alternate positions trombone slide chart

Alternate positions trombone slide chart full#
Alternate positions trombone slide chart series#

So, the common alternate is to play the D in a farther out fourth position. If you do this, you’ll be playing the note in the sixth partial, which is sharp. For this reason, it is common to play the D in fourth position. Note that first position cannot come in by definition. The fifth partial is quite low and these notes should be played with the slide positions significantly in from where you learned them. The fifth partial is when you play these notes with the given positions. These notes will naturally be a little sharp, and so the slide positions should be slightly farther out than where you learned to play them. This is known as the third partial when you play these notes with the given slide positions. If you’ve mastered all of the basic trombone slide positions, you may want to start learning alternate positions that help you get in tune with less adjustment or play fast material easier. It’s just a basic fact that comes from the math behind the physics of sound. This way, when you play notes in first position that are naturally flat, you have room to move the slide in to play them in tune.Įvery instrument will be slightly different, but the general trends are the same. When you tune in band to the concert B-flat, don’t play the first position 100% in. You adjust the slide position out a little farther if the note is sharp and in a little more if the note is flat. The trombone is great because the adjustments can be made easily by moving the slide position. It will take quite a bit of time and practice to become natural. The earlier you start learning this, the better. Some of the notes are pretty close, and others are very far off.

Alternate positions trombone slide chart series#

It turns out that the overtone series doesn’t produce notes as we think of them in our standard Western 12-note scale system (equal temperament). Everything else will give you questionable results, but they can be useful in very special situations. It should be noted that you will probably only use seventh position for the low E and the B-natural. Seventh position produces the following notes:

Sixth position produces the following notes: You’ll have to experiment to find something that works for you. Other people have a longer arm and seventh isn’t quite fully extended, and they judge sixth based on this. Some people have sixth position as basically fully extended, and then seventh has to get some shoulder extension into it. As long as you aren’t still growing, this should serve you just fine. Most people judge these two by how close to fully outstretched their arm is. Sixth Position and Seventh Position are the two positions farther out. Second Position: You’ll be able to see a finger’s width of silver.įifth position produces the following notes: Some of the notes given are “false,” and should only be used with a modified position in circumstances that call for alternate positions. I’ll give you rough ideas to help you remember them. Here we’ll go through the slide positions and give a chart for the notes these positions can (roughly) produce.Īs we’ll discuss later, the precise positioning doesn’t actually matter for learning the positions. We’ll discuss this more in the advanced sections. I’ve put the high A-flat in parentheses because it is theoretically part of the overtone series, but it cannot be played in tune or with clarity in first position.

This is because moving the slide to second position moves the fundamental down by a half-step. The trombone changes the length by moving the slide.Ī good concept to remember is that the collection of notes made by putting the slide in a different position is the same just shifted down. The fundamental is a B-flat, and then all the other notes in the overtone series can be produced.Ī valve instrument changes the length of tubing by pressing a set of valves down. This is called the overtone series.įirst position on a (standard B-flat tenor) trombone is when the slide is all the way in. Valved instruments can change the length by moving the tuning slides of the valves, but this doesn’t help in most situations.Ī more in-depth analysis of tuning can be found in my article: 5 Steps to Playing in Tune.īrass instruments work by producing a distinct set of notes over top of a fundamental for each length of tubing. Trombones are unique among the brass family because they have the ability to alter the length of tubing in small ways (if you’re in the market for a first trombone, check out my guid e). In this article, we’ll discuss concepts that advancing students will find helpful.

Alternate positions trombone slide chart full#

Charts and positions don’t give the full story. Trombone slide positions are usually given to a beginner student without much discussion of how a trombone works.