How To Do a Glissando / Smear

[davewerden]

I've made minor use of glisses on some videos, like on the song "Crazy" (briefly in the last verse, and Yakety Sax (octave gliss into the main theme). And I've done some minor glissing over half/whole steps in pop and sometimes in classical music (violinists do this, right?).

I suspect longer glisses will be called for in modern compositions at some point, so I put together a quick instructional video. On the end are a few examples of glisses from me and from trumpet players.

https://youtu.be/78H-5tqb6DY

[DaveBj]

At IET this year I put an octave gliss (middle F to high F, BC) in a cadenza. I found that the best technique for me was to half-press the 3rd valve.

[RickF]

Thanks for the video Dave. I’ve tried that a few times but it never sounded that good. I’ll have to work on it.

[massmanute]

This post by Dave turns out to be extremely relevant to me right now. I am currently setting in with a local community jazz band, mostly playing trombone parts on my euphonium. Some of the pieces have glissando. In fact one of them (an arrangement of Peter Gunn) has a lot of them. I have been experimenting with different methods, including partial valving and rapid fingering of a more conventional sort. I am still trying to get it to sound good, but I think partial valving is going to work better.

I have been trying all sorts of valve combinations on the various glissandos (or is it glissandi?) It's a really tricky technique to get right, especially if I am going to blend with the trombones.

By the way, my sitting in with the jazz band is a bit of an experiment, and I'm not sure if I will stay with it. I think the euphonium is actually blending fairly well with the group, but the pieces are challenging enough that I might have bitten off a little more than I can chew, especially since I am also playing in the local concert band for the same town.

[Brass is Class]

What works for me on trumpet, euph, and tuba is to quickly and lightly “float” over valves 123 in order for ascending notes, and 321 for descending. Just gotta land on the right notes at start and finish. Maybe I should say desired notes, I rarely have music so I guess without music you can’t play a wrong note!

[iMav]

I would recommend expanding your horizons and picking up a trombone to play in the jazz band. It’s nice to have that functional flexibility.

(I do jazz band and some pep/athletic band playing with my trombone(s). It’s tons of fun.)

[Brass is Class]

I play trombone weekly, so I’m not confined to making due with valved instruments, but some of the contemporary Christian songs we play a trumpet or euph just works better overall in our group, and occasionally the French horn will come out. Still trying to master the lip trill on that one. Only time I did it on tuba was when I was training a student tuba player how to when I was using mine to help him learning to improve on his. He was a euph player whose band director switched to tuba about a year ago. He has an interest in joining the worship band at church.

[anadmai]

Back in my church days, when I was still a Christian, I’d play my trombone as an excuse not to have to sing those horrible songs. That was a Nazarene Church.

Definitely not my days growing up in The Salvation Army playing in brass bands, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Today, I don’t have to do anything on Sunday and I like it.

[iMav]

Today, I have the privilege of attending church every Sunday.