Working with David Vining's bass trombone routine material
The PDF you are looking for circulates under several filenames. It is not an officially published method book from a music publisher. The material originates from David Vining's personal teaching notes and practice routines, which he has shared with students and colleagues over decades at the Juilliard School and elsewhere. It covers long tones, lip flexibility, etudes, and the kinds of exercises that bass trombonists actually use to build endurance and intonation control. There is no single legal publisher hosting it. You will encounter it on academic file-sharing sites, music student forums, and PDF repositories. I would recommend checking your own university library's music reserves or asking a bass trombone professor directly. They may have a scanned copy they can share legally through a course management system. Searching for "David Vining bass trombone exercises pdf" or "Vining daily routines bass trombone" will return results, but the quality of scans varies significantly. Some copies are handwritten notes photographed poorly, while others are clean typewritten sheets. The most complete versions include his recommended etude selections from methods like Arban, Bordogni, and the standard bass trombone repertoire list. I used these routines for about three years as a grad student. Here is what actually happens when you follow them.
The routine starts with long tones at mezzo-forte, holding each note for eight counts, moving through the partials of the low register. This part sounds boring. It is not boring in practice. You will discover within the first ten minutes that your third partial B-flat wavers at 98 cents and your Cin the staff lands sharp every time. Vining's approach does not shy away from this. He builds the routine around identifying those weak spots and hammering them with metronome work at slow tempos before incrementally increasing speed. The lip flexibility section uses a specific set of intervals rather than random jumping. Broad thirds, fourths, and sixth patterns that move stepwise through the staff. Beginners often try to rush this section because it looks deceptively simple. It is not simple. I once spent six weeks stuck on a particular triplet figure that kept cracking on the bottom space G. The workaround was to drop the tempo to 60 beats per minute and play only the first and last note of each triplet, silently holding the middle note in my head. Once the intonation and air support locked in, I added the middle note back and the cracking disappeared within two days. That is the actual value of this routine. It forces you to slow down enough to hear what is really happening. One thing the material does not address well is solo repertoire preparation. The routines are designed for orchestral audition readiness and fundamental technique. If you are preparing for a ballet trombone audition or a contemporary solo piece, you will need to supplement this with your own etude and excerpt work. The routine will not cover the Rossini overtures or the specific orchestral excerpts that come up in brass band auditions. I found this out the hard way during my first audition prep cycle. I followed Vining's routine religiously for eight weeks and still struggled with the Mahler Symphony No. 2 excerpt because the routine does not include targeted excerpt work. I added thirty minutes of excerpt practice daily and things improved dramatically.
The PDF itself has some limitations. The handwriting in the scanned sections can be difficult to read, particularly the tempo markings and dynamics. Some pages are missing entirely depending on which copy you find. The exercise sequences are not always numbered in logical order. You may need to rearrange sections yourself to create a coherent practice session. I recommend printing the clearest pages you can find and assembling your own binder. This takes about twenty minutes and makes the material significantly more usable. Another thing to be aware of: the routine assumes you already have a solid embouchure foundation. If you are a beginner with less than two years of consistent playing, some of these exercises will frustrate you and could potentially cause tension if you push too hard. The long tone work in the low register especially requires a mature air stream. I would suggest pairing this material with a teacher who can monitor your setup. The routine is not self-correcting. If you are playing with a collapsing throat or shallow breath support, the exercises will just reinforce bad habits faster. For the best results, structure your practice around the routine rather than treating it as a checklist. I typically spent forty-five minutes on the long tone and flexibility portions, then moved to etude work from the suggested reading list. The entire session usually runs about ninety minutes. Anything longer and my focus deteriorates noticeably. The routine works because it is sustainable, not because it is exhaustive.
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