise
Working on control and precision is important, but you should work on speed as well. This exercise really help you speed up your flexibility chops. The pattern I have chosen as example is by no mean my own, but at the other hand it is well known and I doubt that someone will come after me and claim ownership to it! Of course, you can use any pattern you want, but this one is well suited to play in a high tempo. read more »

10 Jazz Etudes for Trombone

I don´t really like to practise. It´s lonely and can be quite boring from time to time. That is one of the main reasons I wrote this book – to make practising more fun!

The concept of the book is simple: Every etude is composed as an improvised jazz solo, written over the chords from a famous jazz standard. And every etude consists of two parts; easy/medium and advanced, each divided into numbered choruses. Two of the etudes are written as a duet for two trombones.

You can play the etudes alone, with a piano player, a full rhythm section or find the relevant songs on a play-along cd (not included). The idea is to let you expand your jazz vocabulary, and play music that really fits the instrument. read more »

After hours of tweaking and fine tuning, the digitaltrombone web shop is now launched! Opening hours are Monday-Sunday 9.00am-9.00am CET. All year. Always!

The shop will offer books and sheet music in PDF format, covering a wide variety of subjects such as:

FAQ:
?: Do I have to buy something when I visit the store?
!: No, but I strongly recommend it.
?: Can I return purchased items?
!: No, you cannot return a digital product, but feel free to send me a nasty email with your complaints.
?: Is there any other web shop in the world that can compete with the digitaltrombone shop?
!: No. I don´t think so.
?: Are your products safe?
!: Yes, very. All our downloadable products are animal tested and guaranteed allergy free.
?: What if my friends are interested in the product I just bought?
!: Tease them with it and send them to the shop. Giving them the product would be stupid. And illegal. And bad for business.
?: Can I become an affiliate marketer of your products?
!: Yes you can. More info here
?: Will that make me rich?
!: Probably not. Maybe a little.
?: My recently purchased PDF file has a peculiar smell to it. What can I do?
!: Switch to mac.

It was supposed to be a simple little exercise, didn´t expect it to end up covering nine pages of sheet music!

This is an exercise about the different types of triads and their inversions. Triads are a fundamental part of western music, both classical, jazz and pop/rock etc. You don´t need a bachelor in triadism to spot the difference between major and minor, but when you include the different inversion, mix minor, major, augmented and diminished it can be a bit more tricky to tell them apart. read more »

Maybe you read my previous article with scale exercises? Then let´s move on with the same concept using the altered scale!

I find the altered scale to be very useful when I improvise. It has more edge and tension than any mode of the major scale. And it´s very useful over a large variety of chords.

first, here´s the scale in the key of C:

It consists of the root, b9, #9, major third, #11, b6, and the b7. These are all notes you use in an altered dominant chord. As a matter of fact, you can play all the notes in the scale at once, creating a C7 b9 #11 b13. read more »

It doesn´t matter if you play jazz or classical music. Being really familiar with the major scales in all twelve keys is very useful, both for improvising and reading music. You should get to the point where you don´t have to think about the notes in the scale any longer and can play it up and down while planning the dinner! read more »