I was listening to some old Jack Teagarden sides last night, and I got to thinking about the trombone as an instrument.
How does one know exactly where the notes are on the slide? I suppose that with enough practice you get a “feel” for it, but with nearly every other instrument I can think of there’s a definitive way of achieving the desired note (push this arrangement of keys or valves, and in the case of the trumpet, hold your ombushure (sp?)this way), but with the trombone its seems that hitting the same exact spot, so that a “C” sounded the same every time, would be difficult.
Any trombonists our there want to enlighten us on the difficulties (or joys) of this instrument?
I haven’t played a trombone since high school marching band 19 years ago and I wasn’t very good even then, but IIRC it’s pretty much just by feel and by sight. Let’s see how it goes:
1st position: slide all the way in.
2nd position: slide extended to about halfway from “all the way in” to the rim of the bell.
3rd position: slide extended to about an inch in from the rim of the bell.
4th position: slide extended to about an inch out from the rim of the bell.
5th position: don’t recall.
6th position: don’t recall.
7th position: slide fully extended.
Of course, my last trombone had a valve, which was engaged by a left-hand thumb trigger. The extra tubing was coiled in the part of the horn that goes behind the shoulder, and it changed 1st position into 7th position, so you had another octave available.
Even if I’ve remembered the positions wrong in the list above, you get the idea. It’s done by sight and feel.
Fiver’s pretty much nailed it–you have to get a feel for it. That said, I will share some gauges I used while I was learning that feel.
Playing with the thumb and index finger extended straight out from the slide grip and the slide angled close enough to the bell for my fingertips to touch it:
1st position: slide all the way in.
2nd position: slide about halfway from rest to the edge of the bell (it’s fairly easy to judge that close).
3rd position: nail of the index finger touching the back (toward the player) edge of the bell.
4th position: nail of the thumb touching the front edge of the bell.
5th position: about a hand’s-breadth past fourth.
6th position: about a hand’s-breadth past fifth.
7th position: Dislocated shoulder.
Fifth and sixth were the hardest positions to get used to–there’s really nothing to measure against. That’s why trombonists practice scales a lot.
It has been a long time since I played the trombone. But, when I was taking trombone class in college we pretty much learned by feel and by ear. It is like playing a more advanced slide whistle or even a musical saw. You hear where the sound should go and you just make it. (At least that is how it went for me.)
The trombone is also like regular whistling. If you can whistle a recognizable tune you are using a related (but not the same) type of theory on how the trombone works. IE, the slide adjusts to make pitches higher or lower similar to how your tongue moves; although, the trombone has the added overtone vibrations incorporated into it to make it a significantly more diverse instrument.
It is a fun instrument to learn and you can do some minor tuning adjustments with the slide. I have even seen some trombonists do some “effects” like slide vibrato rather than airflow vibrato which is a pretty interesting sound though I am not sure if it is common in trombone repertoire.
I didn’t play a trombone, but the French horn, and there was a lot of similar playing by ear and feel. Yes, a French horn has valves, but you can almost produce any note you want with any of them depressed. For this instrument, it’s mostly in the embouchure. Similarly, bugles don’t have valves and you must produce the notes soley using the muscles around your mouth and cheeks.
After learning the French horn, other instruments, such as the trumpet, sure were easy! (Learning them was easy; I don’t claim to have played them well!)
Yeah, in high school I tried almost all brass instruments, and trombone was cool, but I didn’t want to learn the positions. And I gotta agree with Ellen that the French horn is DAMN hard. Especially learning it after knowing an easier brass instrument, like the trumpet. I just looked at the fingering chart, and then at all the alternate fingerings, and said,
“Why do I need the chart, can’t I just make up fingerings?”
To which my band leader responded,
“Yeah, you probably could.”
It’s amazing how well you can develop a sense for where the right notes are on an instrument. I play guitar primarily, but I’m competent on the bass guitar, since the group of people I used to play with all played guitar and we would take turns doing bass. Even though it wasn’t my primary instrument, the first time I played a fretless bass I was able to finger the notes in an accurate enough position that I did not sound out of tune. When I played with a cousin’s violin I was soon able to find the notes, and that was an instrument built on a scale I had NO experience with, unlike the fretless bass. I imagine the trombone, with only 7 positions, would be even easier.
Interesting that you should mention Teagarden.
He was first given a trombone when he was ten
years old. The only problem was that he was too
small - his arms were too short to reach all the
standard positions. He taught himself to play
using alternate positions, where his hand never
had to move very far past the bell. He continued
to play that way as an adult. This unorthodox
style of playing helped him with intricate
passages, because his hand never had to move very
far. As an example, listen to his intro to
“You Rascal, You,” recorded in 1931.
I played trombone for 7 years in school. You’d be amazed how easy it is to pick up. You can pretty much get the positions down by figuring out where they land in relation to the bell. The hard part is hitting different notes at the same position using your mouth.
