[Dixielandjazz] Trombonists

[Eric Holroyd]

When I got a trombone in my first brass band at age 13 one of the senior
band members gave me my one and only lesson.

I didn’t need any lessons in music theory as my Dad started me on that when
I was four years old, so was able to grasp the fundamentals of a new
instrument quite quickly.

In that lesson, the guy taught me the slide positions and ran me through a
few scales.

Once I’d got the hang of it he left me to it, but not before giving me a
final ‘trombonist tip’.

And that was, ‘When you go to the third position you can check that you’re
in the correct spot by stretching out your middle finger and touching the
trombone bell’.

Throughout my musical career that ‘tip’ has always come to mind when I see a
live band or a music video. I unconsciously watch the trombone player (s)
and it never fails to amaze me that quite a large number of them do the
middle finger trick.

Even when they are very skilled trombonists they still seem to do that thing
that they were shown when beginning on the horn.

I watched those 'Austrian Novelty' videos posted by David Richoux and, 
whilst I am very familiar with the wonderful Mnozil Brass - who are all 
fabulous brass players - I had never come across the Blechhaufn outfit that 
David kindly pointed us towards with this link:
http://blechhaufn.at/blechpages/medien.php

They too are all top class musicians, but guess what? I spotted one of the 
trombonists doing the middle finger bit!

It seems that it's ingrained with some guys to seek that little extra bit of 
assurance that they're doing it correctly...

Every now and then, when playing in different bands I'd notice the trombone 
player doing that and - it must have been the devil in me that made me do 
this - I'd ask innocently, 'Do  you really NEED to feel for the third 
position like that?'

And I'd invariably get the reply that, 'I don't do that'.

But they'd spend the rest of the session watching their middle fingers, 
sometimes to the detriment of their playing.