Trombone position charts professional#

This obviated the need for the first trombonist to play such a high instrument. The old F trumpets were thrown out in favour of today’s B-flat and C trumpets, allowing for a dedicated second and sometimes third trumpet player with a more secure lower register. So what happened to this perfectly logical little system? The evolution of musical taste, instrument design, and composer’s demands. Of course, when extracted, all these instruments would receive a part with the appropriate clef for their range, with the tenor trombone usually scored in tenor and sometimes bass clef. Orchestral scores from this era usually show the alto and tenor trombones sharing the alto clef, with the bass trombone sharing a staff with tuba. This system put the sweet part of each range into a different clef, and they were notated accordingly thus: The simple way to think of it is: what note is sounded by the first, second, and fourth partials when the trombone slide is in Position I? The answer is E-flat for alto, B-flat for tenor, and F for bass. The construction of each of these bones was a perfect fourth apart (though the reading has always been in C, rather than transposed). After some early introductions of the instrument into the orchestra by Baroque and Classical composers, the Romantics settled on a group of three trombones, the alto, tenor, and bass trombones. For that, read on!įirst, let’s go back to the modern orchestral trombone’s beginnings. The average orchestrator may just stop right here and move on – but that won’t really give them any justifications for accepting the above advice in an argument, nor the tools for using it in a knowledgeable way. The tenor clef remains a useful resource for trombone, but it must be applied as an indication of register, rather than just to save ledger lines.

Trombone position charts professional#

Any trombonist at the full-time professional level had better be able to read and play tenor clef instinctively and without complaining.The trombone is basically a tenor-range instrument, which only recently has been trending toward a lower spectrum of tones.But before I get into it, let me give you the tl:dr version:

There’s a spectrum of history and craft that must be absorbed before one can honestly decide whether the tenor clef should be utilised or annihilated.

Though I greatly empathise with these perspectives, I find them more revealing of the trombone’s recent evolution than necessarily useful advice. This viewpoint is sometimes backed up by personal experience as a trombonist – in their view, they didn’t need to use it and when they did, it was a bother. The reasons cited for this point of view are usually a.) that the bass clef is good enough, and b.) the player isn’t bothered by a few high ledger lines. Many professional-level composers with band or semipro orchestra experience will dismiss it peremptorily, even suggest its use be abolished. Few topics on the Orchestration Online Facebook page have incited more controversy and strong feelings than the use of the tenor clef for trombones.