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trombone music on bass

I've been wanting to improve my reading skills for several years now. A couple years ago, I picked up "40 Progressive Studies for Trombone" on a whim. Not everything is pertinent to bass guitar in here and some of it is just plain hard but it is a great resource for anyone wanting to work on reading!

Having said that, does anyone have anything else written for trombone that works well on bass? It could be studies/etudes or it could be music specifically written for performance.

Edit: forgot to mention that Bach Cello Suites are great too! A bit of a learning curve (don't start on these!) but good way to learn harmonic structure!
 
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I played trombone from 6th grade until my senior year of high school, occasionally I'd play bass in pep band instead of trombone, I'd read trombone stand tunes, some worked out pretty well, other times I probably should have read tuba parts.
 
Yeah, I knew it was at concert pitch and I can read anything for trombone on bass. The problem is that some of the stuff in this book just doesn't work musically on bass or it's obviously an exercise (like working on partials/harmonics etc.) that doesn't pertain to bass.

I played trumpet in high school (played bass at church) and when I got to college, I dropped trumpet and did my major on voice. Took bass lessons for a bit on the side and did a LOT of jazz. My bass teacher loved me because most of his students were just kids on campus that wanted to take bass lessons. I, on the other hand, was already half way through my music theory classes and knew quite a bit about music just not how to apply it to bass. So, we took off on bass and "oh by the way, here's some cello suites as harmonic studies. Don't worry, they're not really important if you don't want to hit them hard. We'll focus on jazz" So, I never got much time in front of a page reading. I also don't have much instrumental music in bass clef since I played trumpet through high school.
 
check out the "Melodius Etudes for Trombone" series. They are great.

Thanks! I should have remembered this one. I used to work in a music store and there was a trombone player that came in every week and always talked about this series. We had it in stock. I don't know why I never bought it while I had the discount. Maybe when I'm back home for Christmas I'll stop in and get it.
 
36 studies for trombone. E. blume, Rubank advanced method for trombone and arbans method for trombone. There is also a trombone solo called The Blue Bells Of Scotland with a piano part.
In the 36 studies i would start with number 4. Ive been through that one cover to cover and it took about 6 months to get them all polished. And the rubank has a few good ones a minor number one is good. And the arbans method was originally written for trumpet but most of it translated to the neck easily. If you use diatonic hand positions. Let me know if you can find them or not. Or if you have any questions about getting around some of the etudes.
 
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36 studies for trombone. E. blume, Rubank advanced method for trombone and arbans method for trombone. There is also a trombone solo called The Blue Bells Of Scotland with a piano part.
In the 36 studies i would start with number 4. Ive been through that one cover to cover and it took about 6 months to get them all polished. And the rubank has a few good ones a minor number one is good. And the arbans method was originally written for trumpet but most of it translated to the neck easily. If you use diatonic hand positions. Let me know if you can find them or not. Or if you have any questions about getting around some of the etudes.
Those look like some good ideas. Being a trumpet player as well, I should have thought of Arbans (I have it for trumpet) Maybe I should invest in the trombone version. Huge amount of material for the price!
 
Those look like some good ideas. Being a trumpet player as well, I should have thought of Arbans (I have it for trumpet) Maybe I should invest in the trombone version. Huge amount of material for the price!

The arbans for trombone is smaller than the t-pet version. They took out some stuff like part of the carnival of venice and the thing that don't translate well.
 
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For practice try "Chord Studies for Electric Bass" it is the bass version of the Trombone book by joseph Viola.

I thought Rich Appleman was the co-author of the bass version this book (?). I have it and used it alot at Berklee, but havent taken it out in a while. It is great because not only is there great reading material in there, but the etudes are written around a particualr chord type and the book is organized into keys. So there, for example, there is an Eb dominant exercise (or exercises, as the case may be). Each etude is written in a jazz-ish style with lots of takeaway licks and phrases for improvisation.

I think I'll take it out again!!
 
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I thought Rich Appleman was the co-author of the bass version this book (?). I have it and used it alot at Berklee, but havent taken it out in a while. It is great because not only is there great reading material in there, but the etudes are written around a particualr chord type and the book is organized into keys. So there, for example, there is an Eb dominant exercise (or exercises, as the case may be). Each etude is written in a jazz-ish style with lots of takeaway licks and phrases for improvisation.

I think I'll take it out again!!
On this advice, I think I will buy it!
 

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