TromboneChat

Hi! I am a uni student and I learnt trombone to a decent, but still amateur level in school. I am trying to pluck up the courage to join a high quality funk band (most people in it study music) that play covers but all of my education until now had been very classical.

I have been told that I have a good tone and I think my style is designed more for slower, emotional classical studies etc.

I'm fine with performance, but my sight reading is awful, as is my articulation and I really struggle to play fast notes accurately. I have one more week before I head back to uni, and two weeks until I need to audition. I have lots of time to practice in the next week (probably up to 3 hours dedicated to trombone per day) and i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to improve sight reading, fast articulation and improve quickly.

(I know it takes a lot of time to build up skills like this and I don't expect to be dramatically different in just one week or hardly different at all, but I would like to try and see some improvement in these areas to try and build up my confidence to audition!)

Pressuring yourself to squeeze months or even years of development into two weeks is an unrealistic recipe for disaster. If you're not already playing close to three hours a day, a dramatic increase in practice time will result in a dramatic fail of your chops.

That having been said, articulation is built upon accuracy. Listen and adjust your playing accordingly. Do not exceed the speed at which your accuracy begins to deteriorate. As for sight reading, the best way to get better at it is to do more of it. Find as much music as you can to sight read, and concentrate on accuracy. Play at a speed at which you will reliably get through the chart.

If you learn to become patient, you have a much better chance of succeeding. Good luck with your audition! Let us know how it went.

Sight read as many charts as you can get. Use a metronome; start at speed then, if you cannot keep up, slow it to a speed you can manage and gradually move up the tempo when you have got the chart off at one tempo until you get to the speed needed. Also, consider some of the play along books with soul/funk/blues tunes. The backing helps your tempo and listening skills. Good luck!