The trombone for kids: how it works and what to hear

The trombone is the brass instrument with the slide. Other brass instruments change notes with valves. The trombone player moves a long U-shaped slide in and out. Pushing the slide out makes the tube longer and the note lower. The trombone has a big, noble sound, and it can also swoop from one note to another in a way no valved instrument can.

Quick facts

• Family: brass
• Size: about nine feet of tube
• Made of: brass
• Sound is made by: the player’s buzzing lips
• In an orchestra: three, and the lowest is a bass trombone

How it makes sound

The player buzzes the lips into a cup-shaped mouthpiece. The tube shapes the buzz into a note.

The slide. There are seven places to stop the slide, called positions. First position is all the way in. Seventh is as far out as the arm can reach. Nothing marks the positions. The player finds each one by feel and by ear.

The lips. In each position, tighter lips give higher notes. Between the seven positions and the lips, the trombone can play every note in its range.

The swoop. Because the slide moves without steps, the player can glide from one note to the next with no gap. This slide between notes is called a glissando.

An old design

The trombone has changed little in 500 years. An early version called the sackbut was played in churches and town bands in the 1400s and 1500s. The name trombone is Italian for “big trumpet.”

For a long time, trombones were used for the most part in church music and opera. Beethoven was among the first to use them in a symphony, in the last movement of his Fifth, in 1808.

Its job in the orchestra

The trombones sit behind the woodwinds, next to the tuba. They often play in a group of three, in rich chords. They add weight and power to loud passages, and they can play soft, solemn music too.

The trombone in other music

The trombone is at home in jazz, where players use the slide for smears and growls. It is a mainstay of concert bands, marching bands, and brass bands.

Pieces to hear

The trombone and tuba variation in The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, by Britten. A grand, weighty tune. See the guide.

“Ride of the Valkyries,” by Wagner. The trombones blast the galloping tune.

Boléro, by Ravel. Partway through, a trombone plays the tune as a high, sliding solo.

“Buckaroo Holiday” from Rodeo, by Copland. A trombone plays a tune with long, comic pauses. See the guide.

Symphony No. 5, last movement, by Beethoven. The trombones enter with the burst of sound that starts the movement. See the guide.

Starting to play

Many children start the trombone at about nine or ten, often in a school band. Arm length matters. A small child cannot reach the farthest positions, and teachers work around that in the first year or two.

The slide is easy to dent, so a beginner learns to handle it with care from the first day.

Things to do together

Slide whistle. A slide whistle works the way a trombone slide does. Pull the slide out and the note drops.

Air trombone. Play a trombone piece and move a pretend slide in and out. Push out for low notes and pull in for high ones.

Swoop. Sing a note and glide down to a lower one with no break. That is a glissando.

Find the slides. In a concert video, look in the back row for the players whose arms keep moving.

Print and play

Tick the brass on the instrument families listening chart. For the rest of the family, read brass instruments for kids. For all four families, see instruments of the orchestra for kids.