A Band Director's Guide to Everything Trombone: A Collection of Interviews with the Experts (Band Director's Guide Series Book 2) by Hitz Andrew

Author:Hitz, Andrew [Hitz, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-04-13T16:00:00+00:00

VII.

Lance LaDuke

Lance is my partner at Pedal Note Media and my co-host on The Brass Junkies podcast . When we had a trombone opening in Boston Brass many years ago, Lance told us we should hire a euphonium player instead. We told him he should learn to play the trombone. So he did. In six months. Who does that? While one of the best euphonium players in the world learning the trombone is not at all similar to a band student doing the same, his intense journey gave him some insights into learning the trombone that are very much worth sharing in this book.

You can find Lance online at musicpracticecoach.com . You can also find my interview with Lance for The Entrepreneurial Musician podcast here .

•••

Hitz: How many years did you play the euphonium before learning the trombone?

LaDuke: I started on trumpet in 6th grade and then I switched to euphonium in 9th grade so that would have been around 1980 I guess. Was it 10 years ago that I joined the quintet?

Hitz: Yes.

LaDuke: So 25 years.

Hitz: A very long time.

LaDuke: A very long time with a vested disinterest in playing the trombone.

Hitz: For a band director looking to switch kids from another brass instrument to the trombone, what was the hardest aspect of picking up the trombone for you?

LaDuke: My son is in 8th grade and he’s been playing trombone since 4th grade. It’s been interesting watching him and how he has developed and comparing it my experience. I was a grown adult and had been playing for a long, long time, but I think that the development of the ear is probably the most crucial aspect of it.

Frankly, this isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but it would be treated as a ridiculous idea. This is just my commentary. I think that band directors would be much better suited starting everybody on brass instruments on trumpet and euphonium. Actually, Roger Behrend had this idea 25-30 years ago or more. Then you’re teaching all the same valve patterns. You’re teaching all of that same stuff. Then, as the ears develop and as the kids get older and their arms get longer, then you can switch the low brass guys and girls to trombone or tuba and you can switch the trumpet players to French horn because their ears will have developed enough that they can understand what they need to do.

But, that’s not reality. In reality, the thing that would need to happen is making sure that the kids with the best ears are the ones that end up playing trombone. Of course, there’s only so much steering you can do, but the better developed a young player’s ear is, the better they will be at getting their right arm to go where it’s supposed to go at the right time because there’s a lot of approximation that happens.

Hitz: Depends on the player!

LaDuke: Yes. Exactly. So, I’m in the neighborhood of G-sharp.

Hitz: It’s around here somewhere.

LaDuke: Right.

Hitz: Obviously the largest

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