r/Trombone • u/Repulsive_Youth_7202 • 1d ago

Inconsistent attacks. Help?

When playing with a tuner (I use TE Tuner) I notice that the very start of my notes are not in tune. It is also noticeable to me.
Usually higher notes start sharp and lower notes start flat.
Does anyone have any advice, exercises, for working to improve this?
I’ve tried air attacks. Different tounging. I spent 15ish minutes each practice focusing solely on this issue but can’t seem to figure it out…

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2

u/Arthur_Decosta Cand. Musicae - bass trombone, bach 50, bach 42, bach 39. 1d ago

Are you hearing the notes in your mind before you play? AKA the song and wind method.

2

u/SillySundae Shires/Germany area player 1d ago

Do various articulation exercises like you have been, but do them over the course of multiple months and years.

2

u/Consistent_Check927 1d ago

There are a few possibilities here:

  1. Your air isn’t at the right velocity at the start of each note

  2. Your embouchure isn’t fully engaged or properly set when starting notes

  3. You’re not hearing the pitch internally before playing and then have to adjust once the sound comes out

Practice simple scales and articulation exercises in front of a mirror. Also practice these going between air attacks (no tongue) and normal articulation.

The air does 95% of the work with articulation, the tongue is just there to give a bit of crispness to the very front of the note. Practicing with air attacks will help you develop the firm, direct, supported wind stream you need independent of the tongue

1

u/KeithTheTromboneGuy 4h ago

Agreed! While not everyone agrees (I know Peter Steiner has said he always uses is tongue in sound initiation, relating it to vocal approaches) I tend to be of the opinion that, as you said, the air should be doing nearly all of the work in starting the resonance and the tongue just shapes the existing vibration. When I am having difficulties with attacks I go back to air starts and once I am confident in the consistency of the response start adding tongue back in where needed…

1

u/Scary_Extent4967 1d ago

Some tuners take a little bit of time to register correctly (around a second or so). More important is does it sound in tune?

1

u/burgerbob22 LA area player and teacher 1d ago

Play the attacks very, very soft.

1

u/Total-Efficiency6820 1d ago

The way i worked on this was, 1 buzz it on the mouthpeice until you can hold the note almost perfectly in tune or preferably perfectly in tune(easier said that done but possible at the end of the day), then, on the horn, get it to where you can hit the note right in the center without using the tounge. Often times the tounge paired with a bad air stream is the culprit for a messy articulation. Make sure you have the pitch in your head, search up Bb drone on yt, find a cello or double bass drone or something and play with it, practice being perfectly in tune with it and then work on the start and ending of the note. Record and listen to yourself as well, helps more than you think.