Trombones

Brass

Musical Theory and Technique

This Side of Sanity

    The trombone is a brass instrument. There are bass, tenor, alto, and soprano trombones. The tenor trombone is the most common.

    The trombone is a brass musical instrument consisting of a long cylindrical tube bent upon itself twice and ending in a bell-shaped mouth.

    Range: The tenor trombone has a range of E2 to C5 (approximately 82 Hz to 520 Hz, with overtones to 5 KHz when played medium lud and up to 10 KHz when overblown).

    General MIDI Level 1 Sound Set Program Channel Numbers:
        Trombone: decimal 58 or hexadecimal 0x39.
        Muted Trombone: decimal 60 or hexadecimal 0x3B.
            (See General MIDI Level 1 Sound Set.)

    Average Power: The average power of a trombone played fortissimo is about 6 Watts.

    The word “trombone” comes from the French word “trombone”, augmentative of the Italian word “tromba” meaning trumpet, coming from the Old High German word “trumpa”, meaning trumpet.