Yep, acoustically trombones are B-flat instruments.
Notationally, however, trombones are bass-clef & sometimes tenor-clef
concert-key instruments -- mostly. (Some ensembles still have parts
written for B-flat treble-clef trombones, like the treble-clef euphonium
parts you still see now & then. Most trombonists I know would be
completely buffaloed at the prospect of trying to play off 1 of those parts.)
Ideally, good musicians should be able to play parts for instruments in any
key & any clef. The trombonist in my brass quintet, for example, plays 1
of the tunes in our book off a treble-clef horn in F part (2nd horn). Not
many bone players I know can do that.
However that may be, there are plenty of folks out there like me who have
major serious trouble with transposition -- an embarrassing fundamental
inadequacy for any horn player, even a rank amateur like me.
The downside is I don't play orchestra much, because odd-key orchestral
horn parts pop up so frequently & it's such a struggle trying to figure out
what note to play. By the time I figure it out, it's too late to play it.
The upside is I don't have to spend so much rehearsal & performance time
counting l-o-n-g stretches of measures of rest so boringly prevalent in
some of the classical repertoire. We concert band & brass quintet horn
players have our instruments on our faces practically all the time, from
intro to coda. (That could be how come I built up Chops Of Steel, I don't
know.)
-- Alan Cole, rank amateur
McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At 07:25 PM 10/10/2005, you wrote:
I confess to being confused - I was helping a friend's son practice his
audition for the middle school jazz band on the trombone.
I thought the trombone was a B-flat instrument, and so it turns out to be in
terms of the overtone series it plays, but the part is notated at concert
pitch.
On the other hand, trumpet parts for B-flat instrument are notated as such,
sounding a step below written pitch. Horn in F is the same way, sounding
the appropriate interval below written pitch.
So why is this student trombone part written at concert pitch and not in
B-flat? Is this a relatively new development in brass pedagogy, anything
specific to the trombone, or perhaps to jazz/pop charts? I looked at the
student's method book and it, too, is all in concert pitch.
Thanks in advance for a bit of an eduation here - I have not seen a "score"
to the piece, only the individual parts for trumpet and trombone (and I'm
quite sure the trombone part is written at concert pitch).
-S-
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