On Apr 15, 2005, at 3:40 PM, Carl Dershem wrote:
I've been playing trombone professionally for nearly 20 years, and have run across 2 incidences of C-clef in all that time, both of them in college. (Comfortable with up to 5 leger lines up, and 4 down in bass clef - all a matter of practice - though playing both within a bar or 2 can be stressful).
Then you must be a jazz/commercial player. I play trombone professionally as well, and see tenor constantly in the classical repertoire I play, even though I play bass trombone most of the time. Alto less often, because I rarely play first trombone, but the first trombonist in any classical group sees it a whole lot. For modern works tenor clef (rather than alto or treble) seems to be the clef of choice for high trombone parts.
Jazz/commercial trombonists rarely see tenor clef, it's true. In fact, I've noticed that even guys who ARE completely comfortable with tenor clef in a classical idiom tend to "stiffen up" when they see jazz written in tenor clef. Yet they DON'T stiffen up when reading treble clef in Bb, on trombone. It seems to be a matter of what one is used to seeing, as all notation conventions are.
For instruments that are pitched so that they are most comfortable (viola and such), C-clefs are still useful, but they are uncommon, and becoming increasingly so with the vast majority of the music field getting more and more simplified.
No, you are wrong there, if you are talking about violas. Violists still read better in alto clef, and only in the case of the most amateur of arrangers do they read parts only in treble clef, unless it is really high.
How many rock bands can read at all, much less in the more arcane clefs and keys? The very use of C-Clefs (generally only tenor and alto, any more) is becoming more and more of an academic issue, almost like arguing whether ancient greek or latin is a more useful language to learn.
Once again, not true at all for viola in any age, and not true for other instruments if anyone ever wants to play old repertoire. Also, any cellist and bassoonist has thorough control of tenor clef, as they see it constantly in their day-to-day music, both traditional and modern repertoire. (Trombonists, of course, vary.) C clefs are far from merely academic, I assure you.
Christopher
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