Re: [Finale] Preferred Keys for Viola & Trombone
Music for beginners tends to favor flat keys for winds and sharp keys for strings. Professionals should be able to negotiate any key even if they do gripe about this or that one. I new a bluegrass violist once who was trying to master the b minor scale and having the devil's time with it. The "natural" scale of the trombone is B-flat, but good players can be all over the map key-wise. One of the IU professors was infamous for insisting on hearing B major on trombone juries. My own trombone concerto is all over the place key-wise (when it's in a key at all, that is), and the soloist who played and recorded it didn't gripe once. Aaron J. Rabushka [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://users.waymark.net/arabushk ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Preferred Keys for Viola & Trombone
Bass, drums and piano. **Leigh On Mon, Mar 12, 2007, Jonathan Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Interested to know what the other 3 instruments are... ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Preferred Keys for Viola & Trombone
On 12-Mar-07, at 4:35 PM, Jonathan Smith wrote: A fine trombonist friend of mine once told me that he prefered the sharp keys esp. A, E, and B major as examples. He said that in those keys most notes never fall in 1st postion and therefore the player has more versitility and flexibility for tuning, slide vibrato, bending in and out of notes etc. Rather like using open strings on the stringed instruments - it cramps the style somewhat. Ehh, if you use alternate positions (most notes in the upper register have extended-slide alternate positions and tune so that 1st position is slightly out (as I do) then none of that is an issue. All notes that are not Bb, F or D are played lower than 1st position anyway, even by beginners. Christopher ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
[Finale] Preferred Keys for Viola & Trombone
Hello all, I'm arranging some jazz pieces for a quintet which includes viola and tenor trombone. What are the keys that players of those instruments tend to enjoy playing in the most? Thanks. **Leigh A fine trombonist friend of mine once told me that he prefered the sharp keys esp. A, E, and B major as examples. He said that in those keys most notes never fall in 1st postion and therefore the player has more versitility and flexibility for tuning, slide vibrato, bending in and out of notes etc. Rather like using open strings on the stringed instruments - it cramps the style somewhat. Strings also prefer sharp keys, so you might just be able to keep them all happy. Interested to know what the other 3 instruments are... Jonathan ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re(2): [Finale] Preferred Keys for Viola & Trombone
Thanks to all for their educational (as always) replies. I've got professional players so I guess the technique isn't an issue. The open string resonance I didn't know about and now I can take that into consideration. And because I'm using Finale, I can easily change the keys! **Leigh On Mon, Mar 12, 2007, John Howell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >[I don't understand the "C to E or so" since those are on the sharp side!] > >Hi, Leigh and Christopher. As someone who plays both, allow me to >chime in. Christopher is correct as far as it goes, but those >limitations (or tendencies or whatever you want to call them) apply >to beginners rather than to professionals, with everyone else sitting >somewhere on a continuum between the two end points. > >A better question, Leigh, might be, in what keys do the instruments >SOUND the best. For viola, that means keys in which the open strings >can resonate, and you start losing open strings with the notes C# on >the sharp side and Ab on the flat side, with each additional sharp or >flat taking away one more open string. But in fact, violists can >play with equal facility in ANY keys, and the 19th century composers >forced us to do exactly that! > >Now if I had to choose between 6 sharps and 6 flats, I'd go with 6 >sharps, because Christopher is correct in that in sightreading the >flats force the hand into half position, while the sharps do not. > >As to trombone, there's no theoretical preference for keys, even >taking into account that the instrument's home key is Bb, but note >this: there are no difficult notes or slide positions, but there ARE >difficult combinations of slide positions, especially those involving >5th position (although a good player will use plenty of alternate >positions to reduce those difficult combinations). > >So write in whatever key you want, and leave it up to us to play it > >John ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Preferred Keys for Viola & Trombone
