Get immediate feedback on your playing from one-on-one interaction with Bob. Having more than just technical mastery and being a world-class jazz trombone player, Bob is a passionate and experienced educator who can teach every aspect of what he does to you.

 

Bob directly shows each student:

 

• How to play faster, smoother and cleaner -- a complete course in doodle tonguing.

• How to be a better jazz player – advance your ears and harmonic abilities with specific practice routines, basic and advanced jazz theory, learning and understanding tunes and chord progressions, listening and transcribing, performance techniques and strategies, etc., etc.

• How to improve and solidify basic trombone technique – exercises to improve your sound, expand your range, the finer points of articulation and slide technique, improving control over the instrument, playing and mastering different styles of playing, etc.

- Contact Bob here to make an appointment -

A common belief is that fast, clean legato playing is difficult to achieve on trombone mainly because it is difficult to move the slide fast enough. Actually, the issue of fast legato playing on trombone is much more one of articulation than slide movement. Because there are no valves or keys, the trombonist must articulate differently than other wind players (i.e. tongue every single note, or use a combination of tonguing and slurring to avoid smearing). With the doodle tongue technique, articulations can be executed very fast, smooth (with each note connected and long), and very evenly with each note matching in envelope, often making minor slide innacuracies unnoticeable. This is because as speed increases, both timing and similarity of note envelopes (or lack of similarity) is easily perceived by the listener. At the same time, as speed increases, intonation becomes much more difficult to perceive. While intonation in general is very important, from the audience's perspective, clarity in faster passages comes more from the quality and evenness of articulation - an area in which all trombonists should strive to improve.

 

"Bob has been a tremendous help to me – he is able to communicate everything that he can do as a player and is able to de-mystify his incredible technique and vocabulary in an articulate and cohesive manner."
- Nick Grinder, NYC

"Bob's approach to doodle tonguing is more refined than anyone's I've ever studied under. His technical ability is unmatched in modern trombone playing. I highly recommend him as a teacher."
- Alex Ansbergs
(student via Skype, Va)

"Bob helped me immensely to expand my harmonic knowledge and improve my technical abilities. His musical insight has been invaluable."
- Will Wulfeck, Encino, Ca