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Some women love shoes or baby animals or frozen yogurt.  I love brass.  First I wanted to kidnap a tuba, and now I want a trombone. Brass instruments make me feel so powerful!  You think I’m some feeble woodwind gonna play you some Mozart, then BLAT! I hit you with a hunk of trombone outta nowhere.

Watch the video and you’ll get a taste of what I’m talking about.  Jared Wonnacott is our featured musician this week.  In the interview below, you can read about his experience with the trombone and the many musical opportunities the trombone has provided him. 

Interview

Tashina: When did you first start playing the trombone?

 Jared: The first time I ever played a trombone was fifth grade.  I got my own trombone the summer after that.  What happened, there was an Elementary School music education guy that went around to all the elementary schools in town.  And he had one day where he brought in all these different brass instruments and taught us about brass instruments. We had a little bit of time at the end of it to, you know, play around on different things. And I got to play a tuba, and a trumpet, and a trombone, and a French Horn.  I really liked the trombone, just off the bat.  And so I was going into middle school the year after that.  So we were looking at electives, and I’m like “I want to be in band.”  My sister was in band, and it seemed like a good route to go.  And there was the question of what instrument.  I was leaning towards trombone.  And I was at this track meet actually, and me and my mom were talking to this random guy that sat next to us as were watching other events.  And we mentioned that I was looking for a trombone.  And he was like, “Well I’ve got an old trombone that I’ve not touched in years and years and years.”  And he’s like, “I’ll give it to you for, you know, a $100, a $150 bucks, or something like that.”  Which is great for a trombone.  It was a piece of junk, but it was a good beginner-level trombone and something that I could play and learn on.  And so we decided to get it.

Tashina: What kinds of groups do you play in?

 Jared: I’ve played in just about everything.  I was in a Ska band, briefly, down in St. George. I had a big band back in California, before I came here.  It was called “The Hop.”  We just played around town.  I’ve played a lot of jazz.  I’ve played in several different jazz groups.  And I’ve played in a lots of marching and athletic band kind of things.  I’ve played with orchestras, I love that.  Trombone is a pretty versatile instrument, even though it’s kind of obscure in a lot of things.  I’ve played with just about everything you could play with.  I’ve played for musicals.  I’ve played with orchestras, and wind symphonies, and small ensembles—chamber music stuff.  I’ve played with just about everything.

Tashina: What’s the most widely recognized trombone solo, of any genre? 

 Jared: There’s not a lot of really well, well-known trombone stuff out there.  You can listen to Chicago, if you want to go back to the classic rock.  There’s James Pankow, who plays the trombone for them.  Everyone’s heard some of his stuff here and there.  You know, he’s got this really nice riff at the end of “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” There’s a lot of jazz. Glenn Miller is probably the biggest trombone name in big band jazz, back in the day.  He’s probably the most famous trombonist that’s been around.  As far as like classical stuff though, the trombone hasn’t really been a classical instrument until relatively recently.  So all the classical composers, all the baroque composers, they never even saw a trombone, they never wrote for trombone, they never touched it. It wasn’t until the Romantic era that they even started putting trombones in their orchestras.  So there aren’t a lot of concertos or anything for trombones that are known by anyone. Probably the most famous classical-type performance piece is “Blue Bells of Scotland,” by Arthur Pryor.

 

Tashina: Does your arm ever get tired?

 Jared: You’d be surprised that it’s not the arm that’s doing all the back and forth or anything, it’s the arm that’s holding the instrument that gets tired.  You know, one of the things with the physical aspect of playing the trombone, is that your trombone is balanced on your shoulder.  It’s usually weighted on the back, so that it balances fairly well.  But every time you change positions on the slide, the balance of the instrument changes.  So your arm, your back, your whole shoulder area, is constantly adjusting for a weight difference in your instrument.  And so when you push a button on the clarinet, it doesn’t change the balance of your instrument at all.  But the entire weight distribution of your instrument is constantly changing when you’re playing [the trombone].  So your left shoulder, your left arm, can get fatigued if you play for a long time.

Tashina: What’s your favorite mute?

Jared: I’ve got this really cool mute that’s like a hybrid mute.  It’s like a cup mute/bucket mute.  And that one’s nice because it’s versatile.  But I think the funnest mute to play with, and the one that everyone always is most intrigued by, at least, is the plunger mute.  It’s fun because you’re playing with one hand, and you got your bell resting on your wrist, and then you’ve got a plunger in that hand.  And it’s just your typical plunger you pick up at Walmart or whatever.

Tashina: And the trombones use a toilet plunger and trumpets use a sink plunger?

Jared: Generally, yes.  You can do a lot with it, ‘cause the closer it is to the bell, the different sound it is [able to produce].  You can bend it and flex it and stuff to get different sounds out of it.  There’s a lot you can do with a plunger mute.  I’ve done a couple solos where I’ve used a plunger.  And it always gets a good reaction from the audience because their like, “Dude, he’s got a plunger and that sounds so cool.”  There’s lots you can do with it.