How to Play Jazz Trombone

The trombone is a versatile and expressive musical instrument available for jazz. While you need some experience in playing the trombone before trying jazz, listening to jazz trombonists and learning major and minor scales are tools that a trombonist of any skill level can start building. To play jazz trombone, you need to transcribe from recordings, play in a variety of settings, practice the material and have the right tools. Read on to learn how to play jazz trombone.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Teach yourself or take lessons to learn all of the major and minor music scales, including all minor modes. The minor scales are more useful in jazz, but in order to be a really good jazz trombonist you will need to know all of your scales perfectly.
2. Study and learn piano voicings. Piano voicings are a series of chord progressions that will help you determine which notes are best to use while improvising.
3. Listen to good jazz trombone recordings in different styles of jazz. Listen to blues, swing, bebop and other genres to get a feel for how trombonists change their sound in different types of jazz.
4. Transcribe the solos of musicians that you like. Sit down and listen to the solo systematically. Write out their solo in musical notation and play it back with the recording to check for correctness. You can quote these solos later in solos of your own, or just analyze them for technique.
5. Play in a big band and in a smaller combo. Playing in a big band will allow you to develop the skills necessary for fitting into a group jazz sound. Fitting the specific rhythmic feel of jazz with a large group is more difficult than it seems. Playing in a smaller combo will allow you more visibility and time to develop your solo technique.
6. Practice your improvisation with recordings. You can either play over a jazz recording that you like or get a CD specifically made for improvisation practice. Jamey Aebersold manufactures a series of books and CDs for improvisation practice, including sample riffs for you to try.
7. Learn about special techniques for the jazz trombone like the glissando, multi-phonics and other types of sounds. Practice these techniques so that they are available as part of your repertoire.
8. Purchase the proper tools for your trombone. For a good jazz sound that has an open tone with versatility from low to high notes, play on a large bore trombone. You should also have a straight mute, a cup mute, a harmon mute and the cup of a plunger. These mutes are necessary for big band playing, but you can also incorporate them into your solos for a different type of sound.