Hi!

My 10yo is learning trombone. He's not taking private lessons, yet, as he has braces until later this fall--we intend to start him in the spring, once they are off. In the meantime, he's learning at school. So far this school year, he hasn't been assigned much in the way of practice material--they are working on one band number and a sheet of scales and warm-up material, all of which he is now able to play. So starts the battle about practicing. I've been pretty good about coming up with extra stuff--digging into his lesson book from last year; long tones (he actually likes these); I bought a tuner and he's been having fun playing with that (i.e. I bought it for me, and he stole it ).

He picked up a book of various movie solos, but, upon further inspection, it's much too hard for him. I tried picking out a few small sections that didn't go too high (he's up to middle C), and it ended up including low B (7th position), which he can't reach. I think we would have better luck with working towards the "too high" than that (or I could transpose them, I suppose). I looked online, but, without seeing the music, it's difficult to tell, and none of the music stores around here had much of a selection.

Does anyone know of a book of fairly easy trombone solos in the movie, Christmas, or patriotic categories? These are the types of things that he would enjoy playing.

Thanks!
Judy

The Essential Elements series has books for beginners.. they have one of just Christmas tunes, another of movie themes, etc. if you search "essential elements trombone" at amazon it will bring up a good start for your search.
the problem is (as it is for most beginners) that just about any recognizable tune is gonna have a wider range than a brand new beginning trombone player can play. we start learning just a few notes at a time. Just about anything you find will have notes that are either a bit too high or low for now, but in the beginning, the mid range tends to develop fast, so if he can't play it now, it's something good to have for later.
but the essential elements books are a good start.
consider asking on the Online Trombone Journal Forum also at forum.trombone.org
while having a lot of pros and educators, just the fact that it's a far more active forum should yield you some more responses.
if possible, i highly recommend private lessons. it really helps the learning curve and helps take care of bad habits before they really start. I've been playing for years, play for a living, and still take lessons. just a thought

edit..
when i mentioned lessons, i meant that I would say go ahead and get them started, not wait until the braces are off..
also, if you're willing to put the time into transposing, that opens up a lot of doors. there are tons of tunes out there published for piano that you can transpose for him. and piano music is much easier to find.

Thanks, Steve. He's doing Essential Elements for his lesson book. I'd forgotten about the DVD that came with it (I realized this when I looked in the back to see if there were other books advertised inside the back cover), so we'll see what he can do with that, and if there are any additional books available. I can transpose, if I have to. I'll think about what you said about lessons, too--he has some other activities (Cubs, soccer) wrapping up around the end of the year, too, so the braces are a big chunk, but not all of the equation.

--Judy

I can tell you what helped me out some after I developed a decent range, and after I finished the beginners book as well. H.A. Vandercook's Trombone Gems. The only thing with mine was that I didn't get exactly what I payed for, which maybe a standard now because I only got all the songs except for the last one, so it may have been a problem wit hthat or something. But after he develops a decent range, such as a



then he'll be able to run though the first song. But this collection of solos are all layed out the same, they start out in one key, and change twice throughout the song, they also have different time signatures and different styles in each song, so that maybe something to look into later on after he's ready to move on from the book, which even from there, there is the book 2 and other books. good luck

Did you check out the trombone pieces on this site? Here's a link to the EASY ones. http://www.8notes.com/trombone_sheet_music.asp?orderby=5&difficulty=2