(real) tools of the trade, part 5: plunger

plunger. it's not a vst, but it's very much a "tool of the trade." sure, it unclogs your toilet after a night out eating burritos and mexichimitacoladas at del taco. it also makes for a great weapon when you have to fight off an intruder or steal-guy, 'cause no one wants to be on the receiving end of a shit-stained rubber suction cup. but to a trombonist, it's a weapon of a different kind. we use it to make the trombone go "wah-wah" or "wheeee-owwww" or "bluh bluh bluh" or "duuurrrrr." my favorite plunger-er is roswell rudd, but he's pretty much my favorite tromboner overall.

one thing about plunger, though, is that it tends to be played one or both of two ways: 1) loudly, 2) bluesy. to get some good, meaty, nasty, vocal-like sounds, you have to blow hard, and plunger really is suited much more to minor pentatonic, horizontal playing than top speed 8th-note runs, so you get loud and/or bluesy. i admit that i occasionally get overwhelmed by roswell rudd's massive balls on plunger and try to do my best impression of him, but in the last several months, i've been trying to focus on playing plunger both non-loudly and non-bluesy. of course, you have to give it some juice to get a sound past it, but i've been trying to not give it more juice than is needed (my juice is precious). i guess i'm going for a sound on plunger that's not so much musical as it is deranged. i have images in my head of people with various physical disabilities twitching uncontrollably and contorting their bodies or faces when i do plunger. i think this image came about several months ago when i watched an interesting documentary on tourette's syndrome.

anyway, i was messing around with it today, playing over a loop of the first 4 bars of coltrane's "syeeda's song flute" (pitched down a minor 3rd) and figured i'd put up part my playing for the hell of it. so here it is, turd-breath.