Daily Routine and Warm-ups: Extended Slurs and Major Scales for Bass Trombone
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2023
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com
82 pages. e-book.
Primary Genre: Study Material - etude
Secondary Genre: Study Material - method
The number of warmup and daily routine books are legion, and most players try a number of approaches to these important parts of each day’s practicing before eventually settling on something that works. It’s not a one-size-fits-all world and it’s self-evident that what works for one player might not work for another. Still, trying different approaches can be helpful as players mix up different ideas to keep this important part of a practice session fresh.
Jörg Richter, bass trombonist of the Ebland Philharmonie Sachsen, has written out part of his personal warmup and daily routine. This book, with the subtitle “Extended Slurs and Major Scales,” takes a player through a succession of lip slur patterns in the middle and valve/pedal registers as well as diatonic scale and interval patterns in all major keys, along with one exercise in double and triple tonguing. Richter recommends that a player choose a key a day. Playing through the lip slurs and one key's worth of scale/interval exercises takes about 20 minutes, but the author says that this book “is only a snapshot” of his daily routine and he hopes new books will be forthcoming. Perhaps the next volume will explore long tones, chromaticism, and minor keys. There are only so many lip slur and scale/interval study patterns in the world and one cannot but observe Richter’s kinship to similar types of exercises developed by Emory Remington, Lew Gillis, and Georg Kopprasch. Still, Daily Routine and Warm-ups for Bass Trombone: Extended Slurs and Major Scales offers one player’s twist on an important part of every trombonist’s day, and for those looking for variety in routine, Jörg Richter offers something worth investigating.
Review Published May 9, 2024