Bass and Trombone

[r05c03]

I play bass, my oldest son (who in general seems tone deaf and not all that musically inclined) has started playing trombone (opps) in the school band. He is getting better and now almost grasps how quater notes work. He wants to play a songs with me. I was trying to wrap my head around how it this would work aside from me just playing the same notes. I want to 'jam' with him, but not having played with brass before I am not sure what to do. One thing I was thinking is that I could play higher register melody against him doing a walking type bass line. Or maybe he could blow some roots while I do blues type playing over a drum track. Any suggestions?

[BassChuck]

Lot's of band method books today have 'play along' CD's with them. Check that out. The tunes (and therefore the chords) of most of his method book will be very simple, so you should have no problem jamming along with the CD. If his book does have this, then get one that does. If you don't have a good music store in your area I'm sure that something can be found on the internet. Google "J.W. Pepper" or "Hal Leonard" or "Mel Bay".

[Neb Maro]

Wait, does he play trumpet or trombone?

[r05c03]

Trombone

[Alec W. Conway]

Just play dissonant contemporary improvised compositions with no time signatures. Always fun.


EDIT : Dont forget to record them, I'm sure some art-geeks will drool hearing it, they can make you rich.

[Bassist4Life]

He's probably not that advanced of a player at this point, right? Just keep it simple.

Use his lesson book. Many of the band methods have duets in them. These duets usually focus on rhythms or intonation, but that's a good thing.

If you can play chords, then you can do an accompaniment for him. A simple bassline under his melody would do fine.

You could teach him a Bb blues scale and play around with that.

Keep it simple (for now).

Joe

[-Sam-]

Originally Posted by Bassist4Life

Keep it simple (for now).

Then you can move on and do what jaco did with Mangelsdorff. Check out that video its awesome

Here's the only vid i could find http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E79oYfuhQHo

[billjr]

I grew up playing trombone in the school band, and remember that the method books we learned from had very simple melodies, like Ode to Joy, This old Man, etc. I would have him play those and you play a bass line underneath him. As he progresses through the books, the melodies should get more interesting. If he is just grasping quarter notes, then you will be limited until he gets further along.

You can also get some really good duet books written for trombone, but these may be too advanced for him right now. Also, look for music written for the Cello. Most of the solos I did were actually classical pieces written for the Cello. Any solo piece would also have the piano music included, and you could play the bass line written for piano, making adjustments for written notes out of range.

[K2000]

There has to be some simple R&B riffs you can do together. You'd play a walking bass line, and set up some horn "stabs" for him to play. Think of the riff from "Sing A Simple Song" (Sly & the Family Stone) for example.

Or what about something from the Sargeant Pepper album...

The Blues Brothers album maybe? (chicago blues)

think of all the rock bands who have played with a horn section, like Blood Sweat and Tears.

[mlbarlow]

your kid's band teacher will be impressed if you have him match pitch on his slide with your bass ... start at F and go down chomatically. his slide positions will be excellent.

(says the trombonist/band teacher )