How to Practice Low Range with James Markey

Faster, Stronger... Lower? Building a great pedal range is more achievable than you think! Bass Trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, James Markey is here to spill the tea on the art (and science!) of mastering playing in the low range on trombone and other brass... and accidentally cause a few earthquakes in the process.
James plays on an Edwards bass trombone and Griego Markey model mouthpieces:
www.virtuosityboston.com/grie...
Note: Due to the low frequency nature of the demonstrations in this video, it is strongly recommended to listen with quality headphones or speakers. Specialized audio equipment was used in order to accurately capture these frequencies.
Audio Signal Flow: Samar VL373A stereo active ribbon (Blumlein), 1m distance. No processing aside from gain adjustments.
0:00 Opening
0:31 Intro
0:52 Today's Topic
1:23 Three Things
1:41 1. Concept
2:52 The Sound Pyramid: Warmth, Core, Brilliance
3:55 Warm Sound: Bordogni 8vb
4:14 Brilliant Sound: Ein Heldenleiben
4:31 Application of Sound Pyramid
4:55 2. Process
6:12 Aperture Control
7:10 Buckled Chin
7:38 Sound: Buckled Chin
7:48 Can it work?
8:30 Sound: Buckled vs. Flat Chin
9:08 Caveats & Terminology
10:14 Summary: Process
10:42 3. Patience
12:12 Sound: Pulling Out Bottom Lip
13:00 How it works
13:29 Sound: Standard Embouchure Out of Room
14:00 Sound: Shifting Mouthpiece Up
14:44 "If it sounds good, it is good"
15:01 Shifting from Extreme to Regular Pedal Embouchure
15:36 Sound: Shifting Embouchures
16:30 Sound: Full Register Shifts
16:50 Summary: Patience
17:58 Do you need a teacher?
18:40 Real-world Application
19:33 Sound: Ostrander Study
21:36 Conclusion
22:19 Nothing to see here ;)
#trombone #band #lowbrass #teacher #basstrombone #brassplayer #brassmusic #jamesmarkey

[@markpatterson8922]

"It's helpful on the one hand to play exercises. But you can't just play exercises; we want to play music. That's the whole reason we play these exercises:...to develop our ability to play music really really well." Nicely said!

[@RonRova]

What I appreciate so much about Mr. Markey is that his passion for teaching is so apparent in all his videos!

[@spymike123]

Excellent video!! Mr. Markey is quite the pedagogue! I particularly enjoyed the story and thoughts regarding patience. Please keep these videos coming!! :)

[@VirtuosityMusicalInstruments]

Thank you! We really loved that part, too! Stay tuned - more on the way!

[@William_D._Afton]

As a soon-to-be bass trombonist, I needed this

[@sevynturner9200]

Such a good teacher 🙌🏾🙌🏾

[@VirtuosityMusicalInstruments]

We agree!

[@khyrand]

Good content, i look forward to applying these concepts to my low horn practice--double pedal C, here i come!

[@bernhardangermayr6385]

Thank you Sir! This helped me soooooo much, not only in the deep register, bit for stability in my whole range!

[@santiagoa991]

Thank you for sharing this master class. James is an excellent musicians as a good teacher!

[@VirtuosityMusicalInstruments]

Thanks for watching! We agree!

[@trioofannabetsis9470]

Great video! Huge thanks to Mr. Markey for his great technical advices! But also for his psychological thoughts!!

[@Frissonaut]

What a well produced, edited, and performed video. Everything is so well done! Kudos to the team that made this because your hard work, creativity, skill, and amazing taste clearly show. Thank y'all for sharing this

[@VirtuosityMusicalInstruments]

Thank you for watching and the kind comments! - Editor

[@beeflat4287]

Great work. Your explanations finding the right words with analogies everyone can follow are best ! - I had lessons from an english BassTrombonist within the BrassBand scene. He has got an unbelievable sound, and it looks so that it is THAT technique. That‘s why your low sound was familiar to me 🤔🤩

[@olivoribl]

Thank you very much for the great information! I'm not a professional player and I'm struggeling with the low register before reaching the pedal notes. Let's say all the notes you need the two triggers as this range is often required in standard Big Band arrangements.

[@tylerkay6786]

I very much enjoy teaching content from James Markey. Please film more content with him. Question, what trombone grip is Mr. Markey using?

[@padwfriends5139]

He’s using the Get-A-Grip hand grip! I’ve been using it forever and it’s awesome!!

[@VirtuosityMusicalInstruments]

@@padwfriends5139 That's exactly it! Thanks for watching!

