International Trombone Week 2023 Video

The British Trombone Society invites you all to join us in a massed video for International Trombone Week 2023. Michael Pilley has composed a piece specially for the occasion, using the theme by Henry Purcell from Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. It’s an exciting version of a familiar theme, and we hope you will enjoy playing it.

If you haven't done a home video recording before, it's a relatively simple process. If you don't have a recording setup at home, then you will need two devices - one to play the guide track so you can play along (with headphones) and one to video your playing. All you have to do is present your best effort at playing your part, then upload the video and we'll do the rest.

You can pick whichever part you like, have a look through them all and pick one that is in your range. All of the tenor parts are also scored for tenor, or treble clef.

I recommend playing through the piece several times with the track, until you can play your part at the level you are at, so you get used to the count-ins. If you are a beginner, please play part 7 or 8, and feel free to leave out any notes you’re not sure of.

The guide track has a two bar count-in, and the ending is also counted-out for you as per your parts. Make sure that your headphones are not bleeding onto your video recording by doing a test, and adjusting your headphone volume accordingly.

Video: recommended frame rate is 30 FPS (go into your phone’s camera settings to select this).

Michael Pilley

Portrait format, please. Like this: 

The video will be seen by many people, so look your best by positioning yourself so we can see your head and trombone (including the end of your slide) fully. Your background is also important, so pick a spot that is clean and has good light. Please try to position the camera at head height, not below

If you're not using a microphone, make sure you don't play too close, otherwise the sound will distort. This is a loud piece, so in order to get that brassy sound on the loud sections, you will have to play quite a bit back from your camera. Please do a test run and listen back to your video to ensure it is not distorting.

If you do have a decent recording setup, you can upload a 24 or 32 bit wav as well as a video. Don't worry about combining them, we can line them up fine. 

The deadline for uploads is Sunday 16 April. The video will be posted at the end of International Trombone Week so please record your video ASAP, as this is a strict deadline and we won’t be accepting any videos after it.

Please name your files with your part, and your name eg: Trombone 1 - Joe Bloggs

Oh, and please smile in your rests! This is a fun way to make music, and we will get an amazing video in the end.