Review

Oscar Utterström
Musician Builder Volume 1: Strengthen Musical Awareness Through Fun Techniques and Play-Alongs

Nashville, TN, United States
Publisher: Right Turn Music Publishing
Date of Publication: 2014
URL: http://www.maxwelltreemusic.com

26 pages

Primary Genre: Study Material - method
Secondary Genre: Study Material - etude

Oscar Utterström is originally from Sweden and now resides in Nashville, TN where he works as a freelance musician playing tenor trombone, bass trombone and euphonium and has an active jazz career performing in combos and big-bands. This method book by Utterström was written to build an awareness of pitch and time in music; something we all need to work on as musicians. Musician Builder Volume 1 is divided into three overall parts. The first consists of long tone drills, the second is slurs: slow slurs, fast slurs and various flexibility studies, and the third is tonguing with major scale patterns. Each study features corresponding MP3 tracks on an accompanying compact disc. The sound files all contain rhythm section and drone tones changing to the illustrated chord in a given measure. This is an interesting and fun way to work on fundamentals. Each new exercise and track has written instructions with goals, including what to listen for and different variations of articulation. Aside from the written exercises in the method book, one can easily play the tracks alone and practice improvisation over the chords. This book is great for low brass players wanting to make fundamentals more solid.

-Matthew Driscoll
Cornell and Central College (Iowa)