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IONIATE POWER RUBRIC
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Time’ by Hans Zimmer, from the movie ‘Inception’, played over fifty days as an incentive to practise during the Covid-19 UK lockdown.
Arranged, mixed and Performed by Tony Boorer
As a fan of Hans Zimmer’s music, his score from the movie ‘Inception’ has a slow but exciting track called ‘Time’. It seemed perfect as a score to use over a period of time (excuse the pun) when regaining strength on the chops. I couldn’t play it as a transcription as I didn’t think it would work, so I arranged it in parallel with my ‘recovery practise’. Starting long and quiet, eventually stretching out to arpeggio runs, scales and extended range, over days with plenty of breaks. This reflected what I was doing to regain my chops. So, I recorded in various locations over intervals of a few days.
The arrangement is for 14 tenor trombones. I use a Greg Black New York 1.5 mouthpiece for the lower parts. Interestingly, practising in the range of pedal Db helped regain the high register – the piece goes up subtly to a high F#.
Everything here can be played in a live environment. The electronic effects are controlled by four trombones using an electronic plunger mute (ePlunger) that I made with a transducer mic and amplifier built into it, similar to an electric guitar. Touch-sensitive buttons on the outside can control rhythmic delay, and I used slap-tongue with the ePlunger closed over the bell to create a Zimmer style percussive pulse.
To get my lip back in shape, I used exercises passed down to me by the late, great John Wilbraham and the following books,
‘Circuit Training’, book 1 and 2 by Peter Gane
‘Zen and the Art of the Trombone’ (an eBook on Apple Books) by Kevin Morgan
‘Unlocking the Trombone Code’ by Ian Bousfield
Warm-ups by Joe Alessi
All teaching videos by James Markey
The circle of fifths – improv with backing tracks by myself and the standard, classic study books we all know and love.
Recorded and multitracked in various locations in and around the house, following social distancing rules, using a Roland R26 portable recorder and a Sennheiser ME66. Mixed on Ableton Live.