On 12-Mar-07, at 11:55 AM, Leigh Daniels wrote: Hello all, I'm arranging some jazz pieces for a quintet which includes viola and tenor trombone. What are the keys that players of those instruments tend to enjoy playing in the most? At 12:52 PM -0400 3/12/07, Christopher Smith wrote: Trombonists don't really care, as there are no real technical difficulties from one key to the next (unless you are low) though most of them like band keys like C to Ab, but this is just what shows up a lot. Violists, on the other hand, tend to play better in sharper keys, as lots of flats put them in half positions, say from C to E or so. [I don't understand the "C to E or so" since those are on the sharp side!] Hi, Leigh and Christopher. As someone who plays both, allow me to chime in. Christopher is correct as far as it goes, but those limitations (or tendencies or whatever you want to call them) apply to beginners rather than to professionals, with everyone else sitting somewhere on a continuum between the two end points. A better question, Leigh, might be, in what keys do the instruments SOUND the best. For viola, that means keys in which the open strings can resonate, and you start losing open strings with the notes C# on the sharp side and Ab on the flat side, with each additional sharp or flat taking away one more open string. But in fact, violists can play with equal facility in ANY keys, and the 19th century composers forced us to do exactly that! Now if I had to choose between 6 sharps and 6 flats, I'd go with 6 sharps, because Christopher is correct in that in sightreading the flats force the hand into half position, while the sharps do not. As to trombone, there's no theoretical preference for keys, even taking into account that the instrument's home key is Bb, but note this: there are no difficult notes or slide positions, but there ARE difficult combinations of slide positions, especially those involving 5th position (although a good player will use plenty of alternate positions to reduce those difficult combinations). So write in whatever key you want, and leave it up to us to play it John -- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
RE: [Finale] Preferred Keys for Viola & Trombone
> > I'm arranging some jazz pieces for a quintet which includes viola and > > tenor trombone. What are the keys that players of those instruments > > tend to enjoy playing in the most? > > > Trombonists don't really care, as there are no real technical > difficulties from one key to the next (unless you are low) though > most of them like band keys like C to Ab, but this is just what shows > up a lot. > > Violists, on the other hand, tend to play better in sharper keys, as > lots of flats put them in half positions, say from C to E or so. On string instruments, it's not really a question of half position, but of how many open strings are in the key. The availability of open strings has two main advantages: 1) flexibility of fingering can make rapid passages easier to play; and 2) the sympathetic resonance of open strings makes it easier to play in tune. Even E major is not that friendly a key for viola and cello, as the lower 3 strings are all sharped (better on violin, which has 2 open strings in E). In this sense, the "best" keys for viola are C, G, F, D, Bb, Eb (for violin: C, G, F, D, Bb, A). But really, for a decent player all this doesn't matter much until you get to at least 5 sharps or flats. Lee Actor Composer-in-Residence and Assistant Conductor, Palo Alto Philharmonic http://www.leeactor.com ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Preferred Keys for Viola & Trombone
Violists don't mind a few flats. F and Bb are certainly safe, maybe not past Eb for ease. (String sections grown at Eb minor, I know that much.) Ray Horton Christopher Smith wrote: Trombonists don't really care, as there are no real technical difficulties from one key to the next (unless you are low) though most of them like band keys like C to Ab, but this is just what shows up a lot. Violists, on the other hand, tend to play better in sharper keys, as lots of flats put them in half positions, say from C to E or so. On 12-Mar-07, at 11:55 AM, Leigh Daniels wrote: Hello all, I'm arranging some jazz pieces for a quintet which includes viola and tenor trombone. What are the keys that players of those instruments tend to enjoy playing in the most? Thanks. **Leigh ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Preferred Keys for Viola & Trombone
Trombonists don't really care, as there are no real technical difficulties from one key to the next (unless you are low) though most of them like band keys like C to Ab, but this is just what shows up a lot. Violists, on the other hand, tend to play better in sharper keys, as lots of flats put them in half positions, say from C to E or so. On 12-Mar-07, at 11:55 AM, Leigh Daniels wrote: Hello all, I'm arranging some jazz pieces for a quintet which includes viola and tenor trombone. What are the keys that players of those instruments tend to enjoy playing in the most? Thanks. **Leigh ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
[Finale] Preferred Keys for Viola & Trombone
Hello all, I'm arranging some jazz pieces for a quintet which includes viola and tenor trombone. What are the keys that players of those instruments tend to enjoy playing in the most? Thanks. **Leigh ___ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
