Marian Hellen

Tip-Top Trombone Tunes

Tip-top Trombone Tunes' is a fun resource book with everything you need for beginners and up to Grade 2 standard. There are lots of tunes specifically designed to make learning easy and fun, including many favourites that children love to play.

The book is a complete resource for beginners, containing a large selection of tunes, starting on just two notes. It recognises that not all beginners find the same notes accessible or learn at the same rate, so there are numerous pieces using an assorted variety of notes and the book progresses slowly and gradually onto new notes and rhythms. This is ideal for beginners who have no prior musical knowledge or who struggle to produce notes in certain registers. Other students can move on more quickly to new notes and explore more rhythmic ideas, but the early pieces make great sight-reading material.

Basic theory is set out at the beginning and a 'Rhythm Section' on one note (which can be any suitable note) helps players to start learning new rhythmic ideas without having to think about playing different notes. Later in the book, more complex rhythms are explored more thoroughly and as new notes are introduced, there are many opportunities for playing in different keys and learning key signatures. At the end of the book is a section of lip flexibility exercises that can be started on at any time, all the scales and arpeggios for Grades 1 and 2, and a fingering chart.