Patrick McCarty Sonata for Bass Trombone

[trombinstharry]

Hello all, I have just acquired a nice little solo to perform at my county's solo and ensemble this year. What are your thoughts on this piece? How should I approach a piece such as this?

[Savio]

I usually try to first get familiar with the notes, intervals and technical challenges. Then find the phrases, tempo and where to breath. Find the music and meaning with the piece. This was one of the first pieces I played as a student, so I like it. The last movement have some fast notes that needs some practice, but its not that big slide movements. Jeff Reynolds have a nice recording of this piece on his cd "The big trombone"

Leif

[Jgittleson]

Same as anything else. Listen to it, honk through it, and then listen again. Break down the hard stuff.

[Neo Bri]

Probably hardest thing in that is the octave jumps in the 3rd movement, and if you work on playing efficiently, they're not too bad. Like the others say...play, listen, play listen.

[Savio]

Do you have a string trio available to play it with you? That could make it more fun. I believe it was originally written for trombone and string trio. Never tried it my self.

Leif

[trombinstharry]

Do you have a string trio available to play it with you? That could make it more fun. I believe it was originally written for trombone and string trio. Never tried it my self.

Leif

Thank you, I will see if I can find some string players at my school willing to perform with me. I think that would be cooler than standard piano accompaniment.

[CalgaryTbone]

Hi -

First of all, I think the string accomp. for McCarty is a quartet, not a trio. I recently heard an online teaser of Gerry Pagano, the great Bass trombonist of the St. Louis Symphony playing a bit of that piece that he has just recorded for an upcoming new CD release.

I'm not a bass trombonist, but I've taught the piece to several students. My advice is to relate the technical passages to the warm-ups of Emory Remington. McCarty was trained at Eastman, where Remington taught for many years. He must have had the sounds of trombonists practicing those flexibility exercises in his ear when he wrote the piece - lots of angular legato lines that are (mostly) in the same position. Lots of work on clean lip slurs, mixed with nice legato tonguing for the passages that are more scale-like rather than the arpeggiated lip slurs. Of course, once all of this is technically clean, try to make these lines have a good melodic shape to them.

Nice piece with a simple but beautiful lyrical 2nd mvt. For that mvt., playing with a simple approach - not too much rubato or vibrato - just like a song. Enjoy working on the piece.

Jim Scott