We sometimes hear about orchestral, or harmonic, strata. As so often happens, in any field of endeavour, seemingly obscure and complex ideas actually exist all around us. The idea is this: by treating large groups of sound as collections of smaller layers we not only achieve a more controllable method (especially of combining instrumental sections) […]
Tag: music
Rhythm is my business
A while ago I was standing in a bar with my son and a group of his friends. The juke box was pulsing out its message at very high volume. Now, I have very wide musical tastes and sitting in a trombone section right in front of five trumpets for much of my musical life […]
Musical Taboos
I believe many young composers are constrained by unnecessary inhibitions that develop during the learning process. I know I was, in my early days. My previous posts have dealt with some of these – parallels etc. – but there are others. Again, it’s important to establish an ‘overview’ which is where one of my favourite […]
Fellow trombonists please note
This post is for the benefit of fellow trombonists, especially those who are middle-aged and older. It concerns a problem that many players experience. For some time I’d been suffering from a pain in the neck and the back of my head. It turns out I have spondylitis but the important thing to realize is […]