[@sol6700]

Wow, I'm so impressed with the audio on this. Would you mind sharing some of the equipment used to record? James' voice sounds almost too good like its overdubbed in a studio hah! The trombone playing sounds very lifelike!

[@VirtuosityMusicalInstruments]

Our videographer is very dedicated and detailed to his craft! From Versilian Studios- “Audio Signal Flow: Samar VL373A stereo active ribbon (Blumlein), 1m distance. No processing aside from gain adjustments.” To be fair, James can make anything sound incredible. Thank you for your kind words and comment!

[@VirtuosityMusicalInstruments]

Editor: For the voice, I used a Microtech Gefell M310 (supercardioid SDC). It is boomed above his head about 1'/20cm above and slightly in front, just out of shot. Such mics, like the pricier but slightly more extended Sennheiser MKH 50 or Schoeps MK41/CMC6, are often preferred for interior dialog recording in film over shotgun mics, but are just as well at home in the studio as you suggest. The voice is usually quite processed, using an EQ, dynamic EQ (similar conceptually to multiband compressor), and a compressor/leveller to achieve the final sound. I start with an EQ (DMG Equilibrium) with a moderate air (12k-ish) boost and small LF (80-100 Hz) boost, both very broad/low Q, to shape the tone in a more pleasing way (the M310 is almost boringly flat/mid-focused otherwise). This is followed by a dynamic EQ (DMG Multiplicity) set up as a custom multi-band denoiser/gate, but also acting simultaneously as a de-esser. This reduces room/street noise, rumble, sibilance, and echo/'verb all in one go. Finally a tube-based vari-mu compressor plugin (Pulsar Mu) is used to level the dialog smoothly and transparently while adding some subtle pleasing saturation. The Samar VL373A used for performance bits is as mentioned previously totally unprocessed. It is tracked using a Zoom F8n Pro recorder at 48kHz, 32-bit float, to avoid the risk of clipping or improper levels. I have tried many other mics from almost every brand, ribbons and otherwise, on trombone but nothing seems quite as 'right' sounding as this one. It is a symmetrical ribbon which is unusually almost ruler flat from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. The blumlein array (crossed figure-8's) is also very well adapted to recording solo instruments as the image is very precise across the entire frequency range with minimal phasing present.

[@user-ov3ge2ee7y]

I didnt know LA Knight had a bass trombone playing brother

[@BetweenTwoBones]

What number in the Ostrander is that at the end?

[@VirtuosityMusicalInstruments]

Newest update from Jim says it's number 19 - he said he's check one more time though!

[@VirtuosityMusicalInstruments]

Newest, newest update - Number 40! What a ride!

[@bassboneful]

What size mouthpiece did Mr. Markey play in this video?

[@aasavickas]

Whats the weird white dot on his slide? I noticed he uses an aftermarket aid to hold his horn. I have to use one too. Why doesnt Edwards and Mr Markey design a horn you can actually hold onto without aftermarket tools?

[@VirtuosityMusicalInstruments]

Great questions! As for the dot, if we’re remembering correctly, it’s a flic smart button. The horn designing is a bit trickier and many brands have tried doing just that. Part of the trouble is creating a horn that has the best sound usually involves taking away unnecessary attachments on the horn. Another point could also be we’ve never seen this many players on such heavy instruments and designs are still catching up to accommodate! Again, great questions!

[@same.smalls5531]

As an amatuer bass trombonist, I do the opposite, it's all bottom lip for low notes. Am I wrong?

[@aldoespino360]

Whats the name of the hand support?

[@VirtuosityMusicalInstruments]

"Get-a-Grip" brand, as answered in a previous comment.

[@4bones1]

Great video and very informative. But please no background music when someone talks! To me it's like two people talking al the same time.

[@Dan-o-Steely2000]

Just wondering why there’s a jazz big band playing in the background during parts of the video? It’s a bit distracting.

[@VirtuosityMusicalInstruments]

Thanks for your feedback! "Thaw" by Zach Olson is the Virtuosity theme song, used in all of our videos since 2018. While it primarily is used to bookend videos, it also serves as background music. Background music covers up any background sounds (distant traffic, machinery, clothing noises, footsteps) as well as room reflections which are generally even more distracting.

[@Godooable]

The background music is so loud lol

[@zeevgilman9460]

Please remove background music, it's real destruction

[@VirtuosityMusicalInstruments]

Thank you for sharing your opinion, however KZbin does not allow editing of existing videos so this is impossible to do.