Notoriously Noteworthy Noteflight for Transcending Transcription

Get out of the old days of transcription kids! It's too quaint to just write notes on paper for a transcription when you can just jot it down on an internet. Noteflight shows you the pitch and then plays what you wrote down back to you so you know you did it right without even picking up your instrument. You can write down multiple lines, for example you can write down the melody for Doxy for trombone,  copy and paste that into the trumpet line and adjust the octaves so the trumpet can play the same thing. After that you can change the instrument for the line. Instead of a piano playing the parts you can change the instrument to what you want. Noteflight is free and all the necessary things you need to write down music doesn't cost anything. Noteflight Crescendo is the premium version of Noteflight, it cost 50 dollars a year/ 8 dollars a month. I don't use Crescendo, and you can definitely get away with not using and it still looks professional.

Sorry if that came off as an advertisement. It probably did.  I just really like the program and I think that you guys should try it out. It has expedited all my transcription endeavors. It has also allowed to do more transcribing by just being there. I never would of transcribed "Black Sugar", the song that I shared in the last post with Andy Martin. It is a great program that has improved my musical competency and I believe that anyone that wants to improve themselves musically. Especially since a certain band director at a certain school said that we should be thinking about a certain transcription project in a certain class, *Wink*Wink*nudge*nudge*. I'm not sure if he is referring to all of these certain band classes, but I would ask him if he doesn't bring it up.

Time for personal talk. Today, tonight or this morning or when ever time you exist in currently when you are reading this you are going to experience the nitty, gritty, bits and pieces of my inner psyche. You'll learn what makes me tick, my pet peeves, what goes on in my little idea chamber/idea whole.

Ok, ladies, gentlemen and individuals in between lets get into it! First off squirrel jokes!

A metaphorical representation of good vs. evil in the context of Star Wars (AKA: The bets squirrel photoshop ever)

To indulge all you spongebob fans here's one of "those" squirrel jokes:"Why does it take more than one squirrel to change a light bulb? Because they are so darn stupid!"

A teenage squirrel told a guy squirrel she liked, "I'm nuts about you!".

They guy squirrel said, "You're nuts o bad yourself." Ba-doom-chh..."

Yes, that was a punchline. All squirrel humor aside, I'll talk about whats going on.

So, I went to region for jazz, and we got a 1, 1, 1-. If you don't know how the scoring works a 5- is the worst score you can get and a 1 or 1+ is the best. The Varsity Jazz got all 1's.  We are going to state with that score and apparently we are the first Junior Varsity Jazz Ensemble to go to state at our school. I'm honestly really proud of myself and the band and I can't wait to see what we can do at the end of the school year. 

Wait! I can't share all of my secrets in this post so, I'll save what else is going on in music for me in my next post. Thanks for reading, sorry to leave you hanging, but I have to keep a smooth supply of these things. Comment, and, um do other things. Have a nice night and Goodbye you handsome individuals. I'll leave you with this...

Metaphorical Representations?

Jealous and Jiggly Jazz trombones

Neon Trombone

Boom! That is a neon trombone! Random things are always the best things is what I say. Maybe be I've said it once, maybe I said it 50,000 times, maybe I never said it in the first place. Maybe I'm just Jim Carrey's riddler with my question mark pajamas.

Riddler

All terrible and misconstrue-able puns and jokes aside, this is a jazz trombone post. To start off I'll go over the top jazz trombone brands. There's Shires, Conn-Selmer, King, Getzen, Bach and Yamaha. If there are any other brands that have good jazz trombones tell me in the comment section. So, there lots of horns to go over. 

The good horn from S.E. Shires right now is the Michael Davis+. The bore size is 5.08" with a 7.75" bell. In this video you can see Michael Davis himself play the Michael Davis+. The video does a good job off showing off the trombone's greatness, especially with a great trombone player like Michael Davis to show it off. 

The Conn-Selmer horns that are known to be the best and comparable to the King 2b and 3b are the Conn 4h and 6h the Conn 4h being at a 4.90" or 5.0" bore size and the 6h bore size is at a 5.08". The Conn 4h would be geared towards lead parts with a little bit of a brighter tone than the 6h. The 6h would be better for 2nd and 3rd parts.

Next is the King trombones. The kind of King trombone you want is a silver sonic or SGX. like I said in the past paragraph the King 2b is at a 4.90"/5.00" bore size and is geared a little bit more toward lead parts than the 3b and the 3b is more geared toward towards the 2nd and 3rd parts. If you are going to get a King the best horns are from 1945, if you could get one of those rare beauties then you are golden. Many reviews show that they haven't been making any as good trombones in the past years.

To continue is the coverage of the Getzen trombone. Getzen has been renown for its pure goodness along with shires horns. Their horn comes in a 5.00"/ 5.08" with a dual bore slide and 3 different lead pipes. I've been hearing about the Getzen horns for the past two years and I haven't heard anything bad about them so far.

Almost there, the Bach trombones! The best Bach jazz trombones are the Bach 12 and 16 Stradivarius's from the 60's and 70's. The 12 is at a 5.00" bore size and a 7 1/2" Bell. The 16 is at a 4.95"/5.08" dual bore and a 7 1/2" bell.

Lastly is the not as good(slightly biased) yamaha horns. I personally have a classical Xeno f-attachment large bore tenor trombone made in part by principal trombonist Larry Zalkind in the Utah Symphony Orchestra and I love it, but yamaha isn't known for their Jazz trombones. Alright I'll go easy on them, they make pretty good horns. Their jazz horns are YSL-897z and the YSL-891z trombones. The YSL-897z has a bore size of .484"/.490" and a 7 1/2 bell. It was designed by Andy Martin and Alastair Kay and was definitely made for upper range work. 

