Review

Wycliffe Gordon
Sing It First: Wycliffe Gordon’s Unique Approach to Trombone Playing

Arranged by Alan Raph


Delevan, NY, United States
Publisher: Kendor Music
Date of Publication: 2011
URL: http://www.kendormusic.com

Primary Genre: Study Material - method

This short, 38 page book covers a wide range of concepts, from basic chord and scale structure through plunger mute technique and the high register. Its principal concept: singing should be incorporated into trombone practice as much as possible. As Alan Raph states in the forward: “Wycliffe’s approach is to hear the music before playing it, to sing the technique before perfecting it. It’s a different kind of approach. It combines playing and singing to the degree that one blends into the other.” As many pedagogues will recognize, this is hardly a new approach, and certainly not one that Gordon originated. Arnold Jacobs was practicing it in the 1930s and went on to teach this concept to thousands of brass players. Emory Remington emphasized singing in his lessons.  Therefore, it’s surprising to see a book published in 2011 presenting this as a new, unique approach to trombone pedagogy.

Pedagogical credit aside, it would have been nice for this book to present the material with fully fleshed-out musical examples. Here is the book’s explanation of multiphonics: “Humming while playing opens the gate to multiphonics produced by humming a particular tone while playing another. Often the combination of the two tones creates a third tone.” No exercises or further explanation is given. Similarly, the technique of circular breathing is presented as a set of whole notes with breath marks in parenthesis at the end of each bar—again, with no other explanation. The book tries to present too many techniques in this manner, and as a result is not particularly helpful. Trombonisms, Raph’s previous work with Bill Watrous, does a much better job of presenting its material. However, Gordon’s fans will find much to like in the conversational tone of the book. It may not be particularly enlightening, but it’s at least engaging, and thus might be worthy of purchase.

-Chris Buckholz
University of New Mexico