Reflection of Band This Year

My goal for band this year is to become a stronger, more confident player. I know what about my playing needs to be improved and am trying to fix it but it will take me time to break my old habits. I know that I have become a player who points his bell to the ground directly below my feet at all times. This is probably because I am afraid to be heard. However, I know that in time I will be able to raise the bell out past my stand and toward the audience. I also want to continue my tonguing practice. If I master it, I will be able to play pieces of music faster and with more precision than I can now. To be more specific, I want to learn how to double or even triple-tongue. I believe that learning how to triple-tongue will help me single-tongue even better. Another goal for this year is to learn how to sight read with more capability. Currently, I feel that I am okay at sight reading simple pieces of music. However, I know that I am not nearly able to sight read at the level that I need to be. I am hoping that by June I will be able to sight read a section for our playing test without making more than a couple of mistakes. The final thing I want to improve on this year is my over all ability to play notes. Where I am right now, my range that sounds fine most of the time is between high E and low F. With the music that I have now, this range seems to be working fine. However, I have seen music that has notes that are both much lower and higher than my comfort zone. My hope is that by June I will be able to play high G and low D as comfortably as a middle F. I know that I have a lot of goals for this year of band, but I feel that I will be able to fulfill them come June. The goals that I just talked about all require one thing on my part, a lot of practice. I have been practicing this year, but the amount I have been doing is not sufficient enough for High School Band. The only thing I can do is spend more time playing my trombone. All of my goals will be easy to complete if I spend time on them. I can break my habit of pointing my bell to the ground if I practice while sitting straight up and playing with my horn all the way up. Tonguing will take time but practice and repetition will help it along. Sight reading, like tonguing, will take time, but it will improve with practice. Finally, my range can be increased by playing scales and practicing buzzing. If I am able to complete these goals by June, I will be very happy with my improvements.
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Although I tried my best to make the improvements that I talked about above, I feel that I did not completely fulfill all of them. To start out, I have only half improved my playing posture. I am definitely more confident in my playing than I was at the beginning of the year and I am much more willing to be heard. But my natural playing position has been so low for so long that even though I have tried to raise it so that it is all the way up, it has only raised about half-way. In terms of my sight reading ability, I feel that I really have improved a lot. I can now pick up a completely new piece of music and play it pretty well. Of course I do not play it perfectly, but at least now I have a start. Finally, my range has increased all the way to my goals an a little bit further. I can get a high G 90% of the time and I'm even able to get high A's and B flats occasionally. And in terms of low notes, I can get all the way down to a low C, but after a low E flat my sound starts to get a little too muddy. As a result, I do not want to play anything that low on my current horn. I had a lot of fun in band this year, and I am glad that I was able to improve so much. I am looking forward for band next year, and I am hoping that I will improve even more.

See you next year,
Scott Pollara