I love lessons

I just returned from a lesson with Jack, just an excellent lesson. I love lessons.

And I had an earlier sight singing lesson today with Rick. When it rains, it pours. That lesson was great, too.

From the trombone lesson:

• We worked a lot on legato vs. clean tonguing vs. the little messy slur that I fall into.
  

1. Legato. I need to mimic as closely as possible transitions where I don't need to tongue - as in, G to F. Because I change partials there I can make that transition without tonguing and that is how I want my legato to sound when I am moving between notes in the same partial. I have a very strong sense of this today. I don't always catch myself when I do it wrong - usually when I am focusing on something else like rhythm or the key signature, but Jack stopped me numerous times today when I did it wrong, and I heard what was wrong, did it right, and heard what was right.
2. Clean tonguing. When legato is not called for, I need to be cleaner in my separation. It's better to be almost staccato right now as I clean this up, than it is to fall into legato or into my sloppy technique of almost-glissandos. (Note, I am the one calling it sloppy; Jack is far too nice to call it sloppy.)
3. Little messy slurs aka sloppy technique. I need to work on speeding up my slide action, so the slide is already in the right place when I am ready to tongue the note.
   

Just in general, I could hear what was right, hear it when it was clean. I have a good sense of what I need to focus on. I feel relaxed about this. I feel like I understand what I am trying to do here.

• That accursed G. I did OK on my octaves, but we also talked about trying too hard. This interval between lessons, I am going to really focus on pushing a lot of air on these higher notes, and also experimenting a bit, and just trying it and then letting it go if it doesn't work.
  

• Sight reading. Because I had not practiced my material a lot, we did a good bit of sight reading, or close to sight reading. I am getting better at this, particularly if I do not allow myself to be lazy when reading the music but instead power on through. Jack mentioned powering on through and Rick has also emphasized that in the past.

In my sight singing lesson with Rick, I felt good about what I was doing, and also could really tell when my confidence slipped ... then my notes slipped and my rhythm slipped. Very interesting correlation.

• For practicing a series of sight singing exercises:

1. From the previous exercise, sing the last pitch.
   
2. From that pitch, find the tonic for the new exercise (the tonic is the first note in the scale of whatever key it is).
3. From the tonic, find the starting note for the new exercise. Sing the scale to get the right key.

:) Happy clam I am.