Trombone U
A library of video lessons taught by working professional trombonists, to be watched whenever the horn is out of its case and studied at whatever pace the player needs. It will come with a Trombone World subscription.
A teacher for every practice room
Almost every fine trombonist can name the teacher who changed the way they played. Yet most people who love the instrument have no such teacher within reach. The student in a small town may be the only trombonist in the school, the adult who took the horn down from the closet after twenty years does not know where to begin again, and the working player who wants to learn jazz, or the bass trombone, or the orchestral repertoire, rarely lives near the person best placed to teach it.
Recorded lessons cannot replace a teacher who listens, but they can carry a great deal of what a good teacher knows: how a sound is made, how a routine is built, how a phrase is shaped, and what to practise tomorrow. We mean to gather that knowledge from players who earn their living on the instrument, pay them properly for it, and arrange it so that a subscriber can begin at the beginning or step in exactly where they need help.
How it will work
- IIn preparation
The video library
Short, focused lessons grouped into courses, each taught by a professional who plays that music for a living. Subscribers can watch any lesson at any time, return to it as often as they like, and move through a course in order or dip in for the one thing they are working on this week.
- IIOne subscription
Part of Trombone World
The lessons will come with a Trombone World subscription, alongside the rest of what we are building. New courses will be added through the year, and subscribers will help decide which ones come next.
- IIILater
Live lessons
Once the library is established, we plan to offer private lessons online with members of the faculty, so that a player who has worked through a course can play for a teacher and hear what to do next.
The first courses we are planning
First Notes
Assembling and holding the horn, the buzz, the seven positions, and reading the bass clef from the very first page. For adult beginners and players coming back after years away.
The Daily Routine
Breathing, long tones, lip slurs and flexibility, built into a warm-up you can carry into any practice room and adjust as your playing grows.
Slide and Tongue
Clean slide technique, alternate positions, legato tonguing, multiple tonguing and doodle-tonguing, and getting the most from an F attachment.
The Jazz Trombone
Time, phrasing and the language of the music, from transcribing the masters to building solos over standards and the blues.
In the Section
Blend, balance and style in the big band, the orchestra and the studio, including lead playing and the craft of the second and third chairs.
The Bass Trombone
Sound, valve technique and the low register, for tenor players making the change and bass trombonists who want a teacher of their own.
Audition Room
Orchestral excerpts, solo repertoire and the preparation behind a strong audition for school, college, a military band or a professional chair.
Care and Gear
Cleaning and maintaining the slide, choosing a mouthpiece, and what actually changes when you change horns.
Teach with us
We are looking for working professionals to make the first courses: players and teachers from jazz, orchestral, commercial, military and studio work, on tenor and bass trombone. Faculty are paid for the courses they make, and each faculty member is credited and linked from their entry in the Trombonepedia.
Tell us what you play, where you teach, and the course you would most like to make. We will reply to every serious proposal.
Be in the first class
The waiting list will hear first when the library opens, and we will ask the people on it which courses they want made first.
Trombone U is a project of Trombone World, operated by Whole Human Productions, LLC in Sherman, Connecticut. It offers private instruction by video. It is not a school, college or university, and it does not grant degrees, diplomas or academic credit.