Swing – Boro Blues
This excerpt is marked to be played Medium Swing. Since there is no specific tempo listed, I experimented with a few and found that I like it around quarter note = 120. That makes the breathing and feel seem to work well for me. As with all of the jazz etudes, style is more important than tempo. If you need to play a little bit faster to make the phrases or a bit slower to give yourself chances to breathe, you should be fine as long as the feel is good.
Pay close attention to the articulations that I use in the recording. You will notice that I add several slurs rather than tonguing the whole example. In swing styles the default articulation and note length is to play quarter notes short unless they are marked otherwise and to play eighth notes long unless they are the last eighth note before a rest.
I also use several alternate positions in order to keep my arm more relaxed and to create some natural slurs. Natural slurs are ‘real’ slurs like what a trumpet or sax player can do, rather than having to cheat by articulating softly in order to try to sound like we are slurring on a trombone.
Check out the following video for an example of how to use natural slurs to play the turns in this example.
Here are some practice tips for playing the quarter note triplets in measures 9, 15 & 16.
Trombone Montuno
This excerpt is marked to be played Fast Salsa (Latin). Since there is no specific tempo listed, I experimented with a few and found that I like it around half note = 90 or quarter note = 180. That makes the breathing and feel seem to work well for me. As with all of the jazz etudes, style is more important than tempo. If you need to play a little bit faster to make the phrases or a bit slower to give yourself chances to breathe, you should be fine as long as the feel is good.
Drum Tracks
As you heard above, I made a drum track to accompany myself in place of using a metronome for both of these examples. For these styles of jazz etudes, it is important to play as if you are playing with a rhythm section. Rubato really doesn’t work for these unless you are playing a ballad, and even then, the rhythm section will still be chugging along as you play.
The links below are downloadable mp3 files that you can use to practice with.
Boro Blues – Drum Track Only
Trombone Montuno – Drum Track Only