The YSL-891z trombone bore size is at .508" and it has a bell diameter of 8" and was designed in part by Andy Martin again and Wycliffe Gordon. All in all, the people who helped create these trombones are all amazing musicians.

To end this blog post I'll leave you with this video featuring Andy Martin, Jim Pugh, Bill Reichenbach and Adam Machaskee with the US Army Blues Band. Make sure you get to 11:00 minutes, because if that isn't fun trombone section music then I don't know what is.

Thanks for reading, make sure to comment on this post on what your favorite instrument brand is personally, since I couldn't decide. Have a nice day.

Whiffletree Wind Ensemble and Marshy Fads with Varsity Jazz

How I feel

How I feel(represented by John Cena)

Yaba-doo is correct good sirs and ladies. I made varsity jazz and wind ensemble! So, yah, some of my respective freshman and I are going to be in those bands. I worked hard and I guess that work payed off. The only down side is that I have for wake up at zero hour to attend varsity jazz. To put that into perspective for you my school starts at 7:30 in the morning. I need to be at the bus stop by 6:51 to get there. Let's assume that zero hour is the same amount of time as regular classes (90 minutes), that would mean that I would have to be at school at 6:00 in the morning.

'bout sums it up

Now, in this photo the Marmaduke dog is putting evolutionary leg positioning to the wind, because he's tired. I believe that the rest of my high school life will be filled with coffee.

So let's talk about wind ensemble. Wind ensemble is the premier classical concert band for my school. It's usually one to a part, but that policy is probably going to be abandoned, because we have more trombone players than spots. The music will be challenging, a lot more challenging than the easy breezy not beautiful symphonic band that I'm in currently.  I will though do marching band over the summer and get to play with coolest and greatest of the trombones around. This will definitely help me to get better, because being around people that are better than you will make you better. Another complaint out of me(surprise, surprise) is that marching band starts almost every weekday at the same time school starts. I can however take a nap until lunchtime after marching band is done and then just stay up until three every night like last year. 

Next up is Varsity Jazz Band. The elite of the elite, the best of the best. The alpha and omega when it comes to jazz bands at school. Honestly I think its really cool that I'm good enough to be in that kind of group. I'm indefinitely going to get better in that kind of group, probably at a rate that I've witnessed before. The downside is the competitiveness that comes with a group like that. I am frankly pretty competitive. Sure, I'm not as competitive as a person known as Ben C. because we all know how competitive he is(if you go to my school). All singling out aside I hope I'm competent enough to make it in that group with out stressing my butt off.

That's all for this post guys. Thanks for reading. If you made it this far then, here's a high five from...

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler High Five

Oops, it's just a high five between two comedians, sorry. Make sure to comment and vote. Have a nice day.

Saccharine Sopranos and Adamant Alto Trombones

Hello ladies and gentlemen to the blog where you get to read alliteration filled facetious blog posts with words that are put in to make me sound smarter than I actually am. Now I realize that most of you fastidious fellows are picking up on the fact that saccharine and adamant don't go together. If you haven't noticed that, then more power to you for not being a grammar nazi. Alright I'm in a particularly happy mood so you will get to see that said mood slip down that old slippery slope inevitable depression that comes with writing about vapid trombone variations(yes, the dictionary is always open). To continue this trail of nonsense we will talk about the alto trombone. To drop some knowledge, the alto trombone is pitched in either Eb which would be a perfect fourth above the tenor trombone or F, a perfect fifth above the tenor trombone.

Alto Trombone

In this video that I can't caption, either based on ineptitude or just plain technical difficulties it shows a jazz alto trombonist featured on great come and get it day. This kind of allows you to hear what an alto trombone sounds like in the context of jazz with a brighter tone.

The times for the best tromboneness is 1:00, 3:31 and 5:54( that's a word now).

In this video there is a classical alto trombone soloist accompanied by a this menacing violin player to the right of him. Despite the scary browbeating violinist it still shows off what the alto trombone can do and what it sounds like in the context of a classical ensemble with a darker tone from the soloist.

Next as we go right along even though it may not seem like to the soprano trombone.

Soprano Trombone

Now, before you get mad at me for not supplying any video of a soprano trombone the fact is that every video I watched caused me either discomfort or physical pain just listening to them. But wait! More knowledge shall be supplied. The soprano trombone is pitched at a Bb an octave above the tenor trombone. Since this is the case most band leaders have trumpet players play the soprano trombone, when this occurs there is less note accuracy when the trumpeter is not accustomed to slide work. This is mainly why it is hard to find a good video of people playing the instrument. Maybe the bad sound is purely because it sounds like a trumpet. Burns that require regular icing aside There is another level above the soprano trombone. It is known as the sopranino trombone. It is pitched one octave above the alto trombone at an Eb.

Sopranino trombone

But Billy Mayes style,"Wait there's even more!" Boom shaka laka its a Piccolo trombone! It looks virtually the same but, it's octave above the soprano trombone, so guess what that's Bb again. I know we are all disappointed in that pitch of instrument, but it's a thing so we need to accept for the fantastic monstrosity it really is.

To conclude menagerie of trombone variants, I formally say now, it's not worth it to get anything above a alto trombone. Sure if you have found a trombone/trumpet player that can play the part for a specific song that can play it well, then the soprano trombone is acceptable. Honestly though, who thought the sopranino and piccolo trombone. I personally think that those would be very good as a part of a baby mobile. All joking aside thats the end of this blogpost, if you made it this far, you might get a Camaro one